driveshaft

You need to get a clarification from your mechanic on the exact state of broken-ness, and exactly what is wrong. He's the one that had eyeballs on the problem, we're not psychic...

Ask how long he figures it will last, and (the important questions) will driving the vehicle before getting this repaired cause any more damage? Or will it do a lot of additional damage when it breaks?

If there is a carrier bearing or a part that is badly worn out but not totally gone yet, you could limp along for a while as you frantically save your pennies for the upcoming repair work - IF you are in no hurry to get places. If it's a U-joint that's almost gone, they fail a lot faster when they start making 'terminal noises'.

Because 'badly worn' can change to 'totally borken (sic) and you aren't going anywhere soon except on a tow-truck' real fast. This will quickly screw up the plans you had for the rest of the day. And then you get to add the tow bill to the repair costs, too.

If the spider bearings were the only problem before, once it lets go and drops the driveshaft onto the pavement you have to replace or rebalance the driveshaft, plus that big war-club of a shaft can do a WHOLE lot of damage banging around under the car while you come to a stop. Up to poking holes in the floorboard or the gas tank.

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If you really have a broken drive shaft, you should realize by now that you walked home.

Do you have a rear wheel drive Previa or an all wheel drive Previa?

If the drive shaft is broken, then the vehicle will not move.

The Previa also has what is called a separated accessory drive shaft (SADS) that runs from the front of the engine to the area under the hood and drives the AC compressor, alternator, power steering pump, and cooling fan. It has rubber flex joints instead of conventional universal joints. When the SADS begins to fail, it makes a knocking noise that sounds like an engine rod knock. Fortunately, most of the time it is only an annoying noise and does not fail completely. If the SADS fails completely, the engine will not operate.