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Save up to $379 on Your Auto Insurance. Compare Quotes from Top Providers Now! Find the Best Deal and Apply! - Adv.
Consumers have complained for years about unintended acceleration in the Toyota Prius, but their complaints — like those below — have fallen on deaf ears. Conversely, consumers who live in snowy regions complains of a complete loss of forward motion when roads are slippery.
Doris of Smithville, TN March 11, 2008
I bought my Toyota Pruis in July 27 2006. Before buying the car from a used car dealer I Went to Cumberland Toyota in Cookeville Tennessee to asks questions about the battery. Trying to inform myself prior to buying the car. I asked about the battery and was told never had they seen the whole battery fail only a cell at a time to the tune of 200 per cell. I did not want to spend the money on a brand Prius I wanted to test the waters on a used one first.
When I bought the car it had 73200 miles on it which meant I still had 26800 left on the battery warranty. Okay I bought it and thought I was living the dream! But only for a monment.
In November when it got cold I would start the car and have no power. So I would turn it on and off until the engine would kick on and it would go. This when on for a few months. I learned how to get it to go. Finally it went totally down, No Power!!
Took it to Cumberland Toyota for them to tell me I have over filled the gas tank and have ruined my Cars brain and also have to replace the gas tank! I said What! You are telling me because I went from 19.79 to 20.00 that I grew up doing it is going to cost me 1900 dollars! I couldn't believe my ears.
Now keep in mind I am single with 2 teenage daughters. No husband or boyfriend to tell them they have lost their minds. So I tried to do it myself. Long story short I ended up paying them 928. No gas savings yet!!!
I move on. Almost one year later I'm driving on the interstate in Nashville Tennessee going 65 miles per hour in the right lane because I was getting off at the next exit. I was moving over to let an 18 wheeler on in a split second out of the BLUE No Warning the car looses power. OH MY GOD I was scare to death I started waving my right arm to let him know I was in trouble.
Thank God he must have seen me in destress. It was also raining and a Friday afternoon. I went from 65 to 25 in about2 or 3 seconds. I could have been killed that day had I been in the left lane. I so afraid to drive this car! I made some how to the side of the interstate without getting hit. The car went about 1/8 mile at 20 miles per hour to the next exit. I call a tow truck and had it towed to Beaman Toyota In Nashville Tennessee. Mark Asst. service manager told me the main battery was down it would be 6890 to fix it.
I checked on a battery replacement when I bought it and was told 2000 but it never happens. So I have it towed to Cumberland Toyota in Cookeville Tennessee and they called tech support for the Toyota Hybrids and found it was a leave sucks up in a filter which in turn prevented gas and air to go to the battery and drained it. 225 to tow and 276 to charge the main battery plus tax. Now I've gone from 6890 to 549.85.
They told me it could happen again. So I'm stuck with what I feel is a defected product. I'm Toyota's rolling ginney pig. I work across the street from a Very Large Toyota Dealer. I have ordered Lemons for my car. I'm going to drive around with lemons on this car so no one will buy one.I'm In sales and talk to 100 or so people a month. I would never recommend a Hybrid.
I don't feel that way about all the Toyota Product. Did I mention both my daughters drive Toyotas. Scion Coupe and Scion XB Box. I bought the car because I'm a single mother with 2 jobs. I comute about 500 miles a week and thought the Toyota Prius was my answer. It's been my worse nightmare. Also keep in mind only because I felt something wasn't right about my 6890 qoute I had it towed for a second look. I saved over 6000. What is up with that!
Marvin L. Kaylor of Los Lunas, NM September 27, 2007
New evaluation of Toyota Prius Un-comanded Acceleration Problem reported and commented on Previously. I originally reported that the acceleration problem I perceived had not been caused by a floor mat or driver error. Those facts have not changed. I do not have the all weather floor mats and my floor mats were secure before and after the incidents.
I cannot say that there are no problems associated with the all weather floor mat option, but they were definitely not a part of my problem. I recently made a trip to California and have some new observations of the system and the perceived problem. In all fairness to Toyota, I think the following should be recognized and considered. I drove the car to altitudes above 10,000 feet above sea level and drove on steep mountain roads. I had the sensation of un-comanded acceleration more than once and believe that in each case it was not actually a defect in the system but a failure to properly interpret how the vehicle is designed to react under heavy loads.
