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.
I want to file a complaint about my 2010 Prius, I bought my Prius this past Nov. At first when I feel the sudden acceleration I thought its me thinking too much. But this happen more than once. It is a unpleasant feeling. The sudden acceleration happens to me when driving on a downhill going over a bump or a hole in the road.
The brakes on my 2010 Toyota Prius do not appear to work properly. They are not consistent in stopping the vehicle. On occasion, when applying the brakes they do not appear to slow the vehicle immediately. Even after applying more pressure on the brake pedal, the vehicle continues to roll. Eventually after pressing very hard on the pedal the vehicle slows. The biggest issue is this does not happen all the time. It presents a problem when it unexpectedly happens.
2010 Prius. Purchased 11/23/09. When slowing down to turn into the parking lot at work, there is a manhole cover right before my turn, if my tire goes over manhole cover my car bolts forward as if I step on the gas. This happens 1-2 time a week and has been happening for since December. 18-20 occurrences to date. There was one other time when stopping for a traffic signal and I hit a slight bump and my car bolted forward. I always was quick to press the brake hard and the car would stop. The last time it happen was 2/2/10. I am bringing it in for service 2/6/10.
- Columbia, SC, USA
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I own a brand new 2010 Toyota Prius with approximately 3,000 miles at this point. I have experience on a number of occasions a complete loss of braking ability when I forcefully applied the brakes in order to come to stop while traveling over a pothole or a serious pavement deformation. My wife has experienced the same problem on a couple of instances too. The loss of brakes is very short in duration but is absolutely frightening since the car travels quite a bit before the brakes take effect again. On one occasion the Prius was about one quarter of a car length into the intersection before it came to a complete stop. This happened while traveling only 35 mph on a residential street and attempting to come to a full stop at an intersection. Fortunately no other cars were traveling through the intersection at the time. I attempted to call Toyota about this issue but it is impossible to get through to a live person at this time due to the volume of calls generated by the recall.
2010 Toyota Prius the braking system does not work when the brakes are applied over bumpy or rough roads. Occurs everytime the brakes are applied at a particular intersection. I have owned the vehicle since August 2009. The problem has existed the entire time I have owned the vehicle. I noticed the problem, it raised some concerns, but recent articles have indicated this is a severe issue.
I drive a 2010 Toyota Prius. On multiple occasions while attempting to slow down on rough surfaces, the brakes temporarily stopped working for 1-2 seconds even though the brake pedal was depressed. The most recent incident occurred while exiting the highway and attempting to slow down quickly on rough pavement. Luckily, there were no other cars in front of me or there would have been a collision. If a car had been in front of me on any of the occasions then there would have likely been a collision.
On my Prius 2010 (that I bought in July 2009) I noticed that when I hit a pothole, and had the brakes pressed; the car quickly accelerated for a split second. This has happened twice.
2010 Toyota Prius experiences brief loss of braking when traveling downhill on same section of the road. I've experienced this about 5 or 6 times and it's been very noticeable. Even with firm brake pressure, the vehicle seems to suddenly accelerate for a fraction of a second. It always seems to happen on the exact same section of the road, which is on a downhill grade.
2010 Toyota Prius, package 5 have owned for 6 months or so. When attempting to brake and go over pot holes or irregular road, the brakes disengage and the car continues forward for a longer distance than desired. This has not resulted in an accident but a concern. Has occurred on several occasions since taken ownership in September.
I bought a 2010 Toyota Prius in August 2009. After hearing on the radio and tv this week about other buyers experiencing the same braking issue I have been occasionally experiencing, I decided to let you know it's happening to me too. Namely, there is a moment when I am braking at a speed of about 15-25 mph, in preparation to slow down for a right turn at one particular intersection--it has a large pothole. If I roll over the pothole with my front right tire, the car seems to speed up for a few seconds--instead of slowing down--and there is nothing that applying more brake pressure can do. Sometimes I've noticed this kind of problem when trying to slow down on a patch of black ice, but that seems typical of the difficulty of braking on black ice. The pothole issue happens invariably at that particular pothole, so I have had to swerve to avoid rolling over it. There are other potholes that I've noticed can cause me this problem, but none with such frequency as that. The ground is level there, so it's not a downhill problem.
