I won’t be doing a regular post this morning, as I’m dealing with our Prius adventure.
It started on Friday, when I was making an almost-final run from Kaaawa to remove some of the last things from our house there.
I stopped at the 7-11 for a drink and a managua before beginning the drive home, and when I got back in the car, it was dead. Or at least it seemed dead. No lights. No start. There were a few odd flashes of warnings, but nothing to explain what was going on.
But just minutes after calling for roadside assistance, the regular lights on the dashboard came back on, the car started, and I drove back to Honolulu.
But it repeated this routine on Saturday, and when it finally did start, we decided it was time to just drive to the dealer while the car was up and running, not having any idea what we were dealing with.
Well, a bit of online searching on route discovered that the Prius has a small battery to power its various computer parts when the engine isn’t running. I had never heard of this. And there are loads of complaints over the cost of replacing this little battery, which exceeds that of a standard car battery.
But cost isn’t the problem we face.
Our Toyota dealer has no appointments available to schedule the battery replacement, and apparently no system for prioritizing jobs that would handle emergencies like this. Well, it’s an emergency for a one-car family that can’t drive their car because it could refuse to start at any old awkward place.
For the time being, our car is waiting for service on a stand-by basis. If they have time, they’ll get to it. If not, we suck.
Meanwhile, we’re coping with bus passes and, as necessary, a rental car. Far from ideal.
Time to look for another dealer and service center, me thinks, although I think all are still owned by Servco.
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Too bad about your car trouble.
Hubby has a Toyota Camry that is very expensive to fix at Servco.
Me? I like my 2002 Hyundai Accent, which still works fine.
This happened to our Prius a few weeks ago. Exact same situation. Entire car shut down and locked itself in Park. Had it towed to Servco Toyota in Kaneohe where it sat for 6 days until they even had time to look it at. It was just the small auxillary battery, you mentioned above. Not a very expensive repair BUT having to rent a car for almost one week, sure added to the cost.
Imagine my surprise when I asked Servco Toyota to cut a spare key for my Prius and they tell me that none of their shops have the machine to do it.
Imagine my even greater surprise when I ask mainland Toyota where I can get a spare key cut and they tell me Servco Toyota is the only shop in Hawaii that is allowed to cut a Prius key.
If the Prius is under warranty Servco is your only option. If not try and find a good mechanic, I personally like Kyle’s Service in Kakaako. A good mechanic, like a good doctor, accountant, and handyman, are one of life’s necessities.
Hmm interesting. I am thinking of replacing my 10 year old Prius, but feeling reluctant to get into another Servco car. Appointments for simple maintenance can be weeks away, and costly. I’ve had the small battery problem twice and they hauled the car away twice and replaced it twice. The first was under warranty and the second cost around $350. But….. other than oil changes and new tires I have had to spend ZERO on this car.
The bigger issue is why Toyota allows Servco to have the monopoly for Toyota and Lexus dealerships on the islands. Honda and Mazda certainly do not.
Not only that, but Servco constantly pushes off less lucrative warranty work. Servco is notoriously cheap — and is not willing to stock an adequate amount of parts inventory.
For warranty work, and for major mechanical failures, Servco needs to have a healthy supply of FREE loaner cars for customer use.
Complaints about Servco’s bad service should be directed to Toyota Corporate in Torrance, CA, the RICO office of the state DCCA, and HADA – Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association.
On time story for me Ian as I am right now doing a comparo of the Lexus Ct200h and the 2016 Prius. Lexus service for me has proven outstanding and I never thought for one moment Prius service could be otherwise, hence my consideration of the Prius. Unbelievable. Thank you.
Contrast that to my recent Honda adventure. Went out in the morning and the (regular) battery on my CRV was dead. I jumped it and drove down to the dealer with no appointment. Two hours later I had a new battery and was on my way.
We had a Honda Civic Hybrid for ten years until we got a conventional Toyota Corolla last year. The difference in dealer service, in Honda’s favor, has been pretty noticeable. I’m just hoping Toyota’s famed reliability will carry the day. And I hope you find a way to get the Prius fixed soon.
Never heard of the little Battery before this. Thanks to all that posted about their service experiences…makes a huge difference in the long run.
Whoops – forgot to mention for the record, when the Prius can’t be started neither you nor the tow truck driver can start it with jumper cables. It HAS to be towed back to Servco for service. But when you get your Prius serviced at Servco they give you a sticker in the window with a phone number to call and have it towed – free.
I second the recommendation of using Kyle Metcalf for Toyota repairs. He is a good and honest mechanic. Not sure if he works on hybrids. I believe this is his shop. Been a few years since i’ve been there.
https://www.google.com/maps/@21.2969229,-157.8528268,3a,76.3y,260.31h,69.97t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1syPX8h9yqEbrGtdyIjViR6g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
Servco has had dreadful customer service for a long time. Nearly 20 years ago, we had to have the clutch replaced, under warranty, in a Camry purchased from their Mapunapuna sales site. While we had a loaner car, the Mapunapuna Servco facility took 3-4 weeks to do the work & then tried to claim that, in fact, the clutch was too worn to be covered under warranty, regardless of when it had occurred. This led to an extremely ugly scene in in their CS area with their rep threatening to pull out the new clutch & stick the old one back in if we continued to dispute their about-face. We eventually forced them to back down & cover the warranty repair but also decided NEVER again to buy from Servco or have anything to do with any dealership servicing of our vehicles, to the extent possible.
You could replace the battery yourself, or have a handy friend do it. It’s pretty easy, I did it in a few minutes to my 2006 Prius. Of course, if you touch the terminals inappropriately, it can be dangerous, so you take your own risks, but it’s no harder than replacing the battery in any standard car. The exact battery is available from Servco, should they choose to stock it, or probably something equivalent from Battery Bill. I doubt any other places locally would carry it. How to do it: search on youtube for “Prius auxiliary battery”. You’ll even find a video where the guy uses a more generic battery (cheaper), but nothing wrong with using the official one, but it’s expensive.
One challenge was that I couldn’t open the rear hatch with the power drained, so I got my much smaller daughter to climb into the back from the rear seats to open the hatch. Instructions are also on the web or in your owner’s manual.
Or you can go to an independent mechanic. This is not a hard repair, so it shouldn’t cost much. But the battery seems very overpriced at Servco, especially if you look online for what you can get on the mainland.
when moving to a new ‘hood, vital list of people to get to know:
1) neighbors
2) plumbers
3) mechanics
4) bartenders