Lawsuit Against Toyota on Prius Inverters

Now I can hold off on buying that Gen3 for awhile

 

The way I see is it that the dealership sold prius vehicles to customers, and those customers are coming back saying that inverters a/re overheating and the recall didn't help so customers a/re not happy with him. Word goes a/round that this dealer is selling smitty ca/rs so avoid buying there, dealership reputation is taking the hit because toyota won't get it together.

 

How about the camry hybrid that does 52 mpg?

 

Are they selling for around 5k, some of the gen3's are already.

 

That new Hybrid Camry LE that does 52 mpg is Gen 4 based.

 

The new Camry hybrid looks sharp. Tempting to replace my 2012 Sonata Limited with it. However, I'm not sure I can part with the Sonata as depreciation really took it's toll and i wouldn't get much for it on trade/sell.

By I digress...As for the inverter issue....It will be interesting if they issue a recall at some point. However, I bet Toyota will fight to the death on this one.

 

yeah, someone's death.

 

The basis for the lawsuit may be legitimate but I do think there are biases in this article.

I, and I assume most 2010 to 2014 Prius owners on Priuschat, have had all recalls performed. I have had no decrease in MPG. You would think that there would be reports of poor mileage after the recall if that was a problem. The article, however, speculates that the software fix could lower fuel efficiency and ends the story with a "no comment" from Toyota as if they are hiding lower MPG following the recall. The lawsuit makes no claim of lower MPG, so why does the article stray from the original claim by the Dealer?

 

Basically ^. They're trying to pull a Honda (honda/acura 5at trans) and not actually fix the problem at hand because it is too expensive, but instead just reflash the car to run a little weaker and decrease the likely hood of most owners experiencing the problem. But from what we've experienced the problem is still there. Its the same thing as Apple saying,"Well... guys we know we put really crappy batteries in all of the recent Iphone 6/6s but instead of actually fixing the thing that makes the device crash at 40-60% we think we will just underclock the device a couple notches and it will make it only occur around 15% for a smaller percentage of user from now on." So yeah kinda shady that they would do that. Also when you decrease the rate of exchange of power through the inverter the fuel efficiency will go down as a result. Measurably who knows... But was the product designed to withstand what we were promised? Nah...

 

So far, my inverter has withstood what we were promised. My issue is that if the dealer borks the reflash I have no recourse. They can't return the car to its original state.

 

what kind of skills are required for the reflash?

 

In the back of my mind, I worry a bit that the inverter might go when I'm traveling in a deserted highway. We have several that go through Nevada where you'd better hope you don't experience car problems. OTOH, I have a 15 year/unlimited miles warranty for the part. I don't have hard data, but I always assumed that the number of motorists that get stranded is very low.

 

I remember going in for an alignment and got talked in to letting them do this inverter recall "patch" as it would "only help your car". I cannot say the fuel mileage decreased but by gosh the car became a REAL SLUG on acceleration compared to previously and no, it did not improve. That seat of the pants acceleration feeling (even for a Prius) was noticeably absent compared to before. I took it back the next day and said "undo it" and they said nope. I had a melt down. Screaming is sometimes cathartic. No big deal to those service writers, they'd seen melt downs numerous times. I wrote a nice letter to Toyota. "F" them. I hope they pay big for a long time on this one. I loved my 2011 Gen III a lot more before this recall. Still have it at 176,000 miles and going strong (but it's slower than before the recall).

 

Geez and here I am thinking the inverters have rock solid reliability. Are you guys just being paranoid or have there actually been a statistically significant number of failures? As an active member of this community for quite some time...I have seen very few threads about inverter failure. And this is the place failure threads would show up...right?

 

My hope is that if there is a recall, replacement parts would be redesigns so the car would not have deminished performance. After the recall to reflash the ECM/PTM, my cars performance was drastically affected negatively. Before the recall it was pretty peppy for a hybrid.

 

Agree with you on the performance aspect. Unfortunately, that seems like it would be rather difficult to prove in court? I'm certianly not a lawyer though.

 

I would guess that the overall H/P claims are way below advertised figures after the reflash/ recall. Sort of a factory de-tune as it were. Could be some problems (class action) ahead for Toyota.

 

Just a thought: What if a Corvette owner receive a recall notice to de-tune his/ her 565 H/P back to 495 H/P? I might be comparing horses and apples but that’s what it boils down to.

 

i doubt there have been 'a statistically significan't' number of failures, but between the failures, and the complaints of low mpg, or impeded performance, it certainly is interesting.

 

Lower horsepower, slower acceleration, combined with worse fuel economy? Doesn't make sense.