We were traveling along a familiar country road on a warm sunny day. When we arrived at a rural store there was only one other customer there. I slowly eased into the designated parking area which was situated about 17 inches above the lawn below. I was probably traveling less than one mile an hour. When I braked, the car accelerated and propelled itself over the blocks and railroad ties that are found in front of parking spaces, and we literally flew about 7 feet out and down onto the grass stopping just a few feet from a tree and a fence. While in the air, all I had time to do was put my foot down hard on the brake because there was not enough time to turn off the engine during the 5 seconds this was happening. Our first reaction was that I might have hit the accelerator instead of the brake, and though I found this inconceivable because I had never done anything like that before and because the two pedals are so different, I could not consider another explanation. However, as time passed, we came to the realization that this could not been the case because even if I had pressed the accelerator by mistake I would have had to have "floored" it to get that kind of acceleration in such a short distance, and even mistaking it for the brake I wouldn't have "floored" the brake because I was only about 18 inches from where I was to stop. Even under normal circumstances, the Prius just does not have this immediate kind of acceleration we experienced. I cannot help but think about this event occurring as I stopped at a crosswalk. This is a dangerous automobile that I loved driving for 5 years, and now I will not drive again.

- Mendon, UT, USA

2005 Toyota Prius stalled on an overpass with no shoulders. The transmission became stuck in park, and the vehicle could not be pushed since the front wheels were locked up. The car was eventually towed, and it had to be dragged onto the flatbed wrecker since the front wheels would not roll. The problem was determined to be a failed pump for cooling the inverter. The pump failed such that it blew a fuse that also controlled the transmission shifter, preventing the car from being put into neutral so that it could be pushed out of traffic lanes. This is a very unsafe failure mode.

- Little Rock, AR, USA

2005 Toyota Prius brake failure over bumpy or icy roads reported to NHTSA in 2005 with no response. Toyota denied failure and we were told to sue.

- Surprise, , AZ, USA

My daughter was driving our 2005 Prius at about 30 miles an hour at approximately 3pm when she saw a truck stop approximately 300 feet ahead of her. She applied the brakes but the Prius did not stop and collided with the truck causing a total loss of the Prius. The road surface was wet from snow and the temperature was approximately 34 degrees. Although the car was heavily damaged the air bags did not deploy. This crash could have resulted from a brake problem or unintended acceleration.

- St. Louis, MO, USA

I have been driving my 2005 Prius for 5 years and have experienced the following nearly 20 times, when braking, if a pothole or bump in the road is hit, the car seemingly jerks forward/accelerates for a split second. And the vsc light on the dash will go on for a short time.

- Oswego, IL, USA

The contact owns a 2005 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that the gear shifter would lock up, which prevented the vehicle from moving or changing gears. The failure occurred once in a tunnel while in traffic. The road crew had to move the vehicle to the side of the road. It took twenty minutes to re-engage the gear so that the vehicle could move again. Usually, it would take twenty to forty minutes before it re-engaged itself and for the gear to return to normal. The contact has called and sent letters to the dealer and manufacturer, but no one will speak with him. He has not taken his vehicle to the dealer for inspection. The failure mileage was 18,700.

- Eugene, OR, USA

Purchased 2005 Toyota Prius - VIN # jtd KB2 OU1 530 793 29 on July 20, 2005 -registered it to my wife krista gottlieb. On July 22, 2005 when this car had about 80 miles on it, I was driving it on the highway in traffic at about 50 mph - when suddenly I lost complete power. By that, I mean that the accelerator pedal was completely unresponsive. I am not aware of what the instruments indicated as I was preoccupied with the traffic (for more details - I sent a very detailed E-mail about the failure to our dealer culligan Toyota, amherst, NY on July 24, 2005 - I have also sent additional follow-up E-mails to culligan since that date. ). as a result of the July 24 message, I arranged to leave the car with culligan Toyota service advisor stephen desotell on Wednesday, July 27, 2005 to be checked out. At about 3:00 P.M. on July 27 stephen called me to tell me that they had checked out the car and could find nothing wrong with it in any way '' mechanical or computer or anything. He said that it had the latest software and that there were no outstanding service bulletins of recalls for the car and that in his discussion with Toyota, it was suggested to him that I must have inadvertently hit the ''power'' button on the dashboard - or words to that effect. Subsequently I tested the car and found that I could not turn off our Prius by deliberately pushing or holding the power button in. By call to the above service advisor since then, he later confirmed that this was correct - that it was not possible to accidentally or deliberately shut any Prius down by hitting the power button while the car was in motion under power. We have had no repeat of this event. However, the failure happened to us in heavy traffic when I was in the passing lane with traffic on my right and oncoming traffic on my left and a high-speed car approaching me from the rear - and I had nowhere to steer to! it was very frightening and we could have been hit from behind.

- Orchard Park, NY, USA

I was traveling at approximately 75 mph on hwy 41 in fresno, ca when my 2005 Prius had it's incident. All the dash warning lights illuminated, and I saw that I was only runningl on my electric motor. Lluckily I was in the right hand lane getting ready to merge onto another freeway, so I put my hazard warning lights on, and almost got rear ended because I reduced my speed and the Honda behind me was impatient and riding my bumber. I pulled off the freeway, called aaa, and before they got out, I tried to start the vehicle after about 15 minutes because where it finally died was a bad spot- and the engine kicked right on! I didn't know what happened! the following Monday I called my local Toyota dealership (michael Toyota) and they checked for any recalls and said there is nothing wrong with my car "don't worry about it". then I have been hearing about these other cases coming lately and it sounds like I have a bigger problem. I returned to my Toyota dealer and they said that the 4 hours they had left in the day wasn't enough time, so I need to take a day off of work so that I can drive the hour it takes to get there and wait for my vehicle.

- Tollhouse, CA, USA