Are Prius' PRONE to SQUEAKS & RATTLES?

It is not a luxury car. It is just above an economy grade car. The interior is normal for its class.

False. The drivetrain is simple and easy to produce. Moreso than an automatic transmission. This is a fallacy.

The GenIII has more complaints than the GenII with rattles and squeaks. However just as many have no problems. It seems like a crap shoot. Those that get them, some fix it with sticky tape or things like that. My advice would be to testdrive the car, and make sure there are no rattles. Then buy that one, problem mitigated.

Something else to consider, the Prius is so very quiet creeping around that you notice the rattles more. Without a giant engine, little squeaks become more prevalent.

And you already know you are comparing a luxury car to an economy car. It is not going to work 1:1. If you want a luxury hybrid, check out the Lexus CT200h. But you loose the utility of the Prius, and about 10mpg. If that is worth it to you, then go for it.

As for personal experience, I have a 2006 and I have 0 rattles or squeaks. The only time I get a rattle it is because I left some change in the cupholder. After scooping it up everything is A-OK.

 

Any car made with plastic, vinyl, metal, synthetics, glass,rubber, etc. is going to squeak. I don't care if it's upscale Lexus, Beemers, or Prius. 'nuff said!

 

I had noticed some but I haven't been noticing any lately. I think there's more squeaks in cold weather.

If you search the forums you'll find some complaints, but you'll also find some things people did to fix rattles and squeaks.

 

We have 2 Gen 3 Prii and live in So. California, where the weather ranges from mild to hot. Fifty degrees F is a cold day for us and it seldom gets into the 30s. A couple of mornings this winter, the temperature approached freezing and I noticed some plastic rattles from the interior of our blue Prius. The rattles went away as the interior temperature of the car warmed. My wife has also noticed a some, uncharacteristic, squeaks in her silver Prius on cold mornings, although they disappeared during her commute. Based on this limited observation and the reports I have read from others, I believe that the notorious Prius squeaks and rattles, that are rare in our 2 Prii, are caused by reduced pliability of the plastic interior panels when they are cold. If this hypothesis is correct, the squeaks and rattles that you will encounter in a Gen 3 Prius will substantially depend on the interior temperature of the car and, perhaps, whether your car sleeps in the garage on cold nights.

 

yes,w/out question the prius is the most rattle prone car i ever had. it is worse in the winter time. i refuse to even drive it unless i have to. thankfully my wife is more tolerable with noises and it is her dd.

 

Having a Cadillac as my previous car (yes, I used to be one of "those"!), I noticed the rattles and ticks right away. But I was so enamored with owning a hybrid that for 6 months, I overlooked them. After awhile, it starts to bug you though, especially if you don't use your radio that much. Yes, one solution is to "turn up the volume" (LOL), but I eventually took mine into the dealership for dash quieting. They did a nice job, but there are still so many other rattles and buzzes that I had to do some debugging of my own. I have a friend with a Prius that was built just 2 month's prior to mine and it is perfect. Go figure - as someone said here...it's a crap shoot.

 

Yeah....
The Prius is a rattle-trap.

I've got 10,000 miles in type, and it's by far noisier (especially when it's cold outside!) than my 09 Sierra or my 06 Envoy. It's also by far more economical to drive, in addition to being somewhat easier to park----despite having atrocious rearward visibility and horrible mirrors.

Priuses are small cars with very little sound insulation and plasticky interiors (the government says they’re a mid-sized car---TIFWIW!) If you're looking for Infinity’s interior quality...or power, or whatever…then you're going to have to pay Infinity's MSRP and put up with Infinity's fuel inefficiencies. Same for BMW...Mercedes....etc.
Toyota is not what you would call a top shelf brand.
There probably are kids with Corolla or Prius posters in their bedrooms, but they’re almost certainly statistical outliers.

Still....if you drive over 20,000 some odd miles per year there are probably not many cars out there that can deliver the economy and dependability that Priuses do, without having to drive a car that will have your kids wanting you to drop them off 5 blocks from their school---which is one of the reasons why it's getting harder and harder to find Priuses sitting on showroom floors.
OK….so your kids might still not want you to drop them off at the school’s front door with a Prius either after rolling an Infinity, but that’s life.
The good news is that, if you're clubbing down from a luxury brand, then you can afford one of the more expensive trim levels. It's still going to have felt-thin carpet, almost no sound insulation, and Yaris-like plastic interior components, but you’ll have some interesting doo-dads to play with while you’re driving to work, and the seats might have some leather-like (or even for-real leather----I do not know) covering.
There are more plebian cars out there to drive. (Yaris, Fit, Versa, Aveo, Rio, Fiesta, etc…) and there is a certain Eco-chic factor that attaches itself to Prius ownership since it is the king of the MPG mountain.

