The oldest Prius must be pushing 10 years old by now. I wonder how the battery is holding up? Resale prices will probably sink like a stone for Priuses with bad batteries.

How expensive are they to R & R? Anyone know?

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Ben
1987 190d 2.5Turbo

A battery pack runs less than $2k right now. Remember, the Prius is a hybrid and not all electric. The battery system is very small and only used to launch the vehicle, once up to speed the super economic engine fires up and runs a lot more than the batteries ever will on there own.

As for how long they last, not sure. They have an 8 year/100k warranty. So I would think pretty good.

Personally I would rather have an efficient diesel!

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1991 560 SEL / 185k miles
1992 750il / 17k miles - project car

Only 2K eh? Well that doesn't sound too bad. Small print:- I reserve the right to be outraged if I find out the battery pack is about the same size as 4 car batteries or something like that!

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

I just read that for Toyota to do it, you will be up for about $4k. You can DYI for about $500

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Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club group

I no longer question authority, I annoy authority. More effect, less effort....

1967 230-6 auto parts car. rust bucket.
1980 300D now parts car 800k miles
1984 300D 500k miles
1987 250td 160k miles English import
2001 jeep turbo diesel 130k miles
1998 jeep tdi ~ followed me home. Needs a turbo.
1968 Ford F750 truck. 6-354 diesel conversion.
Other toys ~J.D.,Cat & GM ~ mainly earth moving

That is actually not bad. For $2500 for a DIY kit, if you can get the car cheaply enough. A lot of owners will be dumping them at firesale prices when the battery acts up.

If you can get the car for less than a grand....what a deal

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Ben
1987 190d 2.5Turbo

Yeah but you're assuming that the rest of the car is OK - how well do you think an underpowered petrol motor will fair?

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?ct=u&car_id=281144061&dealer_id=555577&car_year=2004&rdm=1282056880775&lastStartYear=1981&num_records=25&model=PRIUS&systime=&make2=&highlightFirstMakeModel=&start_year=1981&keywordsfyc=&engine=&keywordsrep=&certified=&body_code=0&fuel=&awsp=false&search_type=both&distance=0&marketZipError=false&search_lang=en&showZipError=y&make=TOYOTA&color=&keywords_display=&scarid=283495009&page_location=findacar%3A%3Aispsearchform&min_price=&drive=&default_sort=priceDESC&seller_type=b&position=top&max_mileage=&style_flag=1&sort_type=mileageDESC&address=06460&advanced=&end_year=2011&transmission=&doors=&max_price=&cardist=2582&standard=false

They do seem to go a long time, but their smug emissions are quite toxic!

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Interesting question as we near the "lifespan" of the battery pack. I put it in quotes because of the wide variation depending on whom the information comes from.

I still see some first generation ('01-'03) Priuses...Priusii...Prius'...?...driving around. I preferred the look of those to the later ones but I suspect drag coefficient dictated the change. Or maybe the fact that the Gen I ones just blended in and didn't scream "LOOK AT ME AND MY HYBRID! WE'RE SAVING THE EARTH!" that so many Prius owners seem to love.

I still think it's an interesting concept, but would prefer a diesel to a hybrid. That said, if I could find one cheap enough to convert to a full electric for bombing around the 'hood in, I'd consider one.

I have always wondered why the Prius gets so much chatter while the Gen II Honda Insight wallows along in relative obscurity. I think it's a better looking vehicle, albeit still not particularly attractive. And when the Toyota accelerator "problems" ran rampant (which is now appearing to be more operator error than mechanical), Honda wasn't able to garner any more attention.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

So how do you know if your battery is bad ?

Unless there is a "blue screen of death" on the dashboard - you dont - all you see is that the battery doesn't last as long as it used to (...and are you sure ?)

I'm guessing that a not lot of Prius batteries around going to fail outright, they are going to lose capacity between the 10 and 20 year mark and then (maybe) fail completely around 20 years. And I'm going to guess that when the battery does fail completely:
a) the IC motor will still move the car
b) there is some kind of protective fusing that will keep the batteries from heating up/melting things/causing catastrophic damage - if they DIDNT put some kinda protection between cells, then they will have earned the fallout that will occur the first time a Prius gives poor kid a 3rd degree burn and the internet gets a hold of the pictures.

That being the case, a 10y/o Prius is still a usable machine - it'll run its IC motor more, and fuel economy will take a hit, but if you never calculate your economy or call up that screen on the display - you'll never notice it. Even then, I can't see the economy of a 1.0l engine going less than 30mpg... Most batteries fail slowly over time by losing capacity.

If the rest of the car holds up ok (remains to be seen- they do have a LOT of computers...) and they still run when you turn the key, they will hold their value decently - I'm guessing that a small hybrid with a dead battery will still get 30mpg - which is better than the 1997 VW jetta (that I just sold) got.

We'll see.

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2009 Kia Sedona
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse
(insert Mercedes here)

Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)

We've got a Gen 1 Prius with 105K on the odo -- my wife drives it mostly. It's been pretty trouble-free for 50K miles. The next time I take it in for service to change the inverter coolant (probably this fall) I'm going to ask them to check the battery terminal connections -- I read where spotty connections can contribute to reduced battery life.

The car gets about 43 mpg, mainly because it gets a lot of highway miles (it does better in town) and because I went to a plus-zero tire size. The car was dangerously unstable at highway speed with the original economy tire width. It cost a couple mpgs but reduced the worries about piling into an oncoming semi in a crosswind.

Beyond that, it has little sound deadening, for that "tin can" effect, and it's showing some rust on the passenger side door. It handles like a go-kart with the wider tires, but acceleration is "character-building." On the plus side, it's a little snowplow in the winter with Hakkapeliitta RSI tires.

The sound system is crap, the headlghts are crap -- did I mention that my wife is the primary driver?

My best friend's gf had a prius, I rode in it quite often. She was an awful driver. She would mash the gas (so a gas and electric combined takeoff) and then would always complain about how she only averaged 27mpg with her prius. It made me wonder how many other Prius drivers are like that and why she had one in the first place...


Just my little story, carry on!

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Interesting similarity - the only Prius driver's I know are women also...


-John

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2009 Kia Sedona
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse
(insert Mercedes here)

Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)

Here you go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKTOyiKLARk

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1982 300GD Carmine Red (DB3535) Cabriolet Parting Out
1990 300SEL Smoke Silver (Parting out)
1991 350SDL Blackberry Metallic (481)

"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

11.8s PRius

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOtgiOKoKLA

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

My friend and I were laughing at one going about 90 the other day on I91, as we followed it in his E300D. The E300D is a vastly better car and at that speed was probably getting better mileage than the Pius.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOvp69lnZbA&feature=related
I really do hate these cars.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200