2004 Prius with 94,000 miles. I hear a lot about possible battery failure. Is there any data on that? How much is a replacement battery? I owe $9,000 - should I trade it in now?
Don’t let anyone scare you. I believe the Prius battery has a 7 year warranty (could be 8 years in California), and out of the million Prius cars sold so far there have been very few failures.
If it fails, and the warranty has expired, a repacement in $2800, I believe. By that time you will have saved a large amount of money on gas, more than enough to pay for a new battery. In taxi service the batteries last at least 300,000 miles and the Prius is becoming a favorite cab all over.
So, just keep driving it and take good care of it by doing all the required maintenance.
Is this concern keeping you awake at night? If so I am sure we can line up buyers for much more than $9k. It is really hard to get ‘upside down’ in Prius payoff.
But what we know from many internet discussion groups (and one Toyota press release) is that the battery life is really very good especially in 2004 - later Prius. I’d be keepin’ it.
DAS
I suppose there are some drivers who can kill the battery by their driving style: always very hard on the brakes and very hard on the gas pedal. Likely the same people who complain, “My gas mileage is terrible, and my brakes wear out in no time!” Of course, they will say, “I,m not a hard driver (and, believe it!)”.