I have a gen II and the thing rattles like crazy. Its been like that since about the 40,000 mile mark which I hit about 1.5 years in. I'm not at 68,000 mi and 2.5 yrs. I'm very disappointed. Maybe ok if I had payed 15k for the thing but no car over 25k should rattle in the slightest. I may be looking at a honda next time more carefully.
Our dealer fixed the dash rattle on our Gen II. They had to pull the entire dash. That fixed the dash rattle for about 10,000 miles, but it's back again even louder. I suspect you have to decide to either live with the rattles or make a hobby out of fixing them. Tom
Yes it is becoming a hobby, but I've been retired for a couple of years now so I have a little time for it. Oddly my first Prius, an '05, didn't have a single rattle. I did have this Honda Accord though, worked on rattles for a year and finally gave up. Drove that car for 7 years and nothing ever broke, one of the best cars I've ever owned. So maybe a few rattles to start out with are not always bad.
I guess I am Blessed with a 100% hearing loss in left ear and a partial in the right I don't even hear the reverse beep or turn signals on any car. 2008 Prius pkg #2and a 20 year Merc. Tracer.
I have heard Thomas Edison had severe hearing loss and was grateful for it because it allowed him to concentrate better.
I've had a Gen3 V since early November and have noticed only one little rattle in the back somewhere and an occasional creak from the right-passenger door area. The rattle isn't bad and is intermittent, it might be something in the spare tire area. The creak is noticeable only when it's cool (50-degrees) and when the car is going over curbs or other irregular terrain that tends to twist the chassis. I think this is just the door rubber squeaking when the chassis flexes a bit. It's obvious that Toyota put a huge amount of thought and technology into these cars to achieve high efficiency. One aspect is eliminating as much weight as possible. I have a feeling that this important goal is sometimes at odds with a quiet ride. For example, we have the floor mat kit and it's remarkable how light they are. A regular auto's mats would probably weigh four times as much and would tend to dampen rattles more. So if you want a perfectly quiet ride, get a heavy car and pay to haul all that weight around with you wherever you go.
I have the two you mentioned, the one on the passenger's side I haven't found yet. The one in the back, in my car, seems to be mostly coming from the plastic pieces that are on the inside of the hatch door. When I bang on them with my fist it stops for a few miles, I think I'm going to have to remove them to find a fix. Yours could have a completely different source though.
Any rattles I've chased down turned out to be something in the glove box, cup holder, rear storage etc. The hubcaps (ooops, sorry: wheel covers) make a click sound when the wheels hit a pothole.
I have a rattle in the front passenger door, but that's because my wife insists on keeping two stones and a buckeye in the door handle recess. Tom
I bought my Prius last August in hot weather and it was silent. If I had test driven one in December the rattle issue would have stopped me from buying the car. Too late now. My car rattles and squeaks from the center console near the armrest, the armrest, and the lower glove box. I stopped the glove box rattle by putting papert towel pieces over the latches and it stopped. Like many people on this post I am disappointed with Toyota's QC and feel ripped off. Sure the car is great on gas and looks cool but the rattles ruin the experience for me. I regret buying this car.
My Prius is the most rattly car I have ever owned, that includes honda, mazda, ford and hyundai. If rattles bother you stay away. I'm extremely disappointed... And for the people who say were just winers, there are just as many people on this forum who are the opposite and condem anyone who says anything bad about toyota. When I mentioned the rattles to the service guy he acted surprised and said thats the first he heard of it, then as I was waiting I talked to another 2010 prius owner who said exactly the same thing and he told me the dealer said to him no one else was complaining about rattles.... toyota's quality in my opinion is worst than other auto companies.
I wonder if there are any threads of people who actually sold their Prius because of rattles? If it's really as bad as they say, get rid of the car and stop complaining... and buy something you'll be happy with. Life is too short to be complaining all the time. Just my 2 cents. (darn, I sound like another old fuddy duddy Prius driver)
That sounds very much like my dealer experience. People who call or email Toyota with problems (according to posts on this site) are often told the same thing even though the problem has been reported numerous times. I think one might logically conclude that Toyota has a corporate policy of denying all problems reported by customers. In a lot of ways they act just like G.M. did when they were number one. Some of the people on this site who are ardent Toyota defenders actually did get cars with no, or few, problems and may have dealers who actually care about customers, although those seem few and far between. Others may be defending their own purchasing decision.
You may not like to read posts about problems with the Prius and you really don't have to, you can just skip over them and read the "my Prius is perfect and I love mother Toyota" posts. But the truth is there are fairly serious problems. Complaining to Toyota doesn't seem to do much good so internet forums seem to be a pretty good way of getting information to them, they do read this site. Please realize that new cars that cost between $23K and $34K shouldn't rattle, and when they do the company and its dealers should be willing to fix them. Most of the people who are talking about rattles, myself included, are not chronic complainers or malcontents. We are people who trusted a company, Toyota, to give us a high quality product and they have betrayed that trust.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions. What I'm trying to understand, is if you feel you have been betrayed by Toyota... and that the problems with the Prius are "fairly serious," then why keep the car? Sell it, and buy something from a manufacturer you trust, someone who will sell you a car that doesn't rattle. Why would someone keep a car that they feel is plagued with problems? I don't mean to be critical, but if I felt someone abused my trust, I would drop them in a heartbeat. It just seems that all these problems aren't enough to get owners to sell their car and buy something else from someone else. So I have to ask myself if these are really problems? Or just something you get when you buy a Prius? "And that's all I have to say about that." - Forrest Gump
Rattles and squeaks come and go in my '04 Prius. For the most part I just ignore them, and accept them as a cost of Toyota using more Eco plant-based materials. This isn't to say I won't appreciate the day when the eco-plastics reach a higher quality.
It's not a case of "love it or leave it" it's still a very good car. In fact there are more things I like about it than drawbacks, but does that mean I should over look bad quality control and pretend the rattles don't exist? The idea that if you have a car with a problem you just throw it out, or take a big financial loss on it, is pure nonsense. It is far better to try and fix what is wrong if it can be fixed.
Our 2007 has/had a rattle in the dash area, passenger side. I fixed it. Folded up a small piece of paper, then shoved it in the tiny gap where the dash meets the A-pillar. No more rattle. I think the rattles are more noticeable in the Prius because it is such a quiet car. Also, due to all the airbags in it, which older cars DO NOT HAVE, there are more things inside the dash, seats, and doors that can rattle. It's a tradeoff I'm willing to make.
