## 13 Two hundred and fifty thousand kilometers and reset
I've been driving one of the pioneer hybrid cars for 20 years and I haven't had any problems (except when I forget to turn off the lights). It's smooth, quiet, comfortable and when I drive modern hybrids that's not always the case. This one is so reliable that I have the same radio, the same seats and even the same silence without small noises and vibrations as I had after 5 years in another brand. But I knew that one day I would have a big problem with the battery. That day came two weeks ago.
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When I bought this car, the price of a battery pack was very high, one third of the price. Now it's maybe the same .... but my car is old and its value is not more than 9000 euros. I'm not going to change it just to change it. The new one is too expensive without the financial help I had 20 years ago. So I knew it will cost less than 3000 Euros to change the whole battery pack. Some people pay this price for a used car. When I saw many lights on the dashboard, I knew it was bad news for ... my bank account. The diagnosis was what I expected: hybrid pack failed. The dealer made the pack safe by forcing the fan to run and preventing it from discharging. I was back in a non-hybrid car for a week, waiting for the new battery pack. I didn't use it during that time. I also decided to have the technical inspection every two years in France. A whole day without it.
Early in the morning I brought the car and went back by bus. I waited for bad news, but everything was OK. And the technical inspection was also OK without any remarks after 20 years! The car has been reset with this new battery pack and it still has the same engine, this little 1.5 liter 4 cylinder from the Yaris/Vitz customized in Atkinson mode. Not a brand new car, but it's OK for another 200 000 km. I have seen many cars like this with a battery change of 160 000 to 300 000 km. So if you want to buy a used hybrid car, check this because it will cost you a lot of money. With this one, it's been budgeted and the maintenance cost has never been expensive compared to a diesel or gasoline. Fewer brake changes, no belt changes...I knew this because I had access to confidential information about it, ha ha.
I'm not sure the next generations are the same. The 3rd generation was made to make more money. The 4th gen was ugly, but better than the 3rd. And it's too early to know about the 5th gen. I don't have access to the information on that car anymore, but I could check "its sister" with the same type of engine and battery pack. The chemistry in the battery has changed a lot and it's the most expensive but also more efficient and less heavy...but the cars are bigger and heavier. This one was made for Japan and the next generations were made for the US. You can explain the decisions of the engineers with this data. And I could compare this extra cost with the spheres of the hydraulic system of Citroen with oleopneumatic suspension: it's more expensive than normal suspension, but the comfort is also so different. If you have the chance to drive a Xantia Activa V6, it's something incredible.
Now I have to keep this one for the next few years until gasoline and hybrid engines are banned everywhere. I hope that transportation will improve and there will be smaller affordable compact cars when you need them. 250,000km in 20 years isn't much, and it's been years since I've done any big trips with it. 10 or 15 years to change that, because people have to change a lot of things in transportation. I can see what is reliable or not in electric vehicles and I know which brand I can buy without any doubt when some others are trying to improve it or not. I don't forget that the main idea for most car manufacturers is to make more money than ever. And I hope to avoid car use in most of my days when we finally understand that local shops are better than malls....But I can count on a miracle to have cheaper train tickets and fewer connections for a trip. Not forgetting that if no one buys cars in the future, I could be unemployed.
2Dɛ
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