Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL | |||
| 03/14/2010 | 2900 | ||
| 2009 prius - on two occassion recently when i went to make a right turn my steering froze and the engine died. i almost hit a car. i have had it into piercy toyota on two occassion and they still have not found anything. i am afraid to drive the car. it only ha 3000 miles on it. they have been nice, but no results. if the car is doing this now and they cannot find it what happens next. not satified with there answer. i need your help. | |||
| 01/15/2010 | 12000 | 1 | |
| The problem with the prius is the enhanced vsc, not the brakes! i have been reading about the braking problem in the toyota prius and they all seem to occur under rough or slippery driving conditions. i own a 2009 prius and the same thing happens but it seems to be a problem with the enhanced vehicle stability control (vsc). please look into the enhanced vsc for the problem because i don't think it's the brakes. *tr | |||
| 07/01/2009 | 500 | 1 | |
| I own a 2009 toyota prius and when the vehicle encounters a pot hole or any rough road service, it jumps ahead and there is a delay when i attempt to brake. on the dashboard the icy roadway indicataor appears at these times. this siituation has been ongoing since i purchased the vehicle in april 2009 *cn | |||
| 11/28/2009 | 1 | ||
| I have a 2009 prius. i've been complaining to friends and family, since i got it about six months ago, about its instability when i go over small bumps and ruts in the road. the car seems to surge ahead, swerve a bit, and lose contact with the ground. the other major problem is the car's horrible traction on wet highways. if i'm traveling over 45 m.p.h., my car begins to hydroplane. the experience is unnerving. i've never driven a car that feels so unsafe and that makes me feel such a lack of confidence, and i've been driving for 35 years. plus, during the last snowstorm, when i put my prius in park on a slight incline on the road in front of my home, the car slid about 20 feet, in park. i had to put on the emergency brake to stop. it slides all over the road, in snow. i hate this car and wish i'd never bought it. i believe that its merits were misrepresented. despite the chosen date that you've required me to enter, unfortunately these problems are ongoing. *tr | |||
| 10/30/2008 | 100 | 1 | |
| Every day i encounter a large pot hole on my way to work. it is about 20 feet from a stop sign, so at this point i am already driving slow and braking. however, when the one wheel dips into the hole, the yellow traction system light comes on, and i feel what could be a slight loss in braking, as if the car is coasting for a split second (versus braking/slowing) or perhaps accelerating forward. the car/system recovers as soon as all wheels pass the pothole. not having had a traction control system prior to this car, i didn't know what was normal so i didn't pursue it, but i know i don't like how it feels! this has been happening every time i drive over that pothole since i bought the car. luckily they just paved the hole last month finally. otherwise i try to avoid rough roads as a matter of course. perhaps a related problem is when trying to go up an icy/slushy slope and the traction control shuts off the wheels to keep them from slipping/spinning. since i live on a hill, this makes winter especially stressful and makes me fearful of driving to from work and encountering even a slight incline that is not plowed or salted --what if the car stopped and i got hit? toyota says this is normal to keep the electric engine from being over stressed or some such thing. *tr | |||
| 01/08/2010 | 26000 | 1 | |
| Snow covered road, was braking for stop sign, went over manhole cover, abs (electronic stability control) kicked in, lost braking for about three feet. *tr | |||
| 01/22/2010 | 12000 | 1 | |
| When braking on rough road, like when you hit a small pothole, our 2009 toyota prius handles improperly. the slip indicator light flashes. it briefly feels like there is a loss of control. *tr | |||
| 11/25/2008 | 5000 | 1 | |
| We brought a new 2009 prius in september of this year, 2008. i was driving in the snow, and found that this car has a mind of its own; the traction control took total control of the car, and left me in the middle of the road in a curve as i was about to go up a hill. the car came to a stop; i could not accelerate at all! the sheriff, who was driving on the other side of the street had to go off the road to keep from hitting me head on, and the person behind me had to swerve to keep from hitting me. thank god i didn't have an accident! i contacted the two toyota dealers in our area, and i was told that the response from the prius was normal. when i called the toyota 800 customer service number, i was again told that the car was designed that way. they also suggested that we try snow tires on the car. in spite of living where we are in johnson city, new york (near binghamton), we have always used all-season tires without any trouble. we had a 1995 intrepid which had traction control, and we had no trouble with it. it had a switch that you could use if you needed to turn the traction control off. i don't know why the prius has no way to turn the traction control off; i believe toyota's design is faulty and dangerous. it's a death trap, a serious safety hazard and needs to be changed! please help us in getting the attention of the toyota motor company to do a recall and make it so that this car has a way to turn off the traction control when it deems necessary. it should not be necessary for accidents to occur and people be hurt or killed to make it compulsory that a bad design be fixed. (please note: we wrote camry on your form under model selection because you did not have prius listed. we had to select some car model in order to proceed with the application). thank you. *tr | |||