Just when things were starting to look up...
Nineteen months ago I was as low as a Really Low Thing, freshly through the bankruptcy mill, and facing the early end of my working life. Along the path I wound up walking, things began to start working out for the better, as they tend to do when you've hit rock-bottom; I got a great short-term touring job that allowed me to save up enough cash to get this truly excellent car - a 2006 Toyota Prius, with a ton of miles on the clock - and begin a new sideline career outside of the theatre as a rideshare driver. I haven't been making huge bank over the past five months, but certainly enough to pay my bills and then some, including starting to repay those of you who have helped me in the past, and paying off a slightly hefty medical bill from a three-day stint in the local hospital this past January, which I'm making payments on...
For the moment, that has come to a halt. This past weekend, while on the way home from a ham radio club function, the car's Big Red Triangle of Death appeared in the dashboard display panel, along with most every other "Fix Me Now!" light imaginable, and my ODB code reader flashed up the following two death codes: P0A80 and P3017. Both of these are tidings that the massive 200-Volt hybrid drive battery under the rear seat has gone the way of the dodo bird... The replacement, according to the local Toyota dealership, runs well north of $4,000.... On a car that cost me less than half of that. No, I don't think so.
There are two independent mechanics in Michigan - Ervine's in Grand Rapids and Curt's Service in the Detroit suburbs, that specialize in maintaining hybrid cars. Both have quoted me around $2,700 to replace the dying battery with a new one, complete with all the scans and stuff, that will allow me to put the car back in service - no rideshare company will let you drive a car that isn't in good mechanical shape, obviously - so I can continue to pay bills.
Now folks, I know you might be thinking, "he's got three hundred thousand miles on that jalopy! What'll break next?" Well, the answer, according to most hybrid mechanics familiar with the 2nd-generation ('04-'09) Prius, is: Probably nothing. The cars are built like little tanks, with far beefier frame components than necessary. The only thing about the car that comes close to being a flaw - and it's more of a consumable than a real "flaw" - is the hybrid drive battery. Instead of nickel-and-diming you to death like most modern cars, the Prius just throws out one humongous maintenance expense, all at once; that damned huge-ass battery. Replace that, and most likely the car will churn around another thirteen years and three hundred thousand miles.
I can't earn enough to fix the car myself with the current battery (sorry) being in the shape it's in, and it's too good a car otherwise to send to the recyclers - and that would leave me with no car at all, anyway. I need to get the funds together fairly soon, to get the car fixed before the next month's round of bills come due. I know we're all on summer hiatus, but I'm kinda between a rock and a hard place here, folks... Any help will be deeply appreciated, and I still intend to repay everyone who helps me out of my various jams, even if it takes me the rest of my life to do it.
Nineteen months ago I was as low as a Really Low Thing, freshly through the bankruptcy mill, and facing the early end of my working life. Along the path I wound up walking, things began to start working out for the better, as they tend to do when you've hit rock-bottom; I got a great short-term touring job that allowed me to save up enough cash to get this truly excellent car - a 2006 Toyota Prius, with a ton of miles on the clock - and begin a new sideline career outside of the theatre as a rideshare driver. I haven't been making huge bank over the past five months, but certainly enough to pay my bills and then some, including starting to repay those of you who have helped me in the past, and paying off a slightly hefty medical bill from a three-day stint in the local hospital this past January, which I'm making payments on...
For the moment, that has come to a halt. This past weekend, while on the way home from a ham radio club function, the car's Big Red Triangle of Death appeared in the dashboard display panel, along with most every other "Fix Me Now!" light imaginable, and my ODB code reader flashed up the following two death codes: P0A80 and P3017. Both of these are tidings that the massive 200-Volt hybrid drive battery under the rear seat has gone the way of the dodo bird... The replacement, according to the local Toyota dealership, runs well north of $4,000.... On a car that cost me less than half of that. No, I don't think so.
There are two independent mechanics in Michigan - Ervine's in Grand Rapids and Curt's Service in the Detroit suburbs, that specialize in maintaining hybrid cars. Both have quoted me around $2,700 to replace the dying battery with a new one, complete with all the scans and stuff, that will allow me to put the car back in service - no rideshare company will let you drive a car that isn't in good mechanical shape, obviously - so I can continue to pay bills.
Now folks, I know you might be thinking, "he's got three hundred thousand miles on that jalopy! What'll break next?" Well, the answer, according to most hybrid mechanics familiar with the 2nd-generation ('04-'09) Prius, is: Probably nothing. The cars are built like little tanks, with far beefier frame components than necessary. The only thing about the car that comes close to being a flaw - and it's more of a consumable than a real "flaw" - is the hybrid drive battery. Instead of nickel-and-diming you to death like most modern cars, the Prius just throws out one humongous maintenance expense, all at once; that damned huge-ass battery. Replace that, and most likely the car will churn around another thirteen years and three hundred thousand miles.
I can't earn enough to fix the car myself with the current battery (sorry) being in the shape it's in, and it's too good a car otherwise to send to the recyclers - and that would leave me with no car at all, anyway. I need to get the funds together fairly soon, to get the car fixed before the next month's round of bills come due. I know we're all on summer hiatus, but I'm kinda between a rock and a hard place here, folks... Any help will be deeply appreciated, and I still intend to repay everyone who helps me out of my various jams, even if it takes me the rest of my life to do it.