I was able to repeat the phenomenon multiple times and verify what was actually happening. With the original problem, there was not enough time to analyze and I could not repeat the problem at will, to evaluate possible causes.
The Prius drive system is set up to acquire power to the wheels from either the electric motor or the gasoline engine or both. The gasoline engine is only used to charge the batteries or to provide a mechanical boost to the torque provided by the electrical system. The engine RPM is not directly proportional to the speed of the vehicle. The engine runs at one of 3 RPM settings depending on the power or torque requirement.
The drive system provides a no shift transition to driving with the electric motor and the gasoline engine thru all speed ranges under most flat land driving. When a power increase is needed on normal acceleration, the engine will go to it's intermediate RPM Range as needed and the power is applied smoothly and without any significant change in sound level or pitch. However, when maximum power is called for, the electric motor immediately produces maximum torque and the gasoline engine may not immediately go to it's high RPM range depending on the speed, battery charge condition, steepness of the road grade,etc. When the computer calls for the high RPM setting for the gasoline engine and the engine RPM increases, two things happen.
First the sound level increases in pitch and volume. This is not in direct proportion to any speed change of the vehicle and the sound is sufficient to cause alarm for an individual who is used to having the sound pitch level vary directly with vehicle speed. Second, the horsepower of the gasoline engine is directly related to the RPM. When RPM increases under full throttle, the torque is applied at the wheels after the sound level change and the vehicle may indeed experience greater acceleration than before the RPM increase. When this occurs while the car is on a steep or high altitude, up-hill grade, the car will actually experience an increase in acceleration beyond what is supplied at a lower RPM and it occurs outside the expected sound and time ranges that most drivers expect.
This creates the illusion that something is not working right and that it is dangerous. It appears to be a characteristic of the drive system and is not a problem unless perceived as a problem. The reason I had thought that the original problem was solved by turning off the cruise control may very well have been coincidence because, at the same time as I hit the cruise control handle, I took my foot off of the accelerator pedal. Releasing the accelerator pedal has taken care of the problem whenever it happened in the mountains on my trip.
I cannot say there are not additional problems, but the problem has not occurred except under high acceleration conditions on the freeway or in the mountains. I can make it happen on even a slight grade near home at approximately 5,000 feet above sea level and suspect It could be repeated at sea level under the right conditions. In my case, I now believe that the condition I have had is totally controllable and was a miss-interpretation of what I thought in the very short time when it occurred the first two times.
The time interval was far too short for adequate analysis of the problem. Since I have found a way to repeat it, I feel much more comfortable.
Shance of San Jose, CA September 18, 2007
Twice now in two days my 2006 Aug Toyota Prius (20K miles) has accelerated out of control. Both times it occurred after a hard acceleration (i.e., pedal to the floor). After the second time I intentionally tried to reproduce (since that would be key to getting it fixed) and was able to on my way to work (i.e., the third time its happened now). Once I got into work I sent an email to all of the Toyota Prius owners explaining my experience and that I would keep them informed. One of them forwarded me this link. After reading the link with the reference to the floor mats I inspected my car. I have purchased after market Toyota Prius mats from Toyota. The mat was not centered and it did have a ware mark where the accelerator was rubbing it. And as I manually depressed and released the accelerator it did seem to catch a little. So I moved the mat around and was able to reproduce the problem. The mat did catch the accelerator and hold it. As with others the only way (without knowing what the problem was) to stop the Prius was to bring it to a full stop and press the power button off. And again, with others, the Prius seemed to reset itself. But here is the rub. If it truly were the mat catching the accelerator the previous three times than why did turning the car off solve the problem. There is nothing with the power button that would do this. And yet each time when I restarted the Prius it was fine (i.e., if the accelerator were caught under the mat once the car was turned off the problem did not persist). To me this doesn't make any sense. So what I've decided to do is remove the mat and drive the car for a month to see if the problem occurs without the mat. If this does turn out to the problem than one has to ask why Toyota would sell a Toyota Prius specific mat that would have any potential of causing this problem. If this does not turn out to the problem (i.e., the problem happens again without the mat) than that is bad and others should know. How do I go about updating the site with my experiences within the next month (without the mat)?
Karen of Los Gatos, CA August 31, 2007
I have a 2007 Prius purchased the last day in December 2006. After driving the car approximately 1000 miles it, my Toyota Prius Hybrid had an uninitiated full throttle acceleration while driving on an expressway. Startled, I slammed on the brakes, the acceleration fought my braking as I pulled over and turned off the car. Shocked, taking a deep breath what was that?
