Precollision unavailable

It has been a while and I've gotten nowhere yet. The first trip to the dealer got me nothing. There was a code that told them nothing and since it was working at that point, there was noting to do. It failed again and this time I drove it straight to the dealer with the message on the screen and they worked on it for a while. Again, they could come up with nothing. At this point they said they found body damage and though that might be it. I told them it was in a minor tap from a driver turning to make a turn while my wife was waiting for the light. The dealer seized on that as the problem and said it they would have to tear up the front end. I pointed out that THEY had done the repair and so if there was a problem it was STILL their problem. Without missing a beat he said to get an extension to the insurance claim to cover the work they had to do. Sheeeesh.

At this point we are working with the insurance company to get the case reopened so we can continue. I'll post more when I get more. At this rate, it could be more months. I'm becoming disappointed with the dealer. The last time I had a tire pressure alert and the dealer said I had a nail in the tire and it was a slow leak. He quoted $200 for the tire and he did not have it in stock. Lucky for me. I took the car to my local mechanic and he plugged the tire for $15. He was bewildered as to why the dealer did not fix it for me. When I told him that the dealer had said it was in the sidewall and unrepairable, my mechanic showed me it was right in the center of the tire. As I said, disappointing. As soon as I get this problem fixed, I'll take furore work to my mechanic.

 

I thought I'd update this story a bit. I did not realize how long I've been fighting to get this fixed. The pre-collision is in a hard failure now, and cruise control no longer works either ... at least intermittently. So my wife got to the insurance company and had them reopen the claim. I sent the info to the dealer the very next day and brought the car in a few days later. After a couple of hours, I was told that they had to call the insurance company ... which is what they said they did when I gave them the info and they told me to bring it in. They also said they needed a tool and a part and would have them airfreighted to them. Now this is puzzling, how do they know what tool and what part they need if they tell me they don't know what is wrong?

In any case, I took my car home and about a month later I am STILL waiting for them to act. The last word was ... you guessed it ... they are AGAIN waiting to hear from the insurance company. This is kind of a shame. I really loved my dealer. I had a great experience with them when I bought the car. They went above and beyond to help me with my purchase. But now that I'm a customer, I seem to be on my own. I reached out to the owner of the dealership but have not heard back yet.

Has anyone heard anything about this pre-collision problem? Anyone else had it?

I guess the other issue is that I have 23K miles on the car now so it goes out of warranty very shortly. What do you think? Is it time to write to Japan for help? I'm starting to get a sense of de javu ... it feels like the HID headlight problem all over again.

 

Thank you for that suggestion. The dealer monitors this forum and he just got back to me. I was kind of hair trigger because of the endless waiting with no end in sight. Fortunately, the owner of the dealership is a calm person. I just got a call from the Service Manger (no doubt prompted by the intervention by the owner) and it looks like the log jam may be breaking up. YAY.

 

Been there, done that, have a nice collection of scars to show. So far, this dealer has been great. I never thought I'd say it but I'm quite happy with them. Of course things could always go south. Fingers crossed.

 

O.K. Another couple of months have gone by. They "fixed" it by realigning the radar sensors. It was out of alignment by 0.5 degrees or something like that. YAY, it was fixed ... up until it wasn't. Same old problem is back ... no pre-collision and no cruise control. Now new symptoms:

- the Nav system freezes and,
- the hands free Bluetooth phone can't hear the other side of the call.

<sigh>

It has been four and a half hours and I checked with them and was told that the radio software was out of date and needed updating and that would fix everything. (Any of you think that will be the case? Anyone want to buy a bridge in NYC?)

My only problem with the Prius USED TO BE that it was made by Toyota. A really disreputable company. Now it seems as if they can't make a car anymore. I'm thinking that this is my last Prius. Time to try something new. Maybe a Tesla? O.K. Time to get my 10th cup of coffee ....