Independent Repair Shops. Worth the "Savings"?

It will if the dealer is good and the independent shop isn't.

Both questions have highly variable answers.

 

Basic maintenance like that can be performed at any "qualified shop". Find a local, highly qualified established shop; that doesn't have high turnover in mechanic staff. They should be able to take care of everything except the traction battery portion of the car. Established shops usually don't want to mess with the traction battery, safety hazard for themselves and their crew. .

PS: The only thing that needs to be flushed, is the braking system. 5 years or 50K miles or at least every 10 years or 100K; IMHO. The OEM manual states change fluids - NOT flush. Replace the ATF using the same interval listed above. I don't believe in lifetime fluids; if you want to drive the car, until the wheels fall off (cheap insurance).
Also make sure they use OEM equivalent or better parts. That shouldn't be an issue with an established shop; because they don't want to do the job again, under warranty. IMHO; the internet has allowed an avalanche of counterfeit and questionable parts into the ecosystem.

Good Luck......

 

Engine coolant's at 100k miles, or 10 years.
Inverter coolant's at 150k miles or 15 years (in the States, in Canada interval's same as engine coolant.
Spark plugs (apart from CARB States) are 120k miles or 12 years.
"More in-depth" brake inspection is every 30k miles or tri-yearly.
Brake fluid replacement in the States is not mentioned. FWIW, in Canada it's 48k kms (~30k miles) or tri-yearly.
Transaxle fluid also never mentioned, in the States or Canada.

Regarding independent shops, who knows. Take for example, youtuber with garage The Car Care Nut. He claims to be an ex Toyota Master Mechanic, seems very by-the-book, diligent/thorough. Another, South Main Auto, handles every make/model, but does his level best to play by the rules. But I'm sure there's sketchy places, so tread cautiously I guess.

The more you understand the various services, even DIY some, the better.

 

I've seen evidence of a few separate efforts over the years to create a list of "shops that are good at fixing Priuseses" but none of these efforts seem to have amounted to much. The information goes stale, shops change hands and staff turns over. This isn't limited to Priuschat- the whole internet has shown that it just isn't a great tool for finding (currently) good auto repair shops.

Toyota dealers are required to use new, genuine Toyota parts. Those are good parts, so this contributes to positive outcomes in repair work. It also contributes to higher service ticket costs.

Independent shops have the option to use genuine Toyota parts, but they also have access to cheaper high quality aftermarket parts. Unfortunately they also have access to really terrible counterfeit parts.

The good shops have mapped out their suppliers and they know which items they can trust from each class of vendor.

Toyota does publish its repair manuals, and there are also independently produced and licensed repair manuals available to the independents- so the quality of information is fairly level between dealers and independents.

All shops have turnover- even at a Toyota dealership your ticket may be drawn by a new technicians who've never touched a car more than 10 years old. They'll do what the repair manual says and generally to good effect, but they've got no direct experience to fall back on.

Lastly, when it comes to independent shop recommendations nothing beats local word of mouth. Ask around in your social circle or work, church, underwater darts team etc for the best results.

Good luck!

 

With a gen4 independents can handle 99% of the maintenance as long as you insist on genuine oem parts and fluids.

Local independents are good for more serious repairs if you can judge good work and don't have to rely on blind trust and guarantees a dealer may offer.

When the vehicle has 250,000 miles, your budget is busted or you are just plain cheap and you have a better car for trips, a blown engine at $8k-10k effectively totals the car. That is a reality at a dealer or a dealer equivalent shop like the Car Care Nut. Even though the latter may be more trustworthy from a quality standpoint.

However if you have cultivated a relationship with a small independent and now have trust in their abilities, that blown engine might be replaced turnkey for $2.5k with a year parts and warranty guarantee. The kind of shop that brings in the small taxi companies and delivery drivers from 75 miles away. Need something simpler like a water pump or revised egr valve with a precleaned cooler - give that shop your business before the engine or catalytic converter is needed.

 

So... I'll just ask. What made you think you were going to get a better value than that?

We did the 2 years of free oil changes at the dealer when we bought the car, and they haven't seen it since.

Lately oil changes at home are running me about $24 each with oil from Costco and filters from Rock auto.

My knees are now old enough that I pay the $20 to let the local tire shop do rotations for me about 2/3 of the time- I do it myself in fair weather.

 

I also have a 2017 Prius. I got rolled for an additional $20 on my $45.95 oil change a few weeks ago. Somehow they calculated the coupon wrong without adding any shop supply fees. They tried to tell me I needed a $120 hybrid air filter. I bought a two pack of filters for $10 and replaced the filter myself. I did not know the hybrid air filter existed prior to my last service.

I am going to get the HF Daytona Jack when they put it on sale. Moving forward I will be doing my own servicing. The trust has been broken and can never be restored.

 

That’s especially preposterous. For pros with a lift, a 1/2 hour fluid change exercise, requiring 4 quart bottles of Toyota ATF WS, and a couple of replacement washers. $150 USD would be more than fair.

 

@PriusPeep

They recommend for 100k miles:
-Replace transmission fluid, $399.95 Should be same price as an engine oil change. Just remove plugs 36" towards the drivers side - No filter replacement.
-Replace engine coolant, $249.95
-Replace hybrid inverter coolant, $249.95 They are nailing you twice for this job. While there are two separate cooling systems - the drain plugs are stacked in the identical location.about 6" apart. Reach up and unscrew them both - don't even have to move the drain pan. Then refill.
If your doing the ATF and coolant changes together - IMHO, it should be cheaper since they're only removing the belly pan once. The flat rate manual assumes start to finish each time a task is done; so they are actual double-n-triple dipping with each task. Some independent shops will give you that and that's why they are cheaper. They will just charge you the additional parts and labor while they are there - rather than start to finish time on each task.
-Spark plugs due at 125k miles, $469.95. That's a real rip-off - local shop can do it for half. Make sure they use quality iridium plugs or they will fail prematurely. I've seen original plugs, still going past 175K w/o issue; but your gambling for misfires after 150K. A real pain if it acts up in the middle of a long road trip.

Do the air filter yourself - plenty of YouTube videos on how to do them. I look at them and shake them out every oil change - replace them every other oil change; since they're cheap and I buy the combo pack for <$15. Carbon infused cabin filter; the standard plain ones are less than $10. That reminds me; I need to order and replace the traction battery air filters, coming up on 5 years now. No pets riding in the car, so it doesn't get clogged.

Good Luck......

 

One issues with 3rd gen Prius spark plug replacement: thanks to Toyota's brilliant engineering, to get to the plugs the windshield wipers, wiper motor and linkage, and the underlying metal cowl, all have to come out. In all that's about an hour's labour. The plugs themselves are about $20 USD apiece.

 

With practice its 15 minutes labor.

You need to save that 45 minutes for the brake booster and head gasket job down the road.

The real egr cooler challenge is when it codes for no flow and has a complete
heat hardened clog from one end to another. Excessive oil burners will do that to the egr cooler.