How bad are the 2010s?

Toyota Prius Stalling Problems Continue - Details of Dealer Lawsuit

Three recalls to fix more than 800,000 cars have allegedly not remedied tens of thousands of reported failures. Say 50,000 that would be 6.25%. 40,000 is 5%.

 

i may be mistaken, but i don't see anywhere in the article stating facts, just vomiting out what others have said and written.

there have been tons of recalls performed for perfectly fine working prius, but the number that have actually stalled on the street is unknown, but i could be missing it.

we have had a few reported here, and we get a lot of prius complaints

 

Toyota expands Prius recall, reveals up to 20,000 hybrid inverters failed - Los Angeles Times

20,000/800,000 = about 2.5%

 

Again, read the article. 20,000 vehicles came in to have the recall performed, not for repair due to breakdown

 

That’s the sad state of ‘journalism ‘ today

 

Almost as sad as the mechanical adeptness of some mechanics.

 

No it says, "
Tom Trisdale, vice president for product quality at Toyota Motor Sales USA, the company’s marketing arm, testified on June 11 that the company had received 18,000 to 20,000 warranty claims for inverters covered by the recall. A Toyota spokesman declined to comment on that number.

In January, Toyota told its engineering consultant Exponent, which it has used to help defend legal claims in the past, to begin analyzing the inverters and instructed dealers to send all failed inverters directly to Exponent, according to testimony. As of March, 830 inverters and components had been sent to Exponent over a 50-day period, a rate of about 17 per day.

The company agreed in 2014 to replace the inverters under an extended warranty coverage if they did fail, but chose not to replace all of the inverters with a newer design that was released at some point in 2014."

18-20k warranty claims for the inverter. It does look like they changed the inverter sometime in 2014 though.

 

poor writing. does 'the company had received 18-20,000 warranty claims' mean that many claims were honored?

possibly

 

if so, would that be 3%?

 

It sounds like the consumer went to their dealer, dealer saw the inverter was defective, & initiated a warranty claim then. There are no warranty claims for the recall b/c that's a program for all Prisues. To be eligible for the warranty the car has to have undergone the recall service.

 

you could be right, i'm having a hard time with the wording

 

I would purchase a 2010, but only if it was very low mileage and you plan to sell/trade before 150K miles.

 

Why 150k miles? I think the 2010 is 'ok' if your budget truly is limited, but we're talking about a '10 being sometimes a few hundred dollars cheaper than a '12-'15 if you're willling to travel cross country.

The oil burning problem doesn't seem to be a huge issue if you just check your oil weekly/monthly. Most people can't be bothered to do that, & I learned to do so the painful way after our '02 Camry V6 lost oil & engine seized on the highway after the Toyota dealership worked on it a day or two before. We think they didn't screw something on properly, or there was some leak after they worked on it. But that car would have kept going another ten years if it wanted to @ only 150k miles a year or so ago.

The inverter is cheap to replace.

So all that's left really is the oil burning, brake actuator, and a/c compressor & incident rates seem to be less than 1-5% of it occurring. I would just plan on socking away $40/month (cut the home TV bill or switch to prepaid phone service), and over 5 years that's $2400 saved.

That said I think it's best to get a '15 if budget permits.

 

You are forgetting about the head gasket and battery issues. Between 150K - 250K, there is a high probability of one (or both) of those issues developing. The HV battery failure is inevitable on any hybrid but I think most will agree that it is extremely rare before 150K. Most of the HG issues develop after 150K as well.

The early Gen 3's are the most prone to head gasket failures but the later ones are not immune either. I semi-recently helped another member with 2014 that experienced a failure at high mileage (over 200K).

 

is the head gasket issue the EGR assembly issue? The battery can be replaced for about $2k.

 

For those of you who use Consumer Reports, all these problems don't seem to effect the owners of all years on Gen 3 Prii who respond to Consumer Reports annual auto surveys. Those cars are reported to be very very reliable.

 

Get the transmission oil changed (every 60,000 miles), inspect the EGR assembly/valve (clean it), and install an oil can to help avoid issues if you wanna keep this for a long time.

 

Nathan, good luck with your new purchase, I hope it is a good vehicle for you. I recently sold my 2010 with 270K miles on it to purchase a 2018 Prius Prime. I loved my 2010. The only real issues I had was a failure of both rear wheel bearings. It did not burn oil. The 12v and traction battery were original when I sold it. I did all my own maintenance including oil changes (somewhere between 5-10k miles), transmission @ 60K, coolants @ 120K, spark plugs as needed, and cleaned the EGR passages ~100K.
I personally think a lot of the issue with burning oil is related to driving these cars hard. I may get mocked but I rarely drove over 70mph.
Another problem you can google was the prius startup knock/rattle due to water being ingested into cylinders from the EGR system. Toyota released a new intake manifold to combat the issue. Since water is non-compressible it causes a knock and very high pressure for the short time before it exhausts out of the cylinder. I personally think this may be a factor contributing to head gasket failure. I never had the intake replaced on my vehicle since it was out of warranty when I purchased it. I found that I could mitigate the issue by never turning off the vehicle by pressing the power button until the ICE had shut off on its own. Lots of good people and experience here, and still a great vehicle IMHO.

 

congrats, all the best!