I guess I'm ready to let people know about this now. Let my pain be of benefit to STers & others. I will never recommend buying a hybrid car. Ever!
I sent a mail to Don Homer last Sunday because I knew he owned a Prius. Not sure if anyone else does - or any hybrid for that matter. So here is the text of that mail slightly updated.
The hybrid dream has become a nightmare. On Saturday morning, a majority of my wife's Prius warning signals came on. On the monitor screen the word 'Problem' (really!) came up and my wife said she felt the car not working right. Fortunately, she was near her Toyota dealership and got the car there.
Later that afternoon they called to tell us that the hybrid battery is failing. This is 5 years almost to the day she bought the car (March 2006). They told her what it will cost to replace that battery. Are you ready? $3400. I wanted to spit blood. Now, we had the 100,000 / 7yr warranty that would have covered that but her car is at 118,000. Yeah, we have driven it a lot in 5 yrs.
I can't believe it. I can't say this with 100% accuracy but I recall when we bought the car we read or were told that a battery replacement could be around $1800. Of course, that prompted us to get the warranty. That and my wife reading that the batteries were tested to last around 8 yrs or 180-200 thousand miles.
I don't know if we got a fluke battery or what but I wanted to warn you. Toyota rep said "You are one of the unlucky ones." Yeah, no sh*t! If you own a hybrid and if you have the warranty, do what you can to keep the mileage below the limit just in case. We are looking at all our options and you can bet it begins with a letter to Toyota and then if need be Consumer Reports, The Consumerist etc. because no one and I mean no one should have to pay $3400 to replace one item in a five year old car. I don't care if it's a Fisher Price clown car. This is freakin Toyota. We bought this with a certain level of confidence and thought we were doing right for us, for the environment blah blah blah. That's all gone now. Any perceived cost savings in fuel is completely shot. They got us coming with upfront costs and going with this bull*shit.
I'll keep you advised as we pursue this matter further. I'm thinking scorched Earth campaign.
