2004 Prius - Repair or Sell?

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The Critic

The Critic

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I have a customer with a 04 Prius with 140K. They are the second owners of the vehicle.

The car is in average shape for 140K and they recently installed new tires. It needs a hybrid battery ($2400 installed, new from dealer) and a 12V battery ($200 installed).

For better or for worse, the car has been extremely reliable for them. It has not experienced any of the "typical" Gen 2 Prius issues. Which only means that the issues are coming. Hard to say. The only expensive one is the Brake Actuator ($2k-ish) and there is a 50/50 chance that this issue may come up.

In our area, a working 04 Prius would sell for about $5K. A non-working one should sell for $1K-$1.5K depending on the day.

Would you fix or sell?
 
Replace the 12v battery and see what happens would be my starting point. I think Priuses have been sold cheap because only the 12v failed and the owners don't know that makes a mess out of everything until it is replaced.
 
Originally Posted by Farnsworth
Replace the 12v battery and see what happens would be my starting point. I think Priuses have been sold cheap because only the 12v failed and the owners don't know that makes a mess out of everything until it is replaced.

The freeze frame data showed block 7 to have a >1v variance. Despite the dying 12v battery, it definitely needs needs a new hybrid battery.
 
Originally Posted by JohnnyJohnson
My Stealership currently replace the 12 volt battery with a 84 month battery for $129 installed.

Those promos usually exclude the Prius 12v battery; the dealer's cost on them is well past $150.

Originally Posted by Donald
No aftermarket batteries available?

The aftermarket batteries with new Chinese cells is within $200 of a new battery from Toyota. Rebuilt aftermarket batteries have an astronomical failure rate; my supplier said they have a warranty rate of almost 50%.
 
Man, tough one. Sounds like the question should be, could the customer stomach dropping $2,500 this month, then another $2k next month if the brake actuator dies, and then say another $2k after that? Granted, $5k is about all that they could be shelling out (realistically) over the next few months over common failure items (whatever they may be). If they can pay that without flinching, then that's cheaper than a new car. If that irks them, and they would rather drop the coin on a new(er) car, then it's time to move on. If they like to gamble, well, have fun.
 
Never worth spending the value of the car on repairs. For $5000 they could get a non-Prius that would serve them for many, many years with no major repairs.
 
Originally Posted by vw7674
I gotta see this $2,000 brake actuator. : )


It's a BMW part that's why it's so expensive
29.gif


OP: Dump the car for scrap. I bet the battery back is worth more than $1k.
 
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It's useless with the bad hybrid battery? Can't even drive it on gas alone? If so I would fix it.. $2600 and you have a relatively low milage Toyota?

I'm sure that some tree hugger will buy it for the $5k.
 
Is there anyway to check the brake actuator?

supton brings up good points.

You are talking about a 15 year old car. No matter how reliable, other parts could need replacing. If you are confident that what you identified are the only big ticket items and there is a good mechanic to fix the small items, I would replace the battery and keep driving it. My guess is even a year from now, the selling price will still be $5k with a new factory battery and only 150k miles. These Prius have gone well over 300k without too many issues. Plus it's in California so rust should been minimal or not an issue.

Not unless your customer is itching for a new car......I would still fix it then sell it.
 
Originally Posted by Chris142
It's useless with the bad hybrid battery? Can't even drive it on gas alone? If so I would fix it.. $2600 and you have a relatively low milage Toyota?

I'm sure that some tree hugger will buy it for the $5k.


Yeah you need the hybrid battery to kick the gas engine over. A semi-bad one will turn on every dash light then the gas engine revs to the moon and gets 25 MPG.
 
Originally Posted by Chris142
It's useless with the bad hybrid battery? Can't even drive it on gas alone?.
You can't drive hybrids without electrifying the motors. They need to be active.
It's an interesting question though. Given the planetary gearset of the Prius (power split), its impossible to get the torque sharing you need with dead electrics.
With hybrids like the Kia Niro and VW GTE, which use a 6-speed dual-clutch automatic as the basis for a transmission instead of the power split thing in Japanese & American designs, you almost could get away with having unpowered electrics!! They didn't give the Niro or GTE hybrids a torque convertor, so you still need an electric motor to launch from a stop with those.

The converse is true: If your IC engine dies, you can proceed a short distance, usually a mile or so, on electric power alone.

Another thing is that those big hybrid batteries may degrade with age gradually, instead of ceasing to work altogether. In that case, for example, your Prius's 1.2 kWH battery pack is functioning like, say a 0.8 kWH battery, which means you can still run all you want. Your MPG drops of course, as the engine is called upon to run things more. Should still be driveable. Same for a Niro or GTE too.
 
Honestly not sure. How much money does person have on hand beyond $2600 +$1000 from dump it to buy something else?
 
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Someone said relatively reliable. What does the mean? That is different to everyone.

If they have to do the battery now and the actuator down the road I don't see it that way for the cars mileage and age.

What is the likely hood of the actuator failing?
the Critic also said there are other issues with the 2nd gen Prius. I don't know what they are but what is the likely hood of having these issues come up?
I would hate to spend that kid of coin to have the other issues come along down the road.

It is 15 year old car if the other issues had already been addressed and you know for a fact they won't pop up down the road
it might be worth it as you already know what has been done to the car, but I can't see putting a lot of money into this if the owner can't wrench on it him/herself.
 
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Originally Posted by AuthorEditor
Never worth spending the value of the car on repairs. For $5000 they could get a non-Prius that would serve them for many, many years with no major repairs.


This is the reason I've overlooked the hybrids for years. My Corolla is 15 years old and counting. No major problems uses less than a half quart of oil in 7156 miles Cost me $16,000 out the door with license and taxes when it was new. I'm good to go for years yet.
 
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Originally Posted by The Critic
Originally Posted by JohnnyJohnson
My Stealership currently replace the 12 volt battery with a 84 month battery for $129 installed. ...

Those promos usually exclude the Prius 12v battery; the dealer's cost on them is well past $150. ...
In my Prius I have over 4 years on an AGM U1-size battery that cost $65 new, including shipping. So far, so good.
 
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