Prius horror story here

First of all I did not get the gas mileage advertised, but it did cut my gas bill in half so I didn't complain. In the 35,000 miles I owned mine they replaced 2 steering racks 5K each and 1 transmission 10K. The electrical battery has to be changed at 100K mi. (another 5K). The final straw was when I went out in the moring and tried to start the car the car started but the gas engine never came on. I was told they invented a better computer to cure the problem. They did not tell me they haven't produced any yet and they were not even available in Japan yet. Now this leaves me in a odd spot after 30K miles they would not give me a rental indefinatly and after 1 month of waiting there was still no date for the production of the "new" computer. So I could not afford the car payment and a rental so I would just buy another car. The best trade in figure I got anywhere was 9K dollars. I bought this car feeling uneasy but the name Toyota gave me confidence Ha, HA, HA. Never agian !!!!!!!!

Look at what the cost of owning this car after a warrantee and I did buy the most expensive and comprehensive extended warentee available.

I say good luck to anyone who wants to buy one of these. Without the pocketbook of some of these movie stars to maintain and repair them.

sounds like you got a bad one. but, dont generalize and say all of the cars are shit just because you got a bad one. I love fords, everyone dogs them for being bad, yet in my 13 years of owning Fords, and being from a family who never owned nothing but fords, we never had problems with them.

That may be true but those are my experiences. Also you think a company like Toyota coming out with a new type of car would do more for the customer. Designing a new computer to fix a problem and not making it available, so the customer is supposed to make payments and get a rental for an unlimited amount of time does not scream customer service.
Also the transmission and steering rack problems were known problem spots (from what my dealer told me).

I only wish someone had posted some info like this when I was researching so I could have avoided the purchase.

How exactly do you know these prices? Furthermore, you have no responsibility paying for these because they are under warranty. Also, the battery will last the life of the car (which is well more than 200,000 miles). The Prius has been in Japan for almost 8 years. Try searching for the Vancouver BC taxi driver. Oh and there is no "new computer." Please don't lie about and degrade my favorite car.

First of all I did not get the gas mileage advertised, but it did cut my gas bill in half so I didn't complain. In the 35,000 miles I owned mine they replaced 2 steering racks 5K each and 1 transmission 10K. The electrical battery has to be changed at 100K mi. (another 5K). The final straw was when I went out in the moring and tried to start the car the car started but the gas engine never came on. I was told they invented a better computer to cure the problem. They did not tell me they haven't produced any yet and they were not even available in Japan yet. Now this leaves me in a odd spot after 30K miles they would not give me a rental indefinatly and after 1 month of waiting there was still no date for the production of the "new" computer. So I could not afford the car payment and a rental so I would just buy another car. The best trade in figure I got anywhere was 9K dollars. I bought this car feeling uneasy but the name Toyota gave me confidence Ha, HA, HA. Never agian !!!!!!!!

Look at what the cost of owning this car after a warrantee and I did buy the most expensive and comprehensive extended warentee available.

I say good luck to anyone who wants to buy one of these. Without the pocketbook of some of these movie stars to maintain and repair them.

There was a recall to fix the the steering rack for the initial few months of the 2001 Prius. The problem was only for a specific few models and never occurred again (there was a recall for it a long time ago in 2001). As for reliability, Consumer Reports gave the Prius "Top Pick." They found that Prius reliability was on par with the Camry.

You are uninformed. I have repair orders from the dealer to back up everything I say and the prices ...it was under warr. but the dealer thought it was amusing that the rack and transmision that were replaced cost Toyota 15K combined. I got the price info from my Toyota dealership. Check the owners manual the battery should be replaced at 100K. This is info for all BEWARE before you buy. If you are going to dispute what I am saying with quotes like "there is no new computer" please at least know what you are talking about. Also the prius in Japan is different than the one in the US for starters the us one has more HP and mine was a 2002 if anyone wants to see what is the problems with the cars don't pay attenion to recalls only check for service bulletins. They are put out by toyota to help thier mechanics diagnois common problems with a car. You can find them at www.alldata.com there is a small 1 time fee to get the info try it you won't believe what Toyota doesn't tell you about these junks.

Ummm, you think I am uninformed?... I drove a 2001 Classic Prius for three years, and traded it in for a 2004 Prius... I have the proof at:

http://homepage.mac.com/priustech/Prius/Menu9.html

Try rechecking the owner's manual... the *warranty* is for 100,000 miles, not the actual battery life itself.

Why don't you check in other cars and see what kinds of service problems they have had. I'm sure you could find a handful of cars that haven't had much relatively speaking... just in case you try to pull that one on me... but that is not the average. Sorry to hear about your troubles, but Prius problems are in the minority of buyer experiences.

And the treatment from Toyota when they designed a new computer they hadn't made yet? It is in a service bulletin, check it out the same bulletin also listed changing a relay and the fuel tank to cure the problem if the computer upgrade didn't work. I think the big difference here is that you got lucky and didn't have a problem I hope your luck is as good with your next one. If you had been walked over like I had you would think differently. Imagine if your car was tied up indefinatly and you were paying for your rental (35.00 a day) and your car payment and ins. and Toyota corprate kept saying "We don't have a availability date". I bought a new car to drive. I expected reliability. Most of all I expected Toyota to treat me better. I would not have bought the car if it was a Kia or Hyundai.

P.S. I also noticed the 2001 prius you drove for 4 years only had 20K miles when you traded it. Per your web site.

Sorry to hear about your experiences with the car.

Right, I had about 22k on it when I traded it in. I got it in April of 2002 (via internet order). When I got it most of my trips were to school, which was 10 minutes from where I lived. When I got into college I had my Prius with me but I didn't drive it a whole lot since I lived in the dorms and parking was a big difficulty. When i got the '04 in November of '03 I was living off campus and using my new Prius much more... I now have about 9000 miles on it... I think I will be putting on at least 15,000 miles a year, since I am doing a lot of commuting now. As for reliability... I've been on Prius groups even before I had the original one... but I'm not denying people haven't had problems... but Prius problems aren't out of the norm... Consumer Reports gave it an "excellent" rating... which doesn't mean that everyone who has one will experience no problems... but after reading your messages again I can understand your frustrations... sorry for calling you liar.

I am just glad you can see it from my view a bit thanks for the dialog.