Gen3 Inverter Failure At 71K Miles!?!

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Just had the inverter replaced on my 2009 gen3 Prius at 71,000 miles. Being the older gen3 my warranty expired at 3 years/60,000 miles leaving me open to an expensive repair. Thankfully have had my car main dealer serviced since new and Toyota paid for a new (and expensive) inverter and I paid the £250 labour. A result and I'm greatful to them.

However, I am totally unimpressed with the reliability of the Prius as I have had literally dozens of cars and run some to very high mileages and other than a Rover 213, not ONE has ever broken down leaving me at the side of the road; well until the other day when my Prius did.

I was sold this car on many things and one of them was the reliability, but it appears that the renowned reliability of the gen2 (2004-2009) hasn't been passed on to the gen3; at least in my experience (and it appears, a number of Greek taxi drivers as reported on priuschat.com - they're shunning the gen3 for the older, but hardier gen2!).

The following EXPENSIVE items have been replaced on my Prius in 71,000 miles;

2 x steering motors (both under warranty). I'm now on my third! (expensive+vat+fitting)

1 x HV Battery ECU (about £700+ vat+fitting)

1 x inverter (expensive+vat+fitting)

Various rattles, seat belt casings, gremlins have all been looked at under warranty too - though the rattles are still there.

So would I recommend the Prius now? Well it depends if you have the 5 year 100,000 mile warranty or not. Would I recommend a 5+ year old one? Not a chance. The money you save in fuel will be more than eaten up by huge expensive parts which can only be fitted by main dealers. And that is the problem. I like my dealers and they're really helpful and the reason my girlfriend bought a new Toyota from them, but at least with a Mondeo or Octavia you can take it to the much cheaper independent garage for service or diagnostics. Important when the car is getting on a bit.

Perhaps we now know why Toyota UK only gave the original gen3 Prius a 3 year 60,000 mile warranty?

Not impressed!

[steverally]

GC good to see that your still around and posting informative info. Your posts in the past helped me and many others on this forum... your input has been missed, look forward to more from you as and when.

Pitty about the inverter but it sounds that you have access to a good dealer that goes someway to look after their customers even when vehicle warranty has expired.

Toyota really messed up with the early Gen 3 Warranty issues... hopefully reliability on later models has improved.

[thedeanobeano]

HI Grumpy

I followed your report on Priuschat - it was good to see that Toyota did the right thing with the inverter.

I am now listening to my inverter on regen and it is whining like a London tube, which I suppose is good.

My only ongoing issue with my gen 3 is the rattle when restarting when not previously warmed up correctly. The car still does this, even though the manifold etc has already been chaged under warranty.

I have alerted my dealer to this, but they don't seem pro active on any solution to this.

[stompe]

Errr we need Moderators Grumps, how about it???? (nice to see you back mate)

[Ancient Nerd]

Good to see you back Grumpy,

I'm glad Toyota at least paid for the parts. However, if you had either a late Gen II or a Gen III from the following year, but with the same mileage, then they would have paid the entire cost.

I wonder how much pressure your dealer had to apply to get the 'goodwill'.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

I wonder how much pressure your dealer had to apply to get the 'goodwill'.

Not sure. Still cheaper than the £600 for the extended warranty. :)

Still, the car hasn't been the most reliable and I wouldn't buy a new one - not at £22,000. When they were £18,500 and Mondeo's were £18,000 it was a no brainer, but now Mondeo's are £18,500 and Prii at £22,000! not a chance. I wonder if this is the reason for a steady drop in Prius sales? You'd have thought they'd be flying off the shelves with recond high petrol prices, but 5,000 cars a year is nothing.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Errr we need Moderators Grumps, how about it???? (nice to see you back mate)

Not a chance. It was bad enough getting insulted all the time by bone heads, let alone when as a formal moderator. I've also seen legal threats get banded around other UK forums for disagreements, and I really don't need that sort of **** in my life. :)

[timberwolf]

I wonder how much pressure your dealer had to apply to get the 'goodwill'.

