I bought my 2010 Prius from a dealership because I needed a used car warranty to cover any problems I might have with a used vehicle. I've owned this Dealer Certified Pre-owned Toyota Prius for 4 months and purchased the bumper-to-bumper used car extended warranty. I commute 700 miles per week so I can't have dangerous problems on the road. This is the first time I have purchased a vehicle from IRA Toyota of Manchester and the first time I have gone to their service department. I have the synthetic oil changed every 7000 miles and planned to alternate between the dealer service and Valvoline. The first service was performed by the dealer and the last service was performed by a quick oil change station. This oil change service station has been performing the oil changes on our vehicles for 8 years so they are a trusted service center. Anyway, at the last oil change, the tech informed me that the access panel was faulty/cracked and missing a few pins. She said it looked like it had been damaged for some time, more than 4 months and I needed to take it to the dealership immediately. I did. I was really upset. The car was supposed to be certified. The service rep made a big show of taking me back to my car on the lift and showing me that the panel was clearly undamaged and there was nothing wrong except a tiny pin was missing. The tech flourished the pin under my nose and pushed it back into the panel. What can I say, I don't know what I'm looking at, so that was that and I left. Five days later on a 4 lane highway, during commute time, I hear a dragging scraping noise like my tire was rubbing against the wheel well. I pull over and look at the tire; its OK, I look under the car and see the access panel hanging down and dragging on the ground. It was a mangled mess. I can't reach it and it was too dangerous to stay outside of my car during commute time. So I get back in my car and turn around to go back to the dealer to complain, I'm furious, this is exactly what I was trying to avoid. Meanwhile the panel continues to drag and finally rips off and bangs its way out from under my car and flies back at the cars behind me!!! I pull over again, but the panel is gone/destroyed on the highway. I'm livid. I went back to the dealer/service rep who once again takes me to my car on the lift and insists that something caught the panel and ripped it off; so naturally I am responsible for the cost of replacement and repair. I insist that that is not the case. The panel dragged, then ripped off. He reminds me that he showed me how perfect the panel was the week before, so clearly I must have run over an imaginary obstacle that just happened to be the exact height to catch that tiny lip on the panel and cause the panel to be ripped out from under the car. (I swear he was going to pat me on the head like I was some sort of vacuous idiot that would just blindly accept whatever verbage was leaking out of his oily mouth) However, since I had complained about the panel the week before, he would be happy to give me a good price on parts and labor. I decline and inform him that my trusted local mechanic who does not lie to my face and put me in dangerous situations that could cause a car crash and has been serving our cars for 23 years will care of the repair. I'm glad I did the research on these panels or I never would have known that the dealer made the "big show" to protect the dealership from incurring the cost of replacing the panel or even liability if I had crashed or caused a car crash, knowing that I would be back because the panel would eventually come off evidently like so many others have. I'm lucky it didn't cause any damage to the cars driving behind me. The information provided by this site might help me get the panel replaced under my pre-owned extended warranty. I sent the TBS sheet posted on this website to the dealer service and they are checking to see if it is covered. Thanks!

FOR A BRAND NEW CAR, (SLIGHTLY OVER A YEAR OLD) this has me AGGRAVATED! Apparently this is a poor design. The door came loose, what caused that, is unknown. But since the car is so low to the ground, it tore off and only a part of it was hanging. My mechanic took it the rest of the way off. He says there is no problem with it and it really does not need to be replaced. But I am worried about it. More damage could appear. There was a reason to cover it, I suppose.

I see a lot of Prius owners have the same problem.

Front undercarriage oil access panel attachment fails and causes entire front undercarriage assembly to get damaged during operation as the panel comes in contact to road under normal driving conditions. I have discussed this with other Prius owners and mechanics who have seen the problem. Toyota needs to design a fix that would separate the components or redesign flexible door to withstand repeated flexing while car is serviced for oil change. Hinge line and anchors need to be more robust in access panel areas that see routine removal and re-installation loads from routine oil service changes.