Newbie Question Re Smartkey

[dmg195]

Hi all, I have just bought a 2009 gen 3 Prius. It came with one smartkey fob (with a key inserted in it) and another key by itself. Do I have to purchase a 2nd fob from a dealer and if so how much is this likely to be ?

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Probably a lot.

There is another thread on here about a new member and his quest to find a cheap 2nd key.

My concern would be where the other key is! You don't want your car suddenly disappearing one night. You might also want to consider replacing the fab Battery as they only last about 3 years.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Hello Dave - welcome to Toyota Owners Club. I would be inclined to approach the seller and ask about the second key. If it is a dealer, they may be willing to contribute something towards the cost of a replacement.

[dmg195]

It was a dealer and I got the standard "never advertised 2 fobs and is reflected in the price"

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Not a great attitude but at least you know where you stand with them!?!?

Whats the car like? What sort of mileage is it? Does it have full service history and is it Toyota serviced?

Not sure if you've followed the forums but a few bits of advice for a new gen3 owner are as follows;

1, Tyres: Low Rolling Resistance tyres make a difference to top end economy. The 15 inch versions for the Prius barely cost any more and give good wet grip matched with economy. Correct air pressures make a BIG difference to the Prius economy. Ensure they're correct.

2, Failing 12v batteries can cause all sorts of issues. A replacement costs £95 fitted by Toyota. If your car has a high mileage it might be good insurance to replace the 12v now if the car is still on its first.

3, If the car hasn't got a recent Toyota service (over 10k miles or 12 months) or if the car is over the 60k miles warranty; 2009/early 2010 gen 3's only got 5 years/60k mile hybrid warranty! You might want to consider the Hybrid Health Check from Toyota. It costs £39 and gives 10k miles or 12 months hybrid warranty. Check this link for further details. Definitely peace of mind for an early gen3 owner!

http://www.toyota.co.uk/service-and-maintenance/hybrid-health-check

4, Obviously the place where you bought the car is erm, blunt on advice. There were a lot of recalls on the early gen3's so check that they've all been done/actioned by checking your reg here;

http://www.toyota.co.uk/owners-info/recall-checker

5, Finally. When you get the car serviced the gen3 really really should use the expensive and hard to get hold of 0w20 oil. Do not use 5w30 even though places like Halfords say that's the oil the gen3 should use. It shouldn't. You 'can' use it but your economy will bomb. Might be prudent to get your first service as the new owner of the car done by Toyota. That way any software upgrades will be done along with any recalls. Sometimes they may price match or at least it's worth a try negotiating price with them. You don't get if you don't ask.

Hope you enjoy your new ride. You'll wonder how you managed before. Enjoy.

[dmg195]

Its got a FSH, 44000 on the clock, last service at 38000. Got it from a 2nd hand car place in Wembley was a bit iffy so asked them to provide 60 day warranty on the Battery which they did. It was a bit scrappy but gave it a t cut yesterday and came up lovely. Paid £10800 so think I got a bargain (assuming nothing major wrong with it). Gonna book it in for a hybrid health check but as it has service history should still be covered under toyota warranty if an issue

[dmg195]

Forgot to say, than you very much for taking the time to post the advice, much appreciated :-)

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Just for clarification and to help those who don't know but the gen3 only got a 5 year/60,000 mile hybrid warranty. The gen2 got 8 years/100k miles as does the gen3 from model year June (ish) 2010. Toyota have refused to increase the warranty on early gen3's and one wonders why they saw fit to reduce it after the gen2.

Your warranty is probably nearly up being a 2009, but the hybrid health check is very worthwhile as it will allow upto 10 years unlimited mileage warranty on your Battery (so long as you either have the car serviced at Toyota every year OR pay the £39 as required).

The recalls are all needed. There were some braking anomalies that have been much improved by the early recalls. The latest recall is to reduce the load on the inverter as there have been a number of inverter failures - mine included at only 70,000 miles. The recall reduces the load and power and is probably required if you're keeping the car. If your car is upto date them you should be fine.

The cabin filter is only £10 and is often missed at service. It's behind the glove box. If you're having a go yourself be careful not to brake the catch and don't lose it down the back.

The funny button on the heater next to the a/c light is a filter button. Pressing it will clear the cabin of any smells or pollen etc. It turns the fan on high for about 3 minutes and then will switch off again.

B mode on the gear shift isn't brake mode. It's for use when going down long hills. The engine will rev like crazy. Don't worry, that's normal.

The a/c can buzz when first switched on on a hot day. Again this is normal unless it's continuous which probably means your a/c gas is low.

Nothing else unusual to watch for.

[valmiki]

I paid £200+ about 18 months ago for a new spare smart key (though I got the car about £3k cheaper than the dealers from a car supermarket so I wasn't going to complain). From what I understand the car needs to be coded to the key.

If you bought the car from a Toyota dealer I'd push a bit harder. Buying from a dealer you would expect to have 2 sets of keys, don't all cars go through 'a multi-point check' or whatever....Have a word with Toyota UK and ask if this is something buyers would expect when buying a used approved Toyota...

[edit] just re-read that you didn't buy from a Toyota dealer, apologies ;-)

[dmg195]

Unfortunately not a Toyota dealer hence why I got it cheaper. Expected to pay about that and just found its subject to a recall (but doesn't say for what?) so will ring local Toyota dealer tomorrow and get recall, hybrid check and key done in one go. Even if it does cost 200 quid it still means I got a low mileage FSH Prius spirit with leather interior for 11k so I'm happy :-)

[PeteB]

... will ring local Toyota dealer tomorrow and get recall, hybrid check and key done in one go...

sound good. That will ensure they key is programmed for your car, and will also remove the old one from the system, so if it ever turned up it will be useless.

