This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Consumer states: When the vehicle was under 3000 miles all the warning lights came on, and while driving down the road the vehicle slowly lost power and was going about 25 mph. After about 20 min vehicle started back, the dealer did diagnostic and reset the system.
Was driving my 3 month old '04 Prius on a 2 lane hwy, late night, 50mph. Prius engines suddenly stopped and many warning lights came on. I pulled over, though there was no safe place to do so, set my flashers and began calling for help. Spent the next hour calling police and tow trucks, too busy in a dangerous place to troubleshoot. Did not feel safe in the car due to high speed traffic. Finally towed to dealership and car was admitted in the morning. Dealer kept for 5 days, asking me to take it home, nothing wrong. I insisted that I was not comfortable taking the car home until something was done to fix it. Called Toyota usa hq and reported the problem. They worked with the dealer and eventually got my car back. 1 week later, same thing happened, daytime, with my family aboard. This time, was able to restart and drive to dealership. Reported incident to Toyota usa hq. While car was in shop, Toyota sent me a letter offering to buy the car back from me, due to my lack of confidence in the car. I regretfully accepted. I am very much enthsed by the Prius potential, but these glitches are scary. Toyota buying the car back from me almost felt like a coverup attempt.
Own 2004 Toyota Prius and on 6 different occasions while driving in the city, the engine has stalled out. The consumer had to stop and wait about 10 minutes and restart the engine and everything would be fine. Took to dealer and they could not diagnose this unless they encountered this as it happened. This is the only problem with the vehicle.
Consumer stated: Vehicle quit while driving, the warning lights did come on before it died. While going 30-35 mph and it just died and couldn't restart. The electrical system stayed on. Called tow truck by the time they got there it started. Still had to take it to dealer, and warning lights went out. Dealership reprogrammed the computer.
I was on the 101 freeway heading South when my 2004 Toyota Prius lost power, all warning lights came on; I coasted to the shoulder. It took several tries over a period of about 15 minutes to get the car shut off. I called Toyota and they told me to bring it in if I could get it started, which I finally did.
- Glendale, CA, USA
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Engine warning light came on while driving approximately 55-60 mph. Gas power quit and consumed all electric power and car stopped. Coasted to the side of the road. Could not get the car to go into any gear -- stuck in park. Had to have it towed to dealer.
Driving my 2004 Prius about 25mph on my way home, all of a sudden warning lights on the dashboard lit up. The yellow brake system warning, the malfunction indicator, the master warning and the vsc warning lights were all on. The display had a message that indicated a hybrid system warning. The next day, upon stating the car, the brake system and the vsc warning lights had gone off. All other lights were still on. Did not drive the car until I could contact dealer (it was a holiday weekend). After contacting service dept, they said to drive it into the dealer. While driving, the battery level was in the "magenta" range, about three bars, much lower than normal. It rose to the normal range prior to arriving at the dealer. The repair order states "found ECU calibration off" and "reprogarm ECU to new calibrationid 34705100". the lights are now off and the car seems back to normal. The service person was unable to reassure me that this problem would not happen again, only that it was easily fixed and Toyota would cover it. My car had already had the ECU reprogrammed in 08/04, as per recall 40D.
I have had 3 'stalls' of my 2004 Prius which I drive 150 miles a day and it has 48K miles on it. All of the engine stalls have been at low speed (under 20 mph) and have been preceeded by a red warning triangle light and the screen displaying something like 'critical problem'. on one incident I was in heavy traffic and managed to use the electric motor to get me to the side of the highway before the engine/motor stopped with no power. When I turned the power on/off several times the engine would start but there was no power. I did notice that on all three stalls my gas gauge was low (one or two bars) but I have run the car for thirty miles after the last bar started to flash so it's hard to tell if there is a connection. I did report this to the dealer but they had no information on it and the car reset each time after a period of time.
Sudden shutdown of 2004 Prius. I was crusing at about 40 mph when the engine unexpectedly shut down and all dashboard warning lights became illuminated. I was able to safely pull to the side of the road. After cycling power button, car started again, but "check engine" light was illuminated. Dealership found code P3191 in diagnostic system, but could not come up with an explanation. I am reporting this now because of recent publicity regarding similar Prius incidents.
My 2004 Toyota Prius stalled when I was going approximately 40 mph. I was able to coast to the shoulder, but then the car had to be towed to a dealership for a programming fix before I could drive it again.
