Longterm costs

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Jul 13, 2005 | 07:10 AM

#11

Schwa

Ridiculously Active Enthusiast

Joined: Apr 2005

Posts: 1,045

From: Coquitlam, B.C.

Re: Longterm costs

Quote:

Originally Posted by kkirksea

a) There are 8 year old Prius's in Japan that haven't had batteries replaced ( the model was released long before it reached our shores ). In fact, a statement was made that *no* battery set in any existing Prius has required replacement yet, other than due to accidents. ( Anyone know of any? )

That's not entirely true, from what I read they had a small percent of the real gen1 Prii with battery problems in Japan, but that was to be expected in the shake-down model. The 1997-2000 true first gen (Japan only) Prius used a pack of real 'D' cells whereas the 2001-2003 models used a much improved rectangular cell system, and those have never needed any replacement, nor have the 2004-2005 models, but I wouldn't expect anything to go wrong with them yet. Overall reliability is extremely high, given the numbers of cars on the road all over the world.