Was there a recent Quality Improvement in Prius builds?

What rattle problem?
36000 km 14 months , no warranty work

 

I don't have any rattle problems either. I'm at 1.5 years of ownership, and 14k miles.

 

I bought a new 2010 last week and got a rattle in the upper left within the first 300 miles. It's similar to a resonant buzz from strong bass notes but it even happens without the radio off; comes and goes too. grrrrrr.......

 

I've had my 2010 Prius for nearly 18 months, 20K miles. Previously a Subaru Impreza Outback, Ford Focus, Mazda 626. This is the quietest of the bunch. Prior to that American cars and they were all body on frame rattle traps.

 

I have had mine for 14 months now and no rattles. I certainly would not let a possible rattle stop me from purchasing one of these cars.

 

So am I.

FWIW, I queried the matter with Toyota in the UK recently, ahead of requesting an extended test drive, and received an email claiming...

"...following feedback from Prius customers and our network of Toyota centres, a number of
product improvements and modifications have taken place in order to resolve this particular
issue. Prius vehicles manufactured after September 2010 have been fitted with improved parts
and to date we have not received any negative feedback relating to any noise or rattles in these
vehicles. We are therefore confident that our process of continuous improvement has
eradicated this concern."

It will be interesting to get real world feedback from owners with a build date later than the September changeover. My test drive example will predate that.

 

Quality Improvement?
I do not know. Hard for me to say. I've only had two other Toyotas, but one was a truck, the other was a sedan.

Mine has 1200 miles on the clock in 1 month, and I'm hearing a minor rattle from the dash area. Important caveat: This is a company car. Even though I lovingly maintain it, I'm not a Prius "Owner". AT&T owns the car. I just drive it, so I don't have a $25,000 reason to say that this car is any better or any worse than it really is. It's also a BONE STOCK BASE model car, so there might be interior differences between mine and a prius with a higher trim level.
Overall, I'd give Toyota good marks for interior fit and finish. Not GREAT marks for a $25-30,000 car, but there are certainly worse choices for the same money. If you're in the market for a Prius you're probably more interested in either the fuel economy (Mine is 48.1 so far) or the little name plate that says it's a Prius than you are in the interior appointments. I'll let the studio audience decide which reason compelled AT&T to buy these cars. Hint:There are probably 10 decals om my car that loudly proclaim who its daddy is!
If rattles bother you, and you're in the market for a new car, I think you should buy a Yaris or a Versa. ALL cars rattle somewhat, and if you're going to be pissed off all the time, you might as well buy the cheapest car you can.

 

I bought a Prius last week that was manufactured in September of 2010. It has rattles and a few I have already fixed. As noted in previous posts, the plastic dampener on the side of the glove box rattles badly. This weekend I will get that fixed.

It is hard to believe that Toyota would design parts like the dampener on the glove box and not know that that they would be a big rattle / noise problem.

In any event, the car has many positive attributes and with some work, I will rid the car of rattles.

 

is this rattle problem like the "runaway accelerator" problem? I gotta say we have no rattles in ours in 14k that I can think of. Maybe I don't pay attention, though...

If you believe that one way to hedge is to buy an ETF like ticker symbol OIL. Not so direct, but there are other ways to counter its rise, if you're sure it will happen.

 

As I said when you first posted this:

 

In most companies, improvement would be constantly happening all the time

 

"Unintended Acceleration" in Toyota products is (was) a money grab by the U.S. tort system...and fortunately it's been largely an unsuccessful one. I mean really...it's hard enough to get a Prius to accelerate INTENTIONALLY...
Same goes for the EMF "concerns", the $8,000 battery replacement cost, and all the other rumors that swirl about this interesting little car.

 

Here is my "rattle story"... I got the car in early March 2010 (built in January) and the rattle appeared on my second day. Bass from music rattled somewhere in the passenger door area and was pretty audible. I was very disappointed but soon realized that rattle comes from the sunglasses box, where I put my sunglasses. It was my glasses, not the box that made the sound.

Now I simply open the box when I listen to rap and hip-hop at full blast.

 

My 2010 had a rattle by the right front passenger door, ending up being the seat belt buckle hitting the interior trim .

 

As far as I know, the car you are driving is a special company/large-business only model package. Does yours not have cruise control, and/or not have an EV button? If so, then it is a very very different beast then anything sold to the general public including fit and finish. So what you are driving is no where close to the design of a true Prius. Not sure why Toyota decided to do that, but I guess there is a reason somewhere...

 

My Prius glove box rattles sometimes and when gas goes up the rattle disappears....

 

I do not know. There are not a large number of Priuses in these parts that I can do a "stare and compare" with. It seems to be a consumer package. I do have Cruise Control, the EV button (I'm still puzzling that feature out!) power this and that, "smart key", etc. It even had Satellite Radio, but AT&T obviously did not opt to subscribe. As far as I know...it's a garden variety base model Prius. Most large companies, especially those who deal with foreign flagged providers, buy regular consumer models---even the military, and Government "G" cars. There's no longer a viable cost benefit to ordering a special run of "fleet" vehicles, and Toyota would probably not oblige even a company the size of AT&T, even if ALL of AT&T vehicles were purchased exclusively through Toyota (they aren't.)

I've actually learned a few things about my new work partner today---I've adopted the hobby of "myth-busting" Prius legends, both good and bad, and I've devoted some leisure time in learning something about these strange little cars.....since I don't get to drive a Prius....I GOT to drive one.
I've always “presumed” that Prius drivers who brag about getting stoopid high gas mileage (my boss is one of these) were either:
1. Exaggerating out their tailpipes.
2. A victim of false instrumentation.
3. Driving their cars on the Bonneville Salt flats with a stiff tail wind.
Thusly I armed myself with a GPS receiver today, filled up the gas tank, and proceeded to violate AT&T work efficiency rules and see how much I can stretch the fuel efficiency of my unit.

Over a 30-mile trip I discovered that the VSS (vehicle speed sensor) is almost dead on, with a +0.5 MPH error. This is unusual with Japanese cars, which are usually off by +5% or so.
That blew my instrumentation theory.
I also discovered that if I turn off the A/C, avoid the interstate, and drive in ECO mode (which I always do anyway), disengage the cruise control, and REEEEEEEEEALLLLY concentrate on the Hybrid status indicator (as opposed to trivial things like traffic and where I am in the road) I can actually get 65.4 MPG on a 30-mile measured run.
That blew the exaggeration theory, and since this area is geologically incompatible with using a salt flat, I can say with some authority that the 50++ MPG claims are somewhat valid.
I also discovered a less obvious reason why some people who don't drive Priuses despise those that do. To this point I always thought it was the self-righteousness of the Prius drivers.
It isn't.
If you get 65.4MPG in a Prius, you represent a hazard to navigation on any road that actually has other vehicles on it. Thank GOD the car has AT&T stickers all over it and none of the people who were shaking their fists at me knew who I was!!!!
So…the STOOPID high MPG myth goes into the “plausible” bin.
I'm going to stay on the "road to discovery" with this interesting little car, but for NOW... AT&T is going to have to keep paying for gas for a vehicle that gets 48MPG (my average over 1100 miles) rather than the 65 that I got today. My life isn’t worth $2 worth of gas, and the Five Star crash rating isn’t a myth I’m willing to prove or bust.

Now....If I can JUST figure out how to use that crazy EV button!!!

Peace.
Out.