Any fix for rough ride in a 2011 Prius Three

Way, way, too, too many personal, physical issues with you to find the right car for you in this price range. Most all cars now a days are designed with handling as the primary goal of the manufactures and engineers. As a result you're going to get a firmer ride in most mid-priced cars. You need a car with ride control.

 

This. You've had it two years and now you're griping about the ride? How many miles are on it? What kind of driving do you do?

 

Shocks are normally good until 100k miles. At 5,500 miles, it may be defective or you drive in very bumpy road (doubt it is that bad). Try to get them to replace under warranty.

Change them out and see if it gets better. Front struts are $97 each. Rear shocks are $34 each. You can get all 4 with ground shipping for $286. There will be labor to install which any local shops can do.

 

[I have had issues with the ride from the get-go, but thought that I would get used to it and that it would not be a problem.[/quote]

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!

 

Well, it's not the car. It's you. My "relevant suggestions" would be check tire pressure and adjust to factory specs, look into a softer riding tire, maybe look into some kind of seat cushion, or just getting a different car.

 

You should ask your dealer to test drive the same make and model of the newer cars and see if those feel the same as yours. This would help you understand if what your feeling is a normal characteristic of the car or if there might be something indeed wrong with your suspension that the techs are missing.


I have a Five with the 17" wheels and low profile (less forgiving than the 15") and my car drives fairly smooth.

 

Let's start with what is your previous car?
Does your previous car ride smooth?
Everything is relative.

 

Does not make sense to me.
If you think a Gen II smoother than a Camry Hybrid, somethings wrong.

 

If I read it right, the issue started 1.5 years ago when the car was new. You just want to fix it now and not sure if Toyota will do it under warranty, right?

 

Nice! So looks like we can rule out that your issues with the suspension are due to faulty parts workmanship.

I see you resolving this in a few different ways...

1) find an automotive upholstery shop to add extra padding in the driver and passenger seats.
2) consider installing a wider and more comfortable tire and run air pressure at the factory recommended settings.

 

Suspension mods to improve handling or load capacity are common. Mods to soften the ride are not.
Softer spring rates run the risk of allowing the car to bottom out easier. These cars have little ground clearance and thus limited suspension travel.
A Camry or Avalon would probably be the smoothest Toyota models to consider. Given how few miles your car gets in a year you could maybe trade across to one of those preowned, even if it had 30,000 or 40,000 miles on it. It's unlikely that you'd wear one out in less than 15 years.
Food for thought...

 

Agree, when I replaced the original Yokohama tires with Goodyear fuel max, road noise and roughness went down about 50%. I initally saw about a 2 mpg drop with the Goodyear fuel max tires, but mpg seems to have returned to normal now that they have 8000 miles on the tires.

The Goodyear tires at 44 psi are still much quiter and smoother riding than the original Yokohama's at 36 psi.

 

That's a good point. As tires worn out, the ride will become shitty. However, he only has 5,500 miles in 1.5 years. That's like 3,000 miles per year.