Regarding my 2010 Toyota Prius: Brakes did not engage. It was raining; I was slowing to make a right turn into a parking lot and merged into the turn lane, applied the brakes just prior to driving over a drainage grate, and car's brakes did not respond. I released my foot from the brake pedal and then re-engaged it, whereas the brakes responded. Incidents very similar to this happened two prior times when backing out of my driveway (not raining). The brake warning light also goes on unexpectedly while idling at a traffic light or when coasting to a stop (not stopping suddenly). When this happens, I have to place the car into park and then back into drive. I inquired about these issues with the Toyota dealer and have been advised that they have had no complaints of this nature with their 2010 priuses.
When trying to brake on ice, the car jerks forward. It happened several times before Jan. 28th, as well. Today (Feb. 04, 2010)... braking on bumpy road with slight sink hole before railroad tracks and it jerked forward... no train on the track and no car in front of me, so I was fortunate not to have a serious accident with my grandson in the car. I have informed boulder Toyota.
Re: 2010 Prius braking issues beginning within the first 500 miles of owning vehicle. When first start up vehicle brakes are overly sensitive, making it impossible to stop the car smoothly. I have been able to correct the problem by shutting off the engine and restarting the car. This problem occurs randomly and has occurred twice within the last week. I have also had two times where the car has had an incredible surge forward, so strong that my head was thrown back into the head rest. The surge has been momentary and has the feeling like going up a steep incline on a roller coaster when it first accelerates. Because these events were such a surprise and so short in duration I cannot recall the conditions (whether I was braking, coasting, or on the gas pedal) but I do know I was going at a slow speed. I have had two occurrences of this surge both within weeks of each other in the fall of last year. I took my car into the dealer regarding both of the above issues in the fall of last year, but they could not get the car create either of the above problems. At that time I asked if they had any similar complaints and they said they had heard of no other such complaints. When the car was taken in to the dealer for routine service in November my husband again asked about the oversensitive braking issue and again no problem was found or solution provided. The oversensitive brake and the surge create physically and emotionally uncomfortable conditions. No damage has occurred because of these problems. I have driven the car with under these conditions figuring until there are complaints it would be hard to recreate these problems at the shop. When I first took my car in to address these issues I told the dealer it felt like it was a computer glitch or electronic problem rather than mechanical. And asked it might show up on the cars computer diagnosis system.
Toyota Prius 2010: Driving over sewer grate while braking and car loses momentary grip and slides over surface without slowing down, even though braking. Has happened several times on the same location / sewer grate.
At 10mph on the freeway, my 2010 Prius hesitated to brake properly and as a result my left fender made contact with the vehicle in front of me. As result, my insurance increased, I had to pay $500 deductible to repair my bumper. The back brakes have squeaked going in reverse since purchase in November 2009.
With our 2010 Toyota Prius, my wife had an accident where the vehicle slid into a snow bank within 1 block of our home. Just prior to this, I noticed that the vehicle's anti-lock brake did not seem to function properly. I used to work for General Motors in Michigan and know the sound that comes from working anti-lock brakes. The anti-lock brakes used to work earlier in 2009...I had to stop on a wet paint stripe and the anti-locks made the distinctive ratcheting sound. In December 2009, that sound and the loss of braking traction was evident. Not until I see that there is news in the media recently about the Prius did I think to lodge a complaint. This accident caused me (and my insurer) $1,024 in damage to our front bumper.
Brakes fail entirely when the car goes over a small bump or crease in the road. Its obvious (now) that the dealership was aware of this and tried to cover it up, as their immediate response was that it was normal and was just the ABS gripping (they didn't even want to write my complaint on my service report), despite my repeated assertions that I am well aware of the difference between ABS gripping and no brakes. Brakes failed on 3 occasions before the vehicle even had 4,000 miles.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- San Francisco, CA, USA