2011 Prius - Windshield triples light source images

Your dealer should have asked you to call the Toyota Care 800 number to open a case for you. Once that is done they should be able to get your dealer to replace the windshield. You would think they could do that legwork for you but that seems to be the process.

 

PM Amit R - I don't know what the status of his situation is and he may consider it. Was the other guy featured in the ABC 7 story.

 

Yes it's laminate glass, but when a typical windshield guy simply kicks out the windshield, it shatters, and little shards do come off of the windshield. The guy they used did not use a windshield extractor. There was glass dust and shards all through the interior. I even found one in the trunk area. Windshield glass is under extreme stresses and when it does break, little pieces tend to shoot off everywhere.

 

That sucks. Was it at the dealer done by dealership employees or a outside glass shop that came in for glass work? I would have never driven the car off the lot like that.

Mike

Mobile on my SGH-i717

 

I have had many windshields replaced before, and I have never had anyone break a windshield to remove it. Sounds terribly unprofessional to me.

 

I registered complaints everywhere I could think of. The one that got a response leading to the replacement, believe it or not, was a complaint I filed on the Better Business Bureau website. I got no response from the 800 number or the NTSB website. The dealer had no leverage with Toyota. They coulnd't replace it without Toyotas ok. Also, at that time, even if they did, it would've still had the same issue. Not until I registered a complaint with BBB, did I get a direct response from Toyota. They asked me which dealer I would like to have do the replacement. They sent windshield directly to dealer, but then had their own engineers from Toyota do the replacement...

 

It was done at Hilltop Toyota (Richmond?, CA) and was coordinated by Toyota's SF Regional Office. They had a 3rd party replace the glass. Apparently that's how its done over here, or at least it was in my case as they were 1 day away from an arbitration breach of contract...

I definitely would not have driven away with the car in that condition if I had noticed. I picked up the car in the evening so we could check to see if the issue persisted (which it did). Because of the darkness, the glass was not noticeable until the morning after.

 

Hello. This is my first post. I am considering buying a 2013 Prius or Prius C.

I am aware that there have been issues with the windshield on some models causing light sources to appear doubled, tripled, or otherwise ghosted in some way.

There is a lengthy thread on this forum about the effect in the 2011 Prius. It seems the conclusion was that the design of the curvature and rake combined with the glass manufacturing process may be to blame. In any case it seems to be very common and not something dealerships will or can fix, or acknowledge as a problem. I see also from NHTSA reports of the problem in the 2012.

Can anyone tell me what models and years are affected? 2013 Prius or Prius C? 2012 Prius C? Others?

I know the "best" way to tell might be to just try it, but the dealership closes at 8 PM and this time of year here sunset is not till after 8:30 PM and it would probably be after 9:30 PM before it would be dark enough to make an accurate judgment.

 

Last December I bought a Toyota Prius. Ever since I got the car, I have been seeing triple image through windshield. Especially the light sources. Every light source appear as 3. A major safety concern.


Toyota claimed this is impossible in spite of it is well documented on the web. 5 Months ago dealer kept the car for 2 days and verified the problem. They brought more cars from the lot and they all had the same problem


After many months of phone calls and 2 separate case numbers, yesterday Toyota rep called to say, there is no solution for the windshield. I told them, I already filed a complaint with US Consumer Protection Agency (this is true) and will contact a Lemon Law lawyer, NHTSA and DA's office by Monday.


This morning I received multiple calls from Toyota. They all told me, a solution is found for my windshield. They have developed a special and custom windshield for me, which will eliminate this problem. This windshield is so special, no one in the world have it. (Not sure about this) Windshield will be manufactured within a week, and I will be the first one in U.S.A. to receive this windshield. WOW!!!!!

I will post updates once I get the windshield replaced.

 

Did they also say "trust me"?

 

LOL - That last paragraph sounds exactly, word for word, what they told me when they had miraculously pulled a windshield out of their butt with one day left on the arbitration agreement we had. It was being expedited from Japan and everything and had been completely redesigned by the MFG under Toyota's instruction. Turned out to not fix a thing and they still had to buy the car back. Don't get your hopes up yet, and keep your lawyer in the loop. Do NOT go for arbitration unless you really want to keep the car.

Issue here is tied to the glass MFG, not Toyota. AGC Automotive is the problem and they're spreading their love all over a number of car companies. Nissan Leaf and Honda Accord Plug-in both have the problem in at least 80% of their cars from my own testing.

 

Hey guys. don't mean to hijack this thread as I know some of you are having active discussions but I just wanted to figure this out before my family puts down 26 gs for the car.we are about to buy a 2013 toyota prius three. I am in NJ but because it is summer its really hard to get a chance to drive the car at night. The sun usually sets about the time the dealer closes. I did have a chance to drive the car when it was semi dark and I did notice some blurriness when approaching red lights as well as headlights. Couldn't see the triple image but dealer is a bit stingy and will only let me go around the block. Based on youtube vids, it seems the issue is more present in a city/ hwy setting with lots of approaching headlights or multiple traffic signals. Is there some easy test I could do to see if new car has this during the test drive since I can't get a good night time experience, liking that laser pointer idea somebody posted where you shine the pointer at the windshield to see if you see more than one dot.

I apologize if this has already been addressed in the thread but I wanted to know if this windshield issue is something that can just be put up with. How bad does it hinder visibility, could you quantify it as a % 30-40%? I saw in the video that Arawlani states he cannot drive at night and some other owner said he almost hit a pedestrian. This scares me.

