10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 20 / 0
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 3 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 3,694 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.
« Read the previous 20 complaints
While applying the brakes to slow down or to come to a stop, if the car hits a bump, pothole or the like, the brakes release momentarily, causing the car"S momentum to continue forward longer/further than you would normally expect or want. This is especially dangerous when coming to a stop at a New York city pedestrian crosswalk or trying to slow down with a car close in front of you. I brought the car into the dealership and had it evaluated by Toyota's field technical specialist who reported the following, ""when [the car] senses impending wheel slip, it will first disable the regenerative brakes. When it does that it feels like the car sort of accelerates because you lost the regenerative braking and you're using the brake assist that you have from your foot. So that is 'normal operation' on the system. It is working as designed." Despite the explanations for why this is happening and whether or not this is ?normal operation", the bottom line is, if the car is not stopping when it should, the safety of passengers and pedestrians is in jeopardy. I called and wrote two certified letters to Toyota's customer experience department and to akio Toyota, and received a phone call from an executive analyst from the president's office. No Toyota representative would do anything in regards to the problem--they maintain that the braking operation is normal. I have seen other complaints on the NHTSA web site and on Prius owners blogs that contradict Toyota's assertion and support the claim that the brakes are indeed a safety issue that must be addressed.
- New York, NY, USA
- Brooklyn, NY, USA