Yes it's yet another case of purposeful design to rip off the customer and make more cash.

I own a Toyota Prius and there are some good things about it but a couple of issues have really pissed me off.  One is my emissions system which has some problem that causes the check engine light to come on.  I cannot (according to the dealer) get that error code bypassed so I can get my check-engine light back into service for truely serious issues.  The emissions feature is only there to satisfy an California law.  I live in Idaho so it's not a problem for me to have a hairline crack that is leaking some emissions out somewhere.

So I have no working check-engine light and I have no way of observing battery charte state, oil temperature or pressure or other such things that might really be important to know sometime.

A more recent issues came up that has promoted this post.

My tire sensor light whet on and upon investigation was due to the battery for the sensor (pictured above) going dead.  The tire guy told me that these simple watch batteries last about 7 years and then poop out.  That is nicely beyond the waranty period of my car and it tells me that all 4 sensors are likely to fail soon.

Normally one would just change the battery to fix this but Toyota glues the battery in place so it cannot be replaced!  So I had to pay about $90 to replace the entire tire sensor.

Thanks Toyota!

I wonder if they will go the way of GM someday who is entering bankruptcy despite billions of tax-payer dollers being spent to prop them up.  When you don't service the customer, customers go away (if they have a choice).