My girlfriend owns a 2009 Prius which were driving from Boston to Charleston, SC. We're almost home when near Columbia, SC when the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree and stopped accelerating. We immediately pulled over and I called AAA. We had the car towed to aToyota dealership which was about to close. Rented a hotel room for the night and received a call that it would cost $5000 to $6000 dollars to replace the battery. Then they also suggested that they had a mechanic they could bring in who might be able to look at it and check the cells and replace any individual cell as need be for a fraction of the cost. My girlfriend went to the dealership as it was her car and wanted to go while I stayed with the dogs at the hotel. When she got there the mechanic said he could fix it for $675 but couldn't work on it until he put gas in the car because it was empty(girlfriend said there was no warning beep for the gas but it was low) My girlfriend waited for hours but they couldn't get the gas until a truck came back. She finally left a 1:30, car still not being worked on. She went back at 3:30 because that was the latest time that the dealerships driver could pick her up. When she got there the car was out front and ready to go. She wrote a check to the mechanic and the dealership charged her $12 for gas and gave her a recite only for the gas but told her all the work was garenteed but gave her no warranty or a detailed recite of the work. Were we scammed? Is it possible that they put gas in the car and it started and charged the battery? She has cancelled the check until she gets the proper paperwork.
2 hours to evaluate and replace a individual battery module is highly unlikely. An experienced tech can install a refurbished complete traction battery in that time period but not individual modules. My question is who was driving when it shut down? link to article below Poll Finds Men Run Out of Gas More Than Women
Someone did a quick module swap, definitely possible to do in an hour or 2 But that repair is not worth $675 as it probably would fail in about a month. You would need a receipt from the dealer....This is a side job from the mechanic and probably dealer knows nothing about it
Did you receive a written estimate with the codes from the dealer? Does the visit appear on http://www.toyota.com/owners ?
When dealer confirms you need a hybrid battery.... It is likely you need a hybrid battery. While $5,000 is way too much, logic would tell you to that $675 would not be the same Repair (full replacement with new cells, which would likely last as long as the original battery). Logic should make you say to yourself... Hmm... That price seems too good to be true. And you would be right. The best you can hope for is a single module being replaced. If might last a month. It might last quite a few months. It might die next week. You don't really know. But at least you didn't spend $5,000. You will get another opportunity in the next 12months to make the same decision because you will have another failure. Do some research online. Check out the Toyota owners website using your Vin to see all the dealer service history. Call and talk to hybrid mechanics like me who are willing to share knowledge/experience.