This first episode I put at the back of my mind because I had just purchased this car from an friend who owns a Toyota dealership and I didn't want to be complaining or concerning him already.
This uncontrollable acceleration? occurred a second time at approx. 13000 miles when I had been stopped at a traffic light, it changed to green and I started to move forward; it took off charging toward the car in front of me. Standing on the brakes, I pulled over and turned off the car. Very frightened, I sat wondering what I should do next. What happens if I turn the car on and it takes off again?
I did turn the car on, and everything was normal. I called Toyota an talked to a sales person and explained this dangerous experience. He confirmed that he was familiar with the problem and also experienced this himself when driving one of the earlier models of the Prius.
He told me to bring it in immediately and was certain that service would know what this was. The Toyota service manager was certain that this very serious and dangerous event was due to nothing more than a floor carpet jamming accelerator pedal.
As I explained to him, I didn't have floor mats when this happened the first time.
Disgruntled, he took my car into service. A day later, they came back to me saying that they couldn't find anything and were certain it was the floor mat and would I pick up the car. This time I called my friend who owns the dealership and sold me the car. I informed him of the problem, he did keep the car for a few more days and asked one of his technicians to drive it home.
I realized that the likelihood of this occurring within a short period was extremely low. Again, they weren't able to find anything and asked me to come pick up my car, suggesting that I put the car into neutral the next time it happens.
That doesn't feel to comforting. Before going to pick up my car and returning the loaner, a concerned friend sent me this link - http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/08/prius_acceleration.html.
I forwarded this link to the owner of the Toyota dealership. He too expressed concern and asked me to keep the loaner for a few more days while they get someone for Toyota to look further into this.
At the moment, I'm still in the dealership loaner car. They still have my Prius.
Dan of San Dimas, CA August 22, 2007
This is an addendum to Toyota Prius owners experiencing full throttle excelleration unexpectedly. This was reported to Toyota of Glendora who noted that 2004 and 2005 models have a computer flash to solve the problem. The event occured about summer 2006 when the car had less then 10,000 miles. I left a resteraunt with a high center type driveway, momentarily lost traction as I made a rapid right turn to the left lane to make a left turn. As I was almost stopped for the light, my foot was on the brake (NOT on gas) the car was surging forward being held back by brakes. I quickly checked for anything under the accellerator including the floormat, foot on the gas, any other cause, all were negative. I pulled into the gas station on the corner with the engine still reving max rpms, put it in park and shut down the power. I waited a moment, aware of anomolies with computers ( I am a computer engineer). I double checked external causes finding none. I turned the car back on and it behaved normally. I cautiously drove it home. I reported this to the dealer on the oil change and he said there was a service bulletin on the 2004-2005 models but not on the 2006. He offered to reflash the computer.
Marvin L. Kaylor of Los Lunas, NM August 1, 2007
Ben of Walnut Creek, CA August 1, 2007
I had a very similar case with the Prius owner you mentioned in your lemon of the week. For me, I was coming up on a red light and there is a large crease or bump in the road.
When my Prius hit the bump in the road the traction control systems kicked in, and at the same time the brakes felt unresponsive and the car felt as if it was accelerating or lunging forward. I almost rear-ended the car in front of me. Luckily I was able to stop the car in time.
I also have many other safety issues with the Prius like ALL of the onboard controls in the car being on that computer screen (which you can't see during the day time in sunlight), and having to take your eyes off the road to adjust climate or change the radio to try and look at a screen you can't read. Also, my legs fall asleep after 20-30 minutes of driving the vehicle.
Toyota Customer Experience (their customer service call center) basically told me working as intended and it sounds like normal operation. I hate this car, will be glad when I'm rid of it, and will likely never buy a Toyota ever again (and I'm a repeat Toyota customer). Dublin Toyota my dealer as well offered NO help on actually validating whether or not this was normal operation and tried to sell me a new car at an outrageous price.
Peggy of Index, WA July 25, 2007
I was drivig a new Prius (fewer than 600 miles) and experienced an uncontrollable accerlation while entering a freeway in Everett, Washington. As I attempted to merge into heavy traffic, I accelerated up the on ramp and was attempting to place the car between two vehicles going at a rate of approximately 50 miles per hour. The car lunged forward and would not slow down without my repeated pumping the brakes. I exited the freeway immediately (approximately one-half mile) in heavy traffic unable to disengage the throttle.
