Toyota Dealers are Killing the Golden Goose

Your little 12v Battery is a sealed lead acid (SLA) battery (as is the one in my Jetta) with a high pressure vent so it is a low volume - high price battery. That said, a local Toyota dealer in CT just ran a special for $180 installed and you can get a better battery from:
12 Volt (12v) Toyota Prius Auxilary Battery for 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 with installation kit
with an installation kit for $165 and have your local garage install it using the supplied instructions.

You do need to do your research before having almost any car dealer do maintenance on a car or they will rip you off. There are some you can trust (even some Toyota dealers), but they are rare.

JeffD

 

That is one of the reason of Prius nay sayers about the high cost of Prius maintenance and repair parts.

 

Um, despite TONs & TONs of write ups . . . . TONs & TONs of satisfied customers using the Optima yellow top mentioned here, TONs & TONs of times . . . . you failed to read up here at PC prior to your purchase?!? The only Golden Goose Killed my friend, is the wealth of knowledge here @ PC that you pee pee'd away.

BUT - it's not too late. There'll be other opertunities, like your inverter fluid change out interval ... your PCV ... best brand(s) of after-market tires etc ... so you better get busy!

.

 

Yeah parts and maint. are high at the dealership, which is an issue with the Prius because you don't really have a choice. It's compounded by the experience at dealership service departments which seemingly couldn't care less about you as long as they get your cash (from my generally very poor experiences).

At least you didn't have to bear the shock of trying to get anything covered under the warranty (it's like my car doesn't have one because according to the dealer, everything is my fault!).

 

MSRP of the 12V battery is $139 but some dealers are not ashamed to charge much more as the OP's experience confirms.

The battery is special because it uses absorbed glass mat technology and occupies a small physical space but has a relatively high Ah rating for its size. It also is made in Japan which adds to the cost vs. being made in China or Mexico.

 

To be fair, the Prius 12V battery is pretty specialized (what, we have found ONE aftermarket option that needs no alteration) and it takes a fair bit of dissassembly and reassmbly to replace it.

You think that is bad, a Lexus battery, ordinary 12V battery costs $250. I bought a battery at AutoZone for $90, its the same battery, the case is identical it just says "AutoCraft" instead of "Lexus" on it.

 

when i was a lad, our neighbor owned an auto dealership. they lived in a simple six room ranch like we did. he was a wwII vet like my dad. his father started it and he took it over. earlier this year, i was talking to a guy down the street. i asked him who was building the two mansions a block over from him. he said it was two brothers who owned a well known auto dealership. i'm talking 3-5 million dollar houses. it is a very very lucrative business these days and they will cut your heart out to make an extra buck off you.

 

Which aftermarket option is that?

The most popular aftermarket option appears to be Optima but that choice requires replacement of the battery terminal connectors.

The 12V battery in my HiHy is regular lead acid since it lives in the engine compartment, and I bought a replacement last winter for ~$90 from my local Toyota dealer (I assume the lower price is due to its origin from Mexico...)

 

Its actually not nearly as lucrative a business as you would think. Its a very hard business with razor thin profit margins, incredibly high franchise fees. Most dealerships anymore are owned by conglomerates, a company that owns a bunch of dealers spanning several marques.

Huge lots, huge overhead, huge utility bills.

I thought the Optima was just drop and play?

I stand corrected! No aftermarket alternative!

 

The Prius 12V battery is small to save weight. It is AGM so that it can be located inside the passenger compartment. A normal flooded cell battery has to vent hydrogen during charging. Furthermore, the Prius battery is charged slowly and continuously from the inverter, where a normal car bangs in a great deal of charge from the alternator and calls it good.

It's an engineering trade-off. Toyota's engineers thought it was worth the extra cost. You might not.

Tom

 

If you want it to vent hydrogen into the passenger compartment to save $80 then by all means, go for it. I love my life and my family...so I'll spend the $80.

Three times more? You can get the OEM Toyota battery for $130. I paid $90 for a decent AutoZone battery for the Lexus...so its $40 more...come on.

Look...you bought a hybrid car. If you wanted something that was always going to be cheap and easy to work on that any parts you buy at AutoZone will work on...you bought the wrong car. You should have bought the most basic American car you could find. Chevy Cobalt, something like that.

 

Some owners have installed regular wet-cell lead acid batteries. However IMO that raises a significant safety risk, not just because of H2 gas venting into the passenger cabin, but also because if your right-rear fender is smashed in an accident then you will have battery acid all over the hatch and maybe into the rear seat area as well.

Regarding a motorcycle battery of smaller capacity, that will work OK when the battery is new. However since it is starting with a smaller capacity than the ~35Ah capacity of the Prius battery (for Smart-equipped vehicles) then you can expect it will last for a shorter duration. It will also offer less safety margin if your inverter coolant pump fails (which is not a rare event based upon postings in this forum), the DC/DC converter stops working, and the car is depending upon the 12V battery for power while you gracefully find your way to the side of the road.

 

Its like asking why does an HID bulb cost $90 when I can buy a bulb at AutoZone for $15? Because the HID system provides better light, longer life and more output while drawing less power.

The 12V battery in the Prius is more expensive because it provides voltage without having to put deadly fumes and deadly acid inside the passenger compartment of the vehicle. The AutoZone battery is under the hood and theres a firewall between it and the passenger compartment. The Prius battery is INSIDE THE VEHICLE, right behind the rear passenger. Ever seen what battery acid will do? We're talking disfiguring burns. To save $40? Even $200? Not worth it.

 

Isn't that the whole point of a Prius?

 

The old VW bug had the battery under the rear seat with no vent. I never heard of death by "deadly fumes" with something like 5 million VWs on the road. With the low current draw the Prius can't generate dangerious levels of anything. Toyota probably over designed the battery for legal reasons.

 

Well, what was deemed an acceptable safety level in 1960 is no longer acceptable in 2010. Today the original VW Beetle would be considered a death trap, maybe not because of the battery under the rear seat, but for other reasons like poor acceleration, almost zero crush zone between the front seat passengers and the front of the car, very little distance between the front seat passengers and the windshield, a cabin heater that depended upon heat generated by the exhaust manifold, etc...

Further, Toyota has had very recent and painful experiences with legal issues relating to accelerator pedal sticking, engine ECUs, etc etc. My guess is that the mgmt of that company probably doesn't think that their engineering is over-designed when viewed in total.

Regarding the Prius 12V battery, I think that the liquid acid issue is a bigger safety concern than H2 gas production.

 

Mercedes E320, 2001, has the huge special size battery it calls for, under the rear seat. It is vented. I think it is wet cell. The original battery did last 8 years. AGM batteries are more expensive from all places, I believe. The Prius battery isn't so out of line, times have changed. Prius owners are also not spending $100 to drive 400 miles like with a large suv, or $60 with the Mercedes six.

 

A silly assumption. There are good engineering reasons to use an AGM battery. I use a good gel cell battery in my boat for the same reason. When I replace it I will probably use an AGM. The initial cost is higher, but the entire life cycle cost is lower.

Tom