Prius Keeps Car Dealers -- but Not Repairmen -- Busy - The technologically complex, top-selling hybrid from Toyota has rated high in reliability. Gus Heredia feels a kinship with the lonely, sad-faced repairman in the old Maytag ads. Heredia, 54, is a Toyota Prius technician at North County Toyota in Anaheim. As the car that started the gasoline-electric hybrid groundswell approaches its fifth anniversary in the United States, he finds customers with Prius problems few and far between. "We get an average of about 100 cars a day through the service department," Heredia said. "Maybe three or four are Priuses, and they're usually just in for an oil change. I'd go broke if the Prius was all I worked on." http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-priu...dlines-business
Excellent article -- thanks for posting it! I have to admit, I'd be surprised to see many 2004/2005 models of any Toyota car in the mechanics shop very much. One extremely interesting bit of information from the article (bolding inserted by me): I wonder if this is a mistake -- everything I'd heard was that the price of a Prius-like hybrid battery was expected to drop to $3000 in 5-8 years. I'm very surprised to find out that they're already down to $3K now!
I've read various articles pegging (speculating?) battery replacement cost, today, at $3000 to $4900. I believe Toyota hopes and expects that price to drop to under $1000 in 5-8 years. Anyway, considering the following article from the Toyota pressroom, I'm not at all concerned about having to replace the battery: The Prius battery (and the battery-power management system) has been designed to maximize battery life. In part this is done by keeping the battery at an optimum charge level - never fully draining it and never fully recharging it. As a result, the Prius battery leads a pretty easy life. We have lab data showing the equivalent of 180,000 miles with no deterioration and expect it to last the life of the vehicle. We also expect battery technology to continue to improve: the second-generation model battery is 15% smaller, 25% lighter, and has 35% more specific power than the first. This is true of price as well. Between the 2003 and 2004 models, service battery costs came down 36% and we expect them to continue to drop so that by the time replacements may be needed it won't be a much of an issue. Since the car went on sale in 2000, Toyota has not replaced a single battery for wear and tear.
Tag, where did you find that quote from the pressroom? I have told people who ask about the battery that Toyota has not replaced a battery for wear and tear but without documentation, I might as well be making it up.
Tony, It's here: http://pressroom.toyota.com/photo_library/...tml?id=20040623 (near the bottom of the page)