I drove my Toyota Prius from Florida to Colorado. After about 2100 miles the car stalled. I was stuck on the highway for about 2 hours at a temperature of 15 degrees until I got towed to a Toyota dealer. The dealer recharged the battery, which completely discharged while I sat in the stalled car with the heater on, and the problem was gone.
While driving about 55-60 mph the car stalled and came to a complete stop. It was towed into a dealership, they looked at the computer and corrected the problem. The vehicle has not stalled since.
Omg, omg its so fresh in my mind!. I was terrified. My daughter(oldest) was in a terrible car accident and was taken to the hospital(mary Washington in va.) I was at work and got the horrific call about 1745hrs (rush hour). I jumped in my car(2004-Prius) I I can't tell you how I felt. As I entered the hov lanes from DC to va, my car started pausing..I've felt this before, so I hit the info button and see my battery took over and is on 4 lines! I then see the alert lights illuminate on my dash! this can't be happening?, not now!..I immediately hit my horn and avoid getting slammed into by vehicles behind me. I slowly creep on my last battery line onto the righthand shoulder. My Prius died. I called Toyota' (rap>roadside assistance program) and a tow truck was sent. I broke down in DC and (Toyota' rap) only takes me 50miles from the breakdown. I live 62 miles away! this is not acceptable! I was towed to springfield toyotan and it was closed! (it is now 2130hrs! and I'm still not at the hospital and I'm in tears!) the tow truck driver was nice enough to tell me to call my insurance co. I did and they sent another tow truck to pick me up. It is now 2230hrs! I still don't know the status of my daughter! the tow truck brings me to fredericksburg but to a Nissan dealership, it seems the address was wrong. We figured out that Toyota pohanka was down the street and the tow truck driver was considerate enough to bring me there. I had to drop off the vehicle and lucky I had someone pick me up to bring me home. Toyota pohanka of fredericksburg called me the next day and said they found error code P3191 referred to the tsb and reprogrammed the engine ECM per instructions.
Purchased a 2004 Toyota Prius on March 2, 2004. On May 24, 2004 the car stopped while I was driving it. I could not restart it for approximately 15 minutes. I sat in the middle of the street during that time. The dealer said they had never heard of this happening. Om June 16, 2004 the car stopped running while I was at an intersection. I had to wait approximately 15 minutes before it would start. The dealer said they didn't know anything about this. On June 21, 2004 the car computers were tested on a recall and found to be out of sync. They were adjusted and I was told that would take care of my problem. In continued to have problems with the car not starting. On Oct. 6, 2004 I was given a new car remote control to fix the problem. I continued to have problems. On December 6, 2004 the car completely failed. I was unable to start or turn off the car. After 20 minutes it started and I was able to leave it with the dealer. The multi display unit was replaced. The car continued to stop intermittently;. on January 19, 2005 the car failed to start. A new small battery was installed. On March 29, 2005 the brakes locked up. The ABS actuator was replaced. On May 21, 2005 the car failed to start. It is presently at the dealer.
A couple of months ago while driving my 2004 Toyota Prius it lost power and all sorts of warning lights came on. I took it straight to the dealer. At that time they told me it loss it's computer program and went into the "limp home" mode. They reprogamed it and it ran fine. On 5/8/05 after a short drive I stoped and when I tried to restart it, it would not start. All I could get was a lot of warning lights and a wirling sound. I called aaa to have it towed to the dealer. Just as the tow truch arrived I tried to start it again and it started like normal. I drove it to the deal and explained the problem to them. They could not find any trouble codes or problem with the car. It has ran fine sence then. But I now worry when it will act up again.
My wife's 2004 Toyota Prius lost power 100 miles away from home. She was with our 3 month old baby and fortunately was not rear ended or involoved in an accident.
2004 Toyota Prius. The warning lights came on and the vehicle lost power. The vehicle came to stop on the freeway. The consumer was able to get to the shoulder and waited about 10 minutes. After the ten min the vehicle was restarted but had very little power. The consumer drove the vehicle to the dealer. The dealer reprogrammed the ECU as per tsb. No other problems as of yet. This failure was the only incident.
Consumer stated while traveling 40 mph all of a sudden, the lights illuminated on the dashboard and then everything shut off. The consumer had the vehicle towed to the dealer and they said it was a computer glitch regarding the release of gas to the engine. Just before a loss of power the dvd navigation system went completely out about 2 miles before everything else. The dvd navigation system failed as well.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Silver Spring, MD, USA