I see some of you guys are even going through the trouble of arbitration which causes me to believe this is not something that you can just live with and accept as a quirk of the vehicle.

I checked out that google spreadsheet and saw that of the forty vehicles listed there were two that did not have the problem. As some have mentioned, maybe this is just an issue with certain batches of glass made by AGC. I see lots of priuses in my area (about 4-5 per day) and according to dealer it is the 2nd best seller after camry. So I can't help but wonder that if this is a widespread issue are all these other owners just ignorant of the problem or are we just in the early stages of another mass toyota recall. Then again this thread is in the top four for activity for gen 3s.

Bottomline, would you still buy the car despite the windshield visibility. The problem is I really like almost every aspect of the car given the excellent fuel economy and cargo space and it kills me to have to pass on the vehicle just because of the windshield.

Based on wiki sales figures there are at least 400,000 of these gen 3 prii out on the road in the US alone, but could all of these cars have this defect or maybe just a small group ~50,000 (just speculating)?

I'm assuming this is still present in the 2013 model since Toyota/AGC glass replacements don't even fix the problem?

I know these are mostly subjective questions but I am just trying to get a consensus. thanks

 

You can get somewhat of a feel during early / late daylight if you watch for cars with red led brakelights. I can't remember the make, but there is one car model with circular led brake lights. It really pops on those.

 

i know which one you mean the Dodge Charger Right? things are everywhere now since police depts decided to phase out the Ford interceptors

 

I have a 2013 Prius Two, which bought 6 mo's ago. This is a wide spread problem but most people don't even realize it. My wife drove my car every so often and she did not say anything about it.

When I took my car to dealer at 4,000 mile, dealer didn't believe me. They kept the car overnight to verify it. Sure enough. Next day dealer brought several cars from the lot and tested in their repair center, they all had the same problem.

Toyota quality is not as good as many people think. In addition to windshield problem, I had so many other problems. My steering wheel point to 12:30pm direction while I drive. It is a clear misalignment but the dealer is not doing anything about it. Outside temperature display show 5 F above ambient. When I bought the car several plastic molding were not even inserted, they were about to fall off. I have a detailed gas records since the mile 1, after 13,000 miles car MPG estimate is average 3 MPG higher.

Bottom line: If I had to do it all over, I WOULD NOT BUY a Toyota Prius.

 

I smell sumthin ;-)

Mike

Mobile on my SGH-i717

 

Update on my end: After 3.5 months of calls to the dealer and Toyota to fix my windshield got me nowhere, last week I finally sent Toyota a letter threatening a Lemon Law or class action lawsuit. Today the dealership called and said they will replace my windshield and are making the necessary arrangements.

It is disappointing you have to threaten a lawsuit to get Toyota to do anything but that appears to be the unfortunate reality.

So, if you want your glass fixed and aren't getting anywhere, write Toyota a letter. I'm sure a Lemon Law Lawyer would be happy to assist if you aren't comfortable doing it on your own.

 

From my own experience, and what I was told at my arbitration hearing by a representative of California's Dept. of Consumer Affairs: Toyota WILL NOT DO ANYTHING until there are clear legal repercussions. Until that time comes, they will just dance and skate around the issue hoping you give up.

 

so update on my end.

We test drove a Prius Persona in the rain while it was dark, heavy rain I might add. I did not notice any particular ghosting or tripling effect, at least not any more than our current car a Honda Odyssey. Did the rain cut down on any of the ghosting? I did see some prism effect and slight tripling late in the day, partially light ~twilight when test driving a Prius Three at another dealer. However, it seemed like it was only apparent if I kept staring and looking for the anomaly whereas if I was normally driving I wouldn't honestly be focusing that much on the distortion of the lights, unless it was a super funky,near acid trip like distortion that I saw in Amit's Youtube Vid.

Anyway my Family is really close to pulling the trigger tomorrow, so I thought I'd check into see if there were any other naysayers. I can see how the lights would be a problem safety wise. but honestly and this is just me, I generally try not to focus too much on headlights or any lights except traffic signals which I only keep aware through my peripheral vision and quick glances to see if they have changed. My eyes are primarily on the road or the car in front of me (which I guess might be an issue with the red brakelights, but again I am not staring at their brake lights just the silhouette of their car.) Is it safe to assume that the bifocaling effect is not of the same degree with all Prii but some have it worse than others. So maybe the ones I test drove were not severe cases. I honestly was never really concerned with windshield visibility until I heard about the Prius. I did notice when driving our current car, a 2001 Honda Odyssey, that the lights while not prism like did produce a lot of streaking and such as the light gets closer and disappears which felt disorienting if I focused on it. Same thing with traffic lights, which seemed blurry. Confirmed this with my uncle's Buick Lacrosse 2005. While my own personal anecdote is in no way definitive, I speculate if most cars have some level of blurriness and slight distortion which most drivers are totally oblivious too unless they are educated or sensitive to windshield optics. At any rate, to restate my initial question, is the Prius still worth it to you (again just trying to get a consensus as I know this is a very subjective question) and is this windshield issue a serious enough handicap when driving at night. I'm just confused because of what I see on the web and on these forums and yet I see lots of Prii everyday/night. Reposting as I only got one response with my last.

Thanks!