CR's Prius Reliability Rating Drops to Average

Do you have a link?

 

Yep, but ignore the brakes which is a red herring, and the Prius continues to reign supreme. I suspect without proof that the survey results of body hardware mostly represents a more critical audience in that area. People who buy the Prius for its green and tech attributes don't care as much about the occasional plastic squeak than the current demographic that tends to emphasize 'driver experience.'

In short, same car but different owner group.

 

What brake problem in 2011 are they complaining about?

 

Most likely newbe Prius owners complaining about "Braking loss" when a wheel slips at low speed. When they discover that the brakes last 200k miles maybe they will change their minds.

JeffD

 

The 2010 recall.

 

CR's target audience is the "average consumer". So any negative experience from what an "average consumer" expects will reduce the ratings e.g. the Prius braking characteristics.

 

However, a characteristic isn't the same as reliability.
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The government is doing the best that it can to discredit the Prius ... so "the car of the year" will be perceived as great. It has been reported on other threads that CR has no choice (by their standards) but to lower the overall rating when a recall has been issued.

 

I'd guess given the high profile recall of numerous Toyota models, and the hysteria and negative publicity across the board..that Toyota models across the spectrum will suffer a reliabilty ratings drop for this model year.

It's unfair...but the breaks of the game.

Actually I think it's a testament to the faith and trust that Toyota has fostered that ratings aren't lower.

Barring some major unforeseen catastrophe I would expect a rebound next year and with ratings as a whole "moving forward".

 

it is due to the software brake TSB... and CR still calls it their pick so....

 

It's quite amazing, despite the bad year Toyota/Prius has had, the Prius is still selling like hotcakes.

 

Used 2010s are going to be great buys in a couple of years.

 

The basic problem is that CR's method of establishing a Reliability rating can produce misleading results and, at least in this case, they made insufficient effort to point out why the particular rating may not reflect reliability. A general disclaimer does not cut it.

 

I had a coworker waving this around at me like a flag as proof that I better get rid of my "piece of junk" before I "get killed or it craps out on the side of the road". I'm not really sure a CR rating of Average when based on a misunderstood brake issue can be considered necessarily to be a bad thing.

I asked her as politely as possible to shove it someplace uncomfortable.

 

No big, so it gets average rel. rating by CR. People who know Toyota won't worry about that too much ... they will concern themselves with getting a car that does 50 MPGs average.

Amazing how some people think their conventional cars are all that. They're just like any other car - turn on engine, stays on til trip over. Conventionals are going down eventually.

People just like to have their extra bit of acceleration from one red light to the next. See it all the time, they speed up too much, then have to brake harder, stop at next light. They have no clue how to really drive a car - for maximum efficiency.

 

CR has lost most credibility with me. Their calling the iPhone 4 unacceptable (antenna-gate) was the last straw for me.

 

Hi Jeff
I am new today on PriusChat.
A while back some service manuals were on here
for download. I can't seem to open the file!!
Do you know which software program can open
the 06 to 09??
Thank you
Tom
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Keep in mind this is their "predicted reliability." Predictions aren't always 100% correct. And they base their scores off of subscriber surveys.