If you haven't already, I'd suggest checking both emergency keys work with your car.

Welcome to the 'club', regards PeteB

[Peter2673]

"The car only has three wheels"........

........"We didn't advertise it with four wheels, and that is reflected in the price"

Is it just me, or is there a slight problem with that argument?

[dmg195]

Definitely not the optimum place to buy it from but was restricted by funds (Toyota dealer would probably have been ~£12k) and availability. Early gen 3 spirits with leather interior seem to be like gold dust and next to impossible to find

[dmg195]

Well just had a shock when I took the car to the local Toyota dealer. It appears my particular model only had a 3 year warranty. I didn't even know they did one that short. All the research I'd done beforehand showed they'd reduced the 2009 warranty to 5 years from 8, but never saw anything about 3! Now having a nailbiting wait while they do the hybrid health check and safety report, preying they don't find anything expensive to fix. Wouldn't have bought it if I had known it wasn't still under warranty but only myself to blame on that one...

[valmiki]

Extending the warranty for 2 years cost me £650. Unlimited mileage.

I did the same as you (bought outside the Toyota network) but planned on extending the warranty. Still quids in!

I take it you can't extend?

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Well just had a shock when I took the car to the local Toyota dealer. It appears my particular model only had a 3 year warranty. I didn't even know they did one that short. All the research I'd done beforehand showed they'd reduced the 2009 warranty to 5 years from 8, but never saw anything about 3! Now having a nailbiting wait while they do the hybrid health check and safety report, preying they don't find anything expensive to fix. Wouldn't have bought it if I had known it wasn't still under warranty but only myself to blame on that one...

It's known as the weasel warranty.

Toyota are upfront about it on their warranty page BUT it's not really advertised.

http://www.toyota.co.uk/insurance-and-warranty/toyota-warranty

Notice the little blip from 2009 to 31st May 2010? That's us. It did affect second hand values until about a year ago when they seemed to recover a little. Maybe people just now assume they all get 5 years/100,000 miles on the car. That's why I suggested the HHC.

Regarding nail biting on your HHC. I shouldn't worry too much going forward assuming you comply with the service requirements. The car is very good at throwing warning lights/error messages if there's anything critical with it, much more so than traditional cars. Can't remember if you said you were going to change your 12v but I personally would as they last about 5 years or so and can cause weird and numerous erroneous error messages when they start to fail.

That replacement is peace of mind, especially if the car has been sat on a dealer forecourt for more than a few weeks.

[dmg195]

I'm assuming it was picked up from the auctions by the dealer, don't think he had it long as he said it had only been on auto trader for an hour when I rang :-) Considering going for the service plan on monthly direct debit. Worked it out and only 40 quid cheaper than paying lump sums each time, but you get 10% off any parts if required, anyone done it this way?

[valmiki]

I was tempted to go with the service plan, but prefer to pay for services on the credit card and then collect the clubcard points. 10% off parts you could get quite easily with a bit of light-hearted haggling ;-)

[FROSTYBALLS]

Well just had a shock when I took the car to the local Toyota dealer. It appears my particular model only had a 3 year warranty. I didn't even know they did one that short. All the research I'd done beforehand showed they'd reduced the 2009 warranty to 5 years from 8, but never saw anything about 3! Now having a nailbiting wait while they do the hybrid health check and safety report, preying they don't find anything expensive to fix. Wouldn't have bought it if I had known it wasn't still under warranty but only myself to blame on that one...

Three years/60,000 miles (100,000km) is the standard Toyota new car warranty across Europe.

After the accelerator pedal recalls, etc of 2009/2010, Toyota GB introduced the five year/100,000 miles new car warranty for new cars supplied by Toyota GB and first registered from 1st June 2010, in order to rebuild customer confidence.

Other European countries retained the three year/60,000 mile (100,000km) new car warranty.

[dmg195]

Got it back, passed the safety and hybrid check with no issues so very happy. Just got to go back on Monday and Shell out 240 quid for a new smart key - daylight robbery!

[Julian30]

If you're getting the recall done and buying a new smart key then ask them to throw in the Hybrid check for free.

I managed to get one free at Jemca Croydon as I had 2 outstanding recalls on the used prius I bought and a friend who worked for a Mercedes dealer said that the dealership get paid per recall by the parent company; I can't confirm that but I know that when I was 'dithering' as to which local dealership to use (I live exactly between two) Croydon offered the Hybrid Health Check free.

As for the key, I'm the newbie Grumpy Cabby mentioned & I bought a used for for £48 from a breakers yard and reprogrammed it to work the ignition but not remote open/lock; manual key cut or pay Toyota for a genuine one, but do make sure you get it done sooner rather than later as if you lose the last key then you're looking at close to £1000 I understand.

Good luck.

[Julian30]

Lol, only saw 1st page of this topic on my phone, hence the above post, waste of time!

[dmg195]

It all helps :-) wish I'd thought of asking for the hybrid check for free...

[Julian30]

Well I hope you enjoy your prius, they take a bit of getting used to but I'm very happy!

[valmiki]

I could be wrong but on the gen 3 you can't reprogram someone else's smart key to your car...