2005 Prius stalled at 70 mph on highway, could not restart, had to be towed 150 miles to dealership.

- Plymouth, MI, USA

Traveling on NJ turnpike in heavy traffic when new 2005 Prius lost power and would not respond to attempts at acceleration to keep up with traffic. Was able to move over 2 lanes of traffic and stop on side of highway. Turned off car and restarted after less than a minute. No further incidents since. Took car to Toyota dealership. They could find no reason for the failure after monitoring the computer.

- Media, PA, USA

The Prius shut down, stopped using gasoline power, while I was in the passing lane and traveling 70 miles per hour in moderate traffic on interstate 40 in nashville, tn. The red triangle, check engine, vsc and a few other warning signals illuminated. I managed to avoid being rear-ended, pulled to the side of the road using battery power, shut the battery power off, and consulted the owner's manual. Approximately 10-15 minutes prior, the add fuel light illuminated and the fuel indicator displayed a single bar. Having driven the vehicle for the past 8300 miles, my wife informed me that we had about 2 gallons of gas, and could easily travel another fifty miles. The temperature was near 90 degrees. I started the vehicle and chose to drive it off the interstate. We traveled 2.5 miles and coasted to the side of the road as the battery depleted. I managed to slowly drive the vehicle to a gas station and refueled. The fuel tank could only accommodate 8.1 gallons of fuel; it holds 11.7. once refueled, the warning signals disappeared after 30 seconds, and we drove home. My wife took the car to the dealer, joe heitz Toyota in clarksville, tn, the next day for an evaluation. The mechanic said that the computer indicated that the vehicle ran out of fuel. Since there obviously was fuel in the tank, I pressed the service manager for answers. By the end of the day and after consulting with Prius technical folks in California, the service manager said that the fuel bladder may have collapsed over the sending module thereby signaling the car's computer that it was out of gas, which caused it to shut down. He said Toyota is looking into the problem and provided a lame solution; refuel the vehicle before it gets too low. This is an unacceptable answer and I implore the NHTSA to investigate this potentially deadly anomaly. It is only a matter of time before someone is in a fatal accident because the vehicle shuts down while traveling at interstate speeds.

- Ashland City, TN, USA

I purchased a 2005 Prius in January 2005. At the time of the incident it had about 8500 miles on it. It had been performing well and I had been getting excellent gas mileage and the internal mileage indicators has proven to be very accurate. While driving on SC highway 31 at about 60-65 miles per hour the gasoline engine quit slowing me to about 40 miles per hour. The dashboard lit up with with warning signals including the red triangle, check engine, vsc, breaking system and I don't remember what else. A few miles before this happened, my fuel indicator started to blink, but was sure that the problem could not be gas since I have often gone many miles before finding gas in similar situation and knew from past experience, my milege, and fuel usage indicator that I had about two gallons left in the vehicle. This was an unfamiliar road to me so I continued to travel using the battery hoping that an exit would appear. The battery quickly became so depleted that I pulled to the side of the road. I tried to turn the vehicle off and found it unresponsive. After a few tries it did power down. I called aaa for assistance. During my wait, I was able to restart the engine, but it again failed within a couple of miles, but I was able to reach an exit and pull off. After the second failure, I tried to restart again and this time only got the red triangle and check engine light. Aaa did add gasoline to the car, but the fuel indicator continued to blink and the bar never rose. The car was towed to sparks Toyota in myrtle beach, SC who called to say that they believe that the problem is low fuel. I do not believe that it the case as this had not happened before when the low fuel indicator came on.

- Charlotte, NC, USA

Driving 2005 Toyota Prius (pov) in traffic when hybrid system suddenly and unexpectedly shut down. Was unable to restart vehicle for approximately 5 mins. When was able to restart "check engine" warning light remained on. No property damage or injuries occured as a result of failure.

- Olympia, WA, USA

While driving my 2005 Toyota Prius on highway at approximately 65 mph, the gasoline engine completely stalled but the electric motor continued to run allowing me to exit the highway, albeit at a reduced speed. I managed to drive approximately 1 mile to 1.5 miles until the electric motor battery was conmpletely depleted. The vehilce would not restart and I arranged to have it towed. While waiting for the tow service I tried to restart it a number of times and after 35 - 40 minutes it started and since then has had no issues. I believe that when it stalled on the highway the crusie control was set and there were between 1.6 and 2 gallons of gasoline remaining in the tank. This could have been a disaster if I was in heavy traffic in the fast lane as the car went from 65 mph to 35 - 40 mph in seconds! I also barely made it off of the highway and was actually sticking into the travel lane somewhat when the elctric motor also completly died. I notified Toyota of the problem but no corrective actions were taken and they did not inform me of any issues.

- Andover, MA, USA