YOU have to figure out what you’re willing to put into your next car, and what you want out of it and that’s going to be up to you.

Good Luck!

 

I have noises in mine also. I have the dealer fix every one of them. I don't buy the plastic excuse. I got the service manager personally involved and told him what I expect. I only have 10k on mine. It goes to the dealer tomorrow for the 10k service and there will be a new list of noises. He originally told me the plastic excuse. I told him that it didn't do it when it was new so I want it fixed. It took him 3 days the first time. We will see how long it take this time.

Remember, its under warranty. Toyota wrote the warranty that say's all defects will be repaired. If squeaks and rattles are normal then get it in writing. That will never happen. Otherwise honor the warranty and fix it.

Then you get the "we can't reengineer the car" excuse. Ask them to call tech service with you to see if the squeaks and rattles are "engineered" into the vehicle. I would pull my camera phone out and tell him you want to get this on video.

My guess is the car will be rattle free in a few days. Stick to you guns. The warranty is on your side.

 

I started noticing rattles on my 2006 after I read about said rattles here on PC. Then I forgot about it and didn't hear the rattles. Whenever I read a "rattle thread" here, I notice them again. :cheer2:

Turn on the radio or put some music on if it bothers you that much.

 

Yes, the Gen 3 Prius is prone to squeaks & rattles. Try a search--there are many threads discussing this.

My experience has been that my Prius is--by far--the noisiest car I've ever owned, in terms of interior noises, and also exterior noise transmission to the interior.

I've been fortunate enough to own many luxury and sports cars, but also owned a few Fords, a Volvo, and a VW early in my driving life, and none of them came close to the noise level of my Prius.

Having said that, I am very happy with my Prius. Sure, it isn't as quiet, fast or luxurious as previous cars, but I knew that going in (except the interior noise is much worse than I expected), but those aren't the attributes that made me decide to get a Prius.

 

My first Prius was a Gen II 2008 year. It's noise problem was tires getting noisy after lots of miles. The car always was quiet.

Now have a Gen III 2010 ... over 51,000 miles and running great. Still on the factory tires. This one has the 17 inch tires and they ride quiet and silky smooth.

The only body rattles or noise ... one big crunch when we got rear ended at a red light by a kid on a cell phone. The body shop did a good job and the car remained quiet and rattle free. On a couple of occasions in very cold weather, a minor rattle in the dash somewhere which went away after a few days.

I have owned and/or driven cars from a Geo Metro to 5 ton trucks, including big Lincolns, Chryslers, and Buicks. I will say that my 2010 with the 17" tires is as good a road car as anything I have ever driven in 45 years ... smooth, quiet, ride and handling, effortless cruising for hours at 80+ MPH ... and still averaging 47.5 MPG over 51,000 miles.

We have been on three major multi state trips and the car still runs like new. Mobil 1 by the dealer every 10,000 miles ... per Toyota service schedule.

Don't just think about getting a Prius ... go out and get it!

 

No rattles or squeaks for me. No change in different weather conditions. I have had mine for more than a year and 28K miles, and no sound from the dash or other bits. Temp ranges from the teens to upper 90's.

I also don't carry a lot of junk around in my car (tripod and umbrella max) so there is not a lot of noise from errant cargo. Perhaps that makes a difference.

Now that I think of it, the noisiest car I had was due to lots of CD cases in the center console and door pockets. That sound transfers to the dash.

 

you must own a dealership.

 

We don't find it to be a rattle trap at all. Yes, there is a noise that comes from the right hand dashboard, sounds more like a scratching than a rattle.

To label the Prius a rattle trap is hogwash.......

 

Oh, you poor baby. Does isms want to go back to his old gas hog?
Sorry about your Prius. I'm not having such problems with mine.

 

A Prius is an upgrade from any other car on the road. It is a true performance car--i.e. performance in the sense of what all cars ought to do (gas mileage performance). Fun to drive, feels good to save money and be eco-friendly, and mine is whisper-quiet except for a bad wheel alignment which cupped a tire off the lot, now fixed.

Rattles? Sure, I get 'em but only when I put hard objects carelessly in the glove box. Mine lives from +95 degrees to -25 below in New England, but I have the advantage of a garage.

By the visceral tone of the OP, I believe we may have a troll from GM or Ford.

 

My Gen III's rattles are directly proportional to the amount of crap I have in the glove compartment, and how much change is in the cup holder!

 

I had more rattles in my 2004 (dash around the center speaker) than I've experienced in my 2011 with 3K miles it so far.

Bob.