1. I still haven't received any letter notification from Toyota that I can go 10K between oil changes? My dealer once thought they were only sending out letters and there was no new maintenance schedule booklet? 2. Exactly what kind of 'black box(es)' are standard on my Jan. 2010 build Prius? Thanks.
I just visited Toyota's 'MyToyota' website and downloaded the maintenance manual. It now indicates oil changes every 10k miles; all other service intervals appear to remain the same as the Manual that came with the car. David W.
1. Everyone else has received them as indicated in this thread, so maybe yours are an late arrival or got lost in the mail. Call Toyota if you still haven't received them in a month or so. But you can still download the revised maintenance booklet from your owner's site and it's just as official. 2. The one that works after an actual collision, unless you consider the hybrid computer a form of black box. Now don't think about pulling a Sikes lest the latter gets you trouble
I received the updated maintenance booklet at least a month ago--you can call Toyota customer service and ask them to mail you another one. Plus, as previously mentioned you can download it from their site. Most modern cars have data recorders. The manufacturers are very secretive about what data is captured and how long it's saved. One example is a few years ago when I had a serious engine issue on a Porsche, the told me their data recorder saves lots of data related to your driving habits (if and how many time the engine hits the rev limiter, for example), and they can use it to deny warranty claims if you've abused the car. For Toyota, when I went for a test drive with my Prius with the shop foreman earlier this week, he mentioned that they can see if you're a 2-footed driver (they can see if you ever had the brake and accelerator pressed at the same time). That's one example, and he said Toyota corporate was diagnostic equipment that can see data they can't with their shop equipment.
Thanks for the black box info. After repeated attempts calling Toyota I finally got the revised maintenance schedule. Never did get any letter. Lots of misinformation and/or not following through and/or the right hand not knowing whtat he left hand was doing. But it's all resolved now. Last problems that bother me are several different vibration (never at the same time) coming from around the front passenger door area, and poor FM reception compared to my wind-up FM portable.