Hybrid Battery Failed - 2012 C

Should be $0.00 for you since, as @Rmay635703 said, it's still under warranty.

 

Congrats on the find... pic

 

I don't know much about the Prius C but if the battery pack is made with the same high quality battery cells Toyota uses in the standard Prius and the same battery management system I see no reason why the C should be a shorter life battery.
With a smaller lighter car and probably fewer cells it should last longer would be my guess. The fewer cells would be less chance of one failing. This is just speculation on my part.

 

i agree. some batteries just fail sooner than others. it could be a factory defect, or a myriad of user factors. heat is one enemy.

 

The cells are the same, there is just less of them.

The weight of the c is also less, so less mass to move so it might be proportional.

What I’d do rather than get the $250 core charge is sell the good modules for a profit.

You’ll get more than $250 back and help someone else out.

 

Based on that printout, block 3 has one module out, so you have 19 to sell.

To disassemble is not that hard, and all you need to do is have a multimeter to find the bad actor. If you put them up on eBay (or Craigslist) and ask $30 a module, that would be $570 you could obtain and then assist others.

There are plenty of YouTube videos on pack disassembly.

Good luck and keep us posted .

 

I always tell people seeking "goodwill" support to try...but not expect anything. Technically...it is past warranty.
But that is a somewhat surprising response from Toyota.
With only 18,000 miles above warranty, and only 6 years. I've definitely read of more extreme cases beyond warranty where Toyota in the past has stepped up and offered some level of goodwill support.

That seems like a premature failure of the battery by regular Prius standards. And hopefully it's not indicative of a reality in general with Prius C.

I bought my Prius in CARB state. And I fully expected at the VERY least 10 years, 150,000 miles...and that was only as the minimum warranty coverage expectation. I was honestly hoping for and expecting more.
I would be very disappointed if I only got 118,000 miles and only 6 years.

 

WOW this is all news to me about the prius C being this bad...
I thought all the batteries were the same as the regular prius and the body was different..
this does explain why a local courier company in Tampa is selling 2012's & 2013's for under 7 grand..
I was going to look at one next month as my 08 is getting up their in miles ..
sorry yours failed and toyota will not stand behind it..
guess i will not be buying a newer used prius..

 

Sounds great!! I assume this is non-refurbished?

 

good luck with it

 

LOL. Here in Japan, the Aqua is rated as the most reliable car...ever. Yes there are "early" battery failures, mostly in high heat/high humidity areas. Just like there are early failures of engines and transmissions, and other expensive parts in just about every car out there. Here on Prius Chat, you don't get the macro view of the overall picture.

But what really perplexes me is how the dealers in the US charge so much for a C battery replacement. Here in Japan, there's a big rebate on the used core, and a new battery + install at any Toyota dealer runs just under $2,000. Even in the US, it's $2,588 retail for a new Toyota battery plus a couple of hours labor. How does that come out to close to $4,000?

This is not a Toyota problem, but a dealer problem. As I keep telling people...find a good independent that specializes in Toyota Hybrids, and take ALL of your business to them. Except for warranty repairs, stay away from the dealer, and always turn down their suggested wallet flushes, should you need something fixed under warranty.

 

So once they realized you were going to take your business someplace else, suddenly the price is $1,100 cheaper? We talk about this in automotive shop management circles, and what it tells me is the original estimate was $1,100 over the price necessary to be profitable.

Not sure how the system works there, but I'd file some kind of complaint against the dealer with Toyota. Probably nothing they can do, as the dealers can set their own price on customer pay, but Toyota does keep records on this kind of thing. When the dealers start making the brand look bad, things will change.

 

I had a Chevy HHR SS when all the recalls started a few years ago, the same service adviser that greeted me with a big smile everytime I took the car in for service looked at me like a POS and told me that the cobalt & hhr SS had so many parts under recall that it could take 7 months to get everything needed, they would not start the work until all parts were in stock and the car wasnt safe to drive and gm would not give me a loaner or buy back the car unless i wanted black book wholesale.I contacted GM and they said the dealerships are independently owned and each dealer is handling the recalls on a case by case basis . All brands are the same, its all about the profit

 

Sorry to hear about your HHR. We were talking just the other day about how quickly those were disappearing out on the road.

But having worked for a GM / Toyota dealership at the time. I was there when the Oldsmobile Bravada was just hitting the dealerships. It came out first, before the Trailblazer & Envoy. I don't remember the reason why, but a recall was issued for it right after it came out. It was also listed as "unsafe to operate". GM did in fact offer to buy back the vehicle at purchase price paid. But it's the only vehicle I can ever remember where GM (or Toyota) ever purchased them back from the buyer. There may be others, but for the life of me I can't remember any. I have however seen both companies buy one back on a "one on one" basis due to individual reasons.

As for "Loaner" cars that we typically hear people demand when their vehicle is in for service. That's up to the dealer to provide. All those new cars you see on the lot are not owned by the manufacturer as most people think. Rather they are typically property of the bank the dealership utilizes to do it's payroll/operational costs. We tried the 'loaner car" route at our dealership, but found it to be so much of a "money suck" that the dealership bordered on being non-profitable. So we dropped it, and for awhile, utilized Toyota's Rental car program - aka TRAC. But that program was difficult to manage. Often a persons vehicle insurance company will provide a "rental car" while their vehicle is being serviced. Knowing this, we remodeled an area of our service department, and rented the space for free to "Enterprise Rental Car". It's still there to this day.

{edit} - wanted to add that all business though are "in it for a profit". They can't exist any other way.