My issues started by back with the purchase of my 2024 Prius Prime. I purchased a 2022 model but…read morehad to wait two years until I finally received my 2024 due to COVID supply chain issues. During negotiations, I was blatantly lied to by the salesperson, and ended up having to pay more when I finally received the vehicle. However, I am going to skip past that part, and jump right to my more recent problem.
My first winter with the car, I start having issues with the battery. The car won't start at all. No dashboard lights, no power locks, the car is completely dead. The Prius Prime has two batteries, one for electric driving, and a smaller 12V auxiliary battery that is used for all of the electronics in the car. The battery that is not working is the auxiliary battery.
I manage to get a jump start from another vehicle, and brought the car back to Performance Toyota. I informed the dealership that my battery isn't just dead, but that something must be draining it while the car is idle. I also had other computer issues, such as sensors misreading, so I asked them to look into potential other electric problems. The dealership informed me that they would replace the battery under warranty, but that all of the other issues are just "normal Prius things".
After the replacement, everything seemed great.
Which brings to now, Jan 2026, and I am once again having issues with the battery. The car won't turn on at all. I manage to get the car back to Performance Toyota, and in my head I was thinking, "this time they will definitely look into the underlying electrical issue". I was dead wrong.
This time, the dealership refused to do the warranty replacement, and instead blamed me for the issues.
They said that "I don't drive the car enough" (9500 km in two years). I asked them to provide documentation that shows I need to drive a minimum amount in order to maintain my warrantee, but they failed to provide any.
They said that I leave the car sitting for too long, and that I need to purchase a battery maintainer. When I asked "What battery maintainer does Toyota recommend?", I was told, "There is no recommendation". When I asked how long I could expect to not use the car and still expect it to work", they failed to provide an answer. When I asked why I wasn't told about any of this when I purchased the vehicle, they just deferred blame to the sales department.
I then had questions about connecting a battery maintainer to a 2024 Prius Prime (it's complicated because the battery is in the trunk, but the trunk won't open when the battery is dead). The service department couldn't give me an answer, and failed to provide any help/guidance for using a battery maintainer.
I reached out to Toyota corporate to get some answers to these questions, but they just said that they trust the dealerships judgement and didn't provide me with any useful information.
The dealership quoted me $350 to replace the battery. They refused to look into any other issues on the vehicle until I agreed to the battery replacement, to which I told them I don't want to give them any more money. I was able to jump start the car to get it home.
Now, I have a car that won't start and is completely unusable. Performance Toyota won't provide any help or assistance to make the car usable again. They accept zero responsibility for any of this, and won't even acknowledge that they car is broken. I was told multiple times that this is all expected behavior from this type of vehicle.
According to the dealership, I have to dive [an unspecified number] of km/year, and use the car every [unspecified] number of days, and buy an [unspecified device] to maintain the battery, which I need to install myself with no instructions/guidance. And, if I don't do any of this, it's my fault because the car is working exactly as expected.
If you must purchase a vehicle, I recommend that you avoid Toyota
If you must purchase a Toyota, I recommended that you avoid Performance Toyota in St Catharines.