problems encountered with 2014 prius

Were on our first Prius, and Toyota, after being solidly Honda since the early eighties. My take so far:

Very similar feeling in the dealerships, maybe a little less friendly towards the do-it-yourself re, but not bad.

So far our Prius has been very trouble free, two recalls handled well.

The dash style is quirky, to say the least. It grows on you, but there's some basic info (coolant temp for example) missing. And I'll never get used to the instruments being centred on the dash. Maybe next gen will remedy that.

I still occasionally have the opportunity to drive our previous Honda Civic Hybrid, and it feels a step down now. Granted it has a lot more miles and years, but all-in-all not as smooth of a car.

And the Prius easily achieves 20% better mileage; it's battery is much more capable, and is the sole propulsion a lot of the time. That in itself is a real eye opener.

 

The Civic batteries have a spotty past. Our's had the battery that deteriorated, going from bad to worse. It FINALLY threw a code, and Honda came through with a gratis replacement (to their credit), but the experience as a whole? I wouldn't buy one.

 

The Prius has been one of the most reliable Toyotas, and even with the recent recalls, that's saying something.
Most of the problems in the GIII model have now been identified and fixed, so the 2014 should be the most reliable year so far.
My 2012 had to go in for the inverter recall/reprogramming but that's it (knocking on wood).
But as always, you pays your money and takes your chances.

 

have you considered the new accord hybrid? best mpg's of any car on the road.

 

Why is this better than the Prius?
Regular Gasoline
47
Combined
50
City
45
Highway

 

Prius is actually classified as a midsize due to all the ample legroom. The problem with the civics is it's not a full parallel hybrid, it's a motor assisted hybrid. The electric motor can't run on it's own and is too underpowered. Honda had tons of battery problems because in order to get near the prius's mileage ratings, they had to deep cycle their battery pack, whereas the toyota hybrid don't deep cycle the pack, which makes them inherently more reliable.

The prius drivetrain design is unchanged from the first generation. They bored out the motor to 1.8L from 1.5L, added vvt and other tweaks. But the layout is the same, so it's a 15+ year old design, and all the tweaks have only made it more reliable.

 

-Excluding EVs- (which are still not really practical due to short ranges and are especially not practical in places like Canada), your govt. (epa) fuel economy listing has Prius as first (tied between hatchback and C) at 50 MPG combined.
Honda's are Mickey Mouse engineered. Too cheap to license the proper technology from Toyota. Ditto for most others. Ford and Nissan do license Toyota's technology yet still don't beat the Prius mileage.
Ford developed their own, realized it was infringing and licensed it. Then paid Toyota to help them improve it.
The "Smart Car" is not so smart. Too small and fuel inefficient. Even in diesel form.
Even most highway capable motorcycles burn more fuel than a Prius.

So relax, and enjoy the blinking lights on the MFD while you squeeze more miles from each gallon than everyone else.
Some day EVs might become practical, and if/when they do, I'll be in there supporting them. But it ain't happening yet!
I wonder if any Canadians with a Prius plugin would care to comment on what happens at -20 to -40C. I presume the engine has to run to avoid passenger freezeup.

 

he seems to like honda's.

 

You are ill informed. The engine in the first and second gen was derived from the Echo/Yaris engine. The 1.8L is not a "rebore" but a brand new design from ground up and derived from Corolla engine. All prius engines had the VVT from the beginning (as all toyota engines since early 2000 or so). But you are right, the hybrid system itself is an evolutionary progress.

 

In terms of function I think of the G3 engine as the 1.8 that came out of the Corolla after it has been atkinsonized and EGR added. I do not minimize the effort that went into the modification.

 

I live in North Dakota and we reach temps of -40 to -60F below zero in the winter. The engine does run more, but once you drive around long enough the engine heats up provided you don't put a lot of draw on the heater. Seat warmers become your friend and I will say the prius heated seats will roast you where you sit. So in the end it balances out.

 

I've had my 2014 Prius now for two weeks. Runs like a new car , very pleased with it. The only "down" side is learning how to use the fancy-pants NAV/sound system. Once you've figured that out, and learned how to drive a Prius, you should be all set. I trust Toyota quality to make sure the car will stand up over the years. I had a 2006 Pontiac Vibe (actually a Toyota Matrix) for six years and never had a problem with it. Ran like a top. In short, so far, so good. Hope you ended up buying a 2014 Prius. I suspect there ain't many left out there at this point.

 

major problem.... I can't stop loving it!

I'm at around 600 miles on the ODO and my first fillup on 1 blinking bar was 9.6 gallons. My commuting shows I average 15mph, and getting over 50mpg instead of wasting gas idling in my old ICE only car which got 24.25mpg

 

We have always been Toyota fans and since I was a kid we have owned 13 Toyota's, 1o of which are still at our house. From my experience the most reliable toyotas are the ones with the J at the beginning of the vin. I haven't owned a Prius very long but I suspect it will easily do 250k+ miles without any major issues. We had a 4runner that we ran into the ground and sold it a 280k miles and it would have easily broke 300k if we kept it. I know some toyotas like the late 90s and early 00s corollas and the Camry don't have the best track record but the prius so far has an excellent track record.

 

Sorry for the essay. Figured I'll share my experiences with my priuses so you can have something else to look at if you decide to get one.

Bought a 2012 prius c back in March 2013. No problems with the car itself, but the acceleration is kind of meh. However, I knew that going in, and I was coming from a 93 Honda Civic, so power-wise it was roughly the same. I was also willing to buy new to avoid buying a car that had a "history" behind it (aka, used car). Had to do some pretty expensive repairs on the civic, including two head gaskets and cv boot/ball joint.

I bought a liftback trim five (the regular prius) last month due to the nice incentives they had (got the $1000 cash back + 0% financing for 60 months. Usually you only get one or the other, and it looks like they extended this deal into September as well), and sold the c to my brother with about 19,000 miles on it so he has a more reliable and fuel-efficient vehicle to use. So far no issues with it either. Planning to keep the cars for at least ten years, so we should be getting good use out of them.

In case you're curious, consumer reports did a little research on hybrid reliability of civic hybrids and priuses. Notice that the civics have a high amount 5-32% depending on year, while the prius has anywhere from 0.1-5%. While the fails were probably covered under warranty, this should tell you how reliable a prius is, so long as you don't beat them up anyway. And the 2010 civic hybrid's 32% failure rate is pretty alarming for a car that's only four years old or so, and probably what hybrid-bashers talk about when they mention hybrids being crappy cars. But they'll conveniently ignore the prius numbers.

Honda Civic Hybrid Battery Reliability | Hybrid Batteries - Consumer Reports News

 

Other cars beat the Prius in every category, but no car scores so highly across the board, when all categories are combined.

That's why I bought one.

 

i wonder if the o/p wound up with an accord.