Not sure. Still cheaper than the £600 for the extended warranty. :)

Still, the car hasn't been the most reliable and I wouldn't buy a new one - not at £22,000. When they were £18,500 and Mondeo's were £18,000 it was a no brainer, but now Mondeo's are £18,500 and Prii at £22,000! not a chance. I wonder if this is the reason for a steady drop in Prius sales? You'd have thought they'd be flying off the shelves with recond high petrol prices, but 5,000 cars a year is nothing.

The Auris Hybrid and Lexus CT 200H sales?

[stompe]

Grumps you can Nuke and clean up this site!!! lol, but shame with your knowledge it would benefit us, Hang on, you get a free Prius

[stompe]

Hi, not seen many Auris Hybrids about or CT200h's Perhaps Kylie didn't come with the Lexus lol

[Grumpy Cabbie]

The Auris Hybrid and Lexus CT 200H sales?

I'm sure they're taking some sales but sales on the Auris are only slightly up and don't account for a matching drop as ct200 sales are down.

http://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/combined/toyota_prius#!newreg

http://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/combined/auris_hybrid#!newreg

http://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/combined/lexus_ct200#!newreg

[twohats]

Those graphs don't include the final quarter. Still down, but not as bad as at first sight.

[timberwolf]

Over three years ago there were no Auris Hybrid sales and two years ago there were no Lexus CT200H sales because the cars didn't exist. In the last two years they have had combined sales of over 8,000 cars. The Prius has dropped to 5,000 car sales from a peak in 2010 of 10,000.

Obviously, it's speculation on my part, but I do wonder if 50% of those new sales might have gone to the Prius had it still been the only Toyota hybrid model for sale?

There are lies, damn lies, and then there are Members of Parliament.

[kithmo]

Hi, not seen many Auris Hybrids about or CT200h's Perhaps Kylie didn't come with the Lexus lol

That's because they are so inconspicuous, it's not easy at a glance to spot the difference between a normal and a Hybrid Auris and the CT200 doesn't stand out from any of the other mid-sized hatchbacks, Kia Ce'ed, Hyundai i20, Vauxhall Astra, Ford Focus etc.

[avensis99]

Hi guys,

I can agree with the theory of the slowing prius sales being caused by the auris hybrid and the CT200h.

I had one of the original gen 3 prius with the weasel warranty, and decided that when i was ready to swap to a new model last march i looked at the facelifted prius when it was released but as soon as i found out the uplifted price over the original gen3 and with a lower spec levels and the naff interior (my opinion) i started to look at the auris hybrid as it represented better value for money with no real compromise on spec.

thus i have now had an auris hybrid t-spirit 2012 model with touch and go navigation system (good when you have got used to it, but not as easy to use as the toyota system), rear privacy tints and the very classy looking anthracite original spec alloy wheels.

at first i was a little concerned with the size difference, but with nearly 10k in 12 months i have not noticed any real restrictions between the 2 cars appart from the obvious boot size.

as i work for a dealership i have been lucky in that i have converted my boot tray back to the original spec of the hybrid with the 3 section boot tray with the cover over the carpet over the top, it makes the boot smaller but more practical as it is a flat floor.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

But we want a higher hybrid adoption don't we? What's the point of taking sales from a more expensive car? But the reason it's more expensive than other markets is a whole different thread :)

[timberwolf]

I bought my Prius as an alternative to an Automatic. I assume adoption will be low because the price is higher than a regular car with a manual gearbox.

Given Toyota GB shifted the pros and cons with regard to warranty (now poorer), reliability (now questionable) and the price (now higher), I wonder whether I will buy another one when it comes time to replace mine.

I don't worry if the adoption is low, because the Hybrid would have to become very common to be of benefit to me e.g. removing enough diesel cars to improve air quality, or that the independent garages would be able to fix the older Hybrid.