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Sales Top 1 Million but Some Owners Find Prius Doesn't Age Well

Electrical, Drivetrain Problems Plague Consumers as Cars Age

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

June 7, 2007

The Japanese automaker began selling gas-and-electric cars ten years ago and is now the acknowledged hybrid leader in the automotive industry. Toyota sold nearly 345,000 hybrids in Japan and 702,000 in other worldwide markets over the ten years.

The automaker has sold 757,600 of the Prius hybrid since the 1997 introduction of the vehicle in Japan. Toyota began selling the Prius in North America and Europe in 2000. Last year, the Prius accounted for more than 40 percent of hybrid sales in the U.S.

Toyota claims that its hybrid technology is the single biggest ecological advance in automotive engineering and asserts that hybrids hold far more potential than the diesel or other innovations.

Unique Car, Unique Problems

But a growing number of ConsumerAffairs.com readers are reporting that the Prius hybrid technology is not aging well. With some Prius models in the U.S. on the road now for eight years and approaching 100,000 miles, owners are beginning to encounter problems that are unique to the hybrids.

Bernadette in Fresno, California, bought her Prius in 2004. She said that the hybrid display began to malfunction “within a few months and did not work with the result of being unable to get gas into car."

Now Bernadette told ConsumerAffairs.com that, “the display began to do strange things two weeks ago but this time I recognized it when the radio kept turning off and the display kept saying odd things.”

The display unit in the Prius has to be replaced again and fortunately for Bernadette the car is under extended warranty.

“I am told that I will pay $85.00 for diagnostic fee so they could tell me the display does not work. I am still waiting for the car to be fixed due to inability to get the parts which is exactly what happened before with a different dealer,” she told us.

Zhirair in Glendale, California also owns a 2004 Prius. “I have been having a monitor problem. It won't work properly,” he said.

Zhirair has reported the problem to Toyota and he said the automaker is unwilling to provide any assistance because the monitor in his Prius is no longer covered by the Toyota warranty.

“There is a technical service bulletin out on it from Toyota which tells the dealer how to repair the problem but only if the car is under factory warranty,” he said. “My car has 49,000 miles on it and is out of warranty.”

Zhirair thinks Toyota ought to extend the warranty on his hybrid or recall the Prius monitor.

Danny in San Antonio, Texas, owns a 2003 Toyota Prius with 91,000 miles on the odometer.

“When we went to start it the dashboard lit up with multiple warning lights. The dealer picked it up and said that the transmission went out and it would cost $6,000 to fix and the Prius was out of warranty,” he told ConsumerAffairs.com.

“When we explained to the dealer and to Toyota customer relations that the transmission was part of the Hybrid Power train covered for 5 years and 100,000 mile they refused to cover it. Not even a partial coverage. This considering the car was working fine when it was last shut off,” Danny said.

Richard in Palm Desert, California, drives a 2001 Prius with 103,000 miles on it.

“The car has died on the freeway four times. The second time the dealer had the car for 53 days waiting for parts,” he told ConsumerAffairs.com

“The car is extremely hard on tires, just can't keep them balanced. The heat inverter has gone out twice, the service rep said these cars just don't do well in the desert. The gas tank has been replaced and the steering column replaced,” he said.

And to make owning the Prius all the worse, Richard said that “the mileage has not been what they advertised.”

“Getting stranded on the freeway at 11:00 at night when the car dies and can't be moved is quite scary especially when there is no place to pull off out of traffic. I only use this car to drive short trips around town because I just can't trust it on the freeway,” he said.

Finally, in Bedford, Texas, Chuck told us that the “12-volt battery in my 2002 Toyota Prius discharges and it won't start if the car isn't run every day. Repeated trips to the dealership have not cured the problem, despite an upgrade of battery.”

The growing number of complaints and problems owners of aging Prius hybrids are encountering suggest that a wary consumer ought to look long and hard before buying one of these hybrids on the used car market.

Toyota warrants the hybrid drive system for 100,000 miles, but as Danny in San Antonio discovered, there can be some uncertainty as to which of the Prius components are part of the hybrid drive and covered by the warranty and which are not.

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