Quote:
Originally Posted by HunterGreene
I used to go with that dismissal until I started seeing 10 year old priuses (the 1st gen) still tooling around. Yes, replacing the battery is more expensive than the car when it happens, but give me 10 years of a car and I wouldn't call it "disposable."
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I can confirm this. We have a gen1 2001 Prius still on it's first battery pack. A complete replacement is now less than the $2K mark for parts. Plus a lot of people don't realize how much money you save w/ regenerative braking. Not a single brake job yet on the car after >150,000 miles. This is quite common on many Toyota hybrids to go this long w/ a brake job. I do not drive it gingerly either as it likes cruising around on two wheels w/o any sway bars.
As for added weight on the 86 from batteries. Think about this comparison. A blower installed on top of the FA20 adding 50lbs to the system shifting weight distribution to 58/42 and higher up, or a battery pack and motors dropped in the trunk area adding 100lbs but now distribution is 51/49 for a RWD w/ batteries acting as low CoG ballast. Just redo the spare tire area for batteries and add a can of fix a flat.