10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
3 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
3,916 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.

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problem #6

Apr 082024

Prius

  • miles
I was idling at a parking space and went to turn off my car. The vehicle surged forward and the BRAKE sign came on. I pushed my brake to the floor and nothing happened. I was moving toward a brick wall so I put in in reverse and the car surged backwards. The BRAKE sign came on and I pushed the brake to the floor and again nothing happened and I ended up hitting the car behind me. I immediately took my car to the dealership where they kept it for 3 days and said they could find nothing wrong and it was safe to drive. I just got it back from having the body work done and am afraid to drive it as this might happen again or worse. I am reporting it to let you know and to see if this has occurred and been reported as happening in this make and model previously. I also have 2 witnesses to what happened.

- Fairfax, VA, USA

problem #5

Feb 172024

Prius

  • miles
On Saturday [XXX], while shifting to reverse in a back alley to back up slowly, the car engine suddenly and loudly revved and shot backwards at accelerating speed. I slammed on brakes which did not respond at all, thus forcing me to attempt to shift gears which also failed to stop the acceleration. Car only stopped because it went up a curb and hit the corner of a parked vehicle in a neighbors driveway. If I had been on busier street and not a back alley this could have resulted in numerous vehicle collisions and unimagined fatalities. Car is being towed on [XXX] to Advanced Collision Repair on 4511 Central Ave, Columbia Heights, for diagnostic assessment. There were no warning lamps, messages or other indicators prior to this terrifying lack of vehicle control. This was first episode since purchasing car approx one year ago. Incident was captured on neighbor-??s home camera. Other neighbor heard the revving and ran out due to spontaneously loud revving of an engine. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

- Minneapolis , MN, USA

problem #4

Dec 032020

Prius

  • 16,443 miles
Vehicle involved in a accident. Vehicle brake system did not work. Driver had foot on brake pedal. Anti collision break system did not work, vehicle slid for 20ft into a stopped for. 2019 Prius was going 35 mph before risk of collision was realized. Significant damage done on passenger side bumper. No air bags deployed.

- San Pedro, CA, USA

problem #3

Aug 182020

Prius

  • 5,500 miles
I was traveling at about 55 mph on highway 66 when the instrument panel began flashing the following warnings: "braking power low, phsb malfunction, parking brake low, pre-collision malfunction, anti-lock malfunction, lane deparrure malfunction, brake overide". the only obvious symptom was that there was no brake boost - the brakes continued to function, but without power assist. I am a former auto mechanic, so I would have noticed if there were any other symptons. The dealership had the car for 3 weeks and ultimately replaced both the brake booster and the master cylinder. They initially replaced the booster and discovered that that did not fix whatever was causing the warnings and dtcs. Toyota instructed them to replace the master cylinder and that apparently fixed the problem. They could not explain why a fault in the master cylider would have caused the array of symotoms observed by both myself and the mechanics. I was surprized that the master cylinder was the cause as the the loss of boost seemed to be a brake boost problem. I was told that Toyota is aware of the problem and that it is widespread.

- Falls Church, VA, USA

problem #2

Oct 132019

Prius

  • 1,495 miles
I was turning to exit a freeway and all of a sudden my car came to a stop (about 55mph to 0) in a matter of seconds with no warning. It then took a few seconds before I was able to get the gas to work again. No cars were around me luckily.

- Watsonville, CA, USA

problem #1

Sep 162019

Prius

  • 61 miles
Bought a new 2019 Prius from grossinger Toyota on 9/13, went back to the dealer on 9/16 to get my old city sticker from my old car (this new car only had 61 miles), the new car broke while I was there. The entire dashboard went off (blinders cannot be turn on. No indication of speed, no indication of vehicle level, etc). Anything that's on the dashboard went blank. I turned on and off the new card a few time, but the result was the same. Toyota technician couldn't figure out what went wrong themselves. When that happened, I was just about ready to leave the dealer, then I quickly went back to show the grossinger dealer.

- Chicago, IL, USA