I got the car to stop on the off-ramp and turned it off with the power button. Knowing that this was also an unsafe place to leave the car, and after I gain some confidence in myself I started it up once again it was going at full throttle. I got it into an adjacent vacant parking lot. I noticed a foul odor that I assumed was the brakes. While I went to a telephone to call the dealer (Rodland Toyota).
They asked me to drive it to them. Approximately, twenty minutes later my husband who was with me took over driving and when he started the car. The car no longer was running at an uncontrolled rate, however, we didn't accelerate more than was absolutely necessary. On the way to the dealer we noticed the display was not recording the trip as it usually did. When I spoke with the service department, they suggested the possiblity of the rug covers being the problem. This was not the case, the rugs were not close to the accelerator.
I thought it may have been the cruise control kicking in. But as the car was new to me, I had not yet used the cruise control, on purpose or by accident. The dealer did not know of any other incident of this type and after giving the car a going over, decided it must be an operator error. I've driven for over 40 years and honestly feel this was nothing to do with my driving.
For once, my husband agreed, this car was experiencing problems. The dealer failed to find anything wrong and could not get the car to accerated uncontrollably again. I like the car, but no longer trust it. I would like to believe it was me, so I could trust the car. However, now after seeing other similar incidents, realize that there is a problem and Toyota needs to fix it.
The only damage was to my nerves and possibly my brakes. The owner's manual insisted the car should not be accelerated like what happened before it was driven severl hundred miles as it cold impair the future energy efficiency.
Well??
James of San Juan, OTHER December 17, 2006
Prius Acceleration Problem. Car acceleratd and hit a parked Taxi in front. Small accident. Police Report recorded accident.
Asked Toyota to diagnose car problem. Nothing found. Tried to return car, exchange for other, did not accept terms. Husband will not allow wife and daugther to drive car and has switched cars with wife. Herbert of Battle Creek, MI January 4, 2006
Abstract of letter to Toyota...
To whom it may concern,
I wrote this letter to request resolution of problems I encountered with my Prius Hybrid, Model year 2005/1224E. I have tried to resolve this problem with the dealer from Toyota without success.
The problem is as follows: On October 21, 2005. I was traveling in cruise control active at 55 miles per hour. Upon approaching a slower vehicle and checking traffic, I proceeded to accelerate the vehicle in an attempt to quickly pass the vehicle driving before me. Upon successful passage of the vehicle, I let off the accelerator and pressed the brakes several times, but the vehicle continued to accelerate under full power. Under the conditions, I tried to quickly disrupt this safety critical issue. To the best of my recollection I tried to slow the vehicle by pushing the power button, manipulating the cruise control lever, and putting the vehicle in neutral. All attempts were unsuccessful. Under considerable distress, traveling approximately 20 miles over the posted speed limit at this point, and continuing to accelerate, I elected to apply full braking force to the Prius while laboring the vehicle to a standstill on the gravel shoulder of the road. Regaining my composure, I pushed the power button, and the vehicle shutdown. The cabin of the motor vehicle exhibited a strong odor reminiscent of electrical motor smell.
Per my request,Toyota towed the vehicle to the dealer the following day to begin root cause analysis. On October 25, the dealer informed me that they were able to recreate the safety issue, but they were not able to identify the cause. On October 27 the Toyota technician called to inform me that he drove the vehicle 80 miles, but could not recreate the issue, but he was aware of the comments on the 25th. On October 28, the Service Manager informed me that they were unable to detect the cause and stated that they would like to ship the vehicle to Cincinnati for further testing. On October 29, I picked up my personal belongings from the vehicle. On November 1, the dealer stated that they could not find anything wrong with the vehicle after driving it 300 miles, and that I must return the loaner vehicle. To my knowledge the Prius was not sent to Cincinnati for testing. Upon asking the dealership about the comments on October 25, the manager indicated that the person who experienced the
issue is a porter and was not authorized to make any technical assessments. At that point I asked to speak to the initial contact. He acknowledged making the statement on the 25th, but did not want to comment further. During this process I requested arbitration from Toyota and was assigned arbitration number 2005-1028-0355.
I was so concerned about this safety issue that I initially refused to drive this vehicle any longer and under good conscious did not feel that I could sell it. The issue remains not solved.
Arbitration failed to resolve issue.
Economic reasons are forcing me to drive the vehicle. This is not an acceptable situation.
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