2012 Prius Safety Connect and Auto Dimming rear view mirror problems

First time posting here but been reading the forums for years. I own a 2006 Prius which I loved and have had very little problems will, about to push 220,000 miles. I recently bought a 2012 prius five with the advance technology package. Like the first prius I love the car, however recently 2 basically non functioning items on the car have been becoming irritating.
First
The Auto Dimming rear view mirror. Basically useless. This has been an issue since the 2nd Gen Prius from what I have found and Toyota has done nothing to address it. Atleast in the 2nd gen you could flip the mirror upside down to fix it. What happening is that the split window spoiler casts a shadow over the sensor unless it is a very big truck behind you. Maybe its better for Toyota to deal with the few people who complain about this than to fix or redesign the universal mirror they use with the sensor on bottom. If the sensor was on top of the mirror it would work flawlessly. I have done quite a bit of testing on the mirror. It does work fine if it wasnt for the spoiler in back. I cant believe when I called toyota about this they said I was the 2nd one to say something about this. It is a serious issue as you have a choice of being blinded by the car behind you or not use your mirror. I would replace it with an old manual one however I dont want to carry around 3 garage door clickers
Second
Another known issue which is the Safety Connect. The volume is too low to be useful. I bought this car and with the advance tech package for this feature. My wife and I drive on roads where there are no cell phone coverage and I needed the GPS capability for the SOS incase she is alone and something goes wrong. The volume is too low to hear anyone on the other end. The speaker sounds like a little tiny speaker buried in the dash somewhere. This is easily confirmed on any new prius at my dealer and confirmed by many since last year. When I first called Toyota a couple months ago they told me they never heard of the problem, along with the dealer. Again lied to.

My guess These are minor issues for Toyota, that require serious changes in the system. They would rather deal with the handful of people calling than redesign the systems and just run them around in circles. Im not sure where to go as I cant seem to get an answer from Toyota on the issues. I love the new Prius however to be honest If I know these features were not working or being fixed I would not of wasted my money on them, or probably not by the car. I have researched class action law suits, which I was told was a waste of time. I saw several complaints with the NHTSA, which I assume has gone nowhere. My only option would be to try to use the Lemon Law to my favor and make Toyota buy the car back due the fact they cant fix the components of the car that should of been functioning. These issues are there. I dont know how many people have called to complain about it. Toyota wants you to think you are the only one. Please people if you do have one of these features, check them out

 

Thanks for the advice Jim. Not to argue with. You but I'm sure the problem is there with your auto dimming mirror, it has to be because of the split window spoiler. Maybe it doesn't bother you enough or your driving conditions are different. The mirror does work like in any other car however it does not work when the shadow from the spoiler hits the sensor. I have little problems with my mirror on a busy 5 lane freeway. There's enough cars and lights behind me to shine on the sensor. When it don't work is on single lane back roads or freeways where there is not a lot of traffic. Where I commute from many people use high beams, intentionally point their headlights up so they can see better or install brighter bulbs without care of other drivers. Some are just ignorant to the fact one headlight is far out of adjustment. In the winter months I leave for work in the dark and drive home in the dark. 1:45 each way

Quite a few people have posted here and there about the mirror. Some have figured it out, others think its just not as effective as other cars. I have a dodge and a Nissan with the identical mirror

The front light level sensor has no bearing in my observations. Full darkness with no oncoming lights or street lights. It is very easy to replicate the problem. In the 3rd gen 5. The distance the car has to be behind you is 20 - 300 feet. If a car is in the range then the shadow from the spoiler covers the sensor. Off coarse the type of vehicle will change this. Big rigs and lifted trucks are not generally a problem as their headlights are high enough to shine over the spoiler. If a car is roughly under 20 feet then either the spoiler is blocking the headlights or it's hitting the sensor through the bottom glass and the sensor will work darling the mirror. Once the car falls back the shadow covers the sensor and the mirror lightens. It lightens to the point where the on-off switch has no effect. Grab a flashlight and shine it on the sensor...it mirror darkens. It's like this till the car is behind you about 300 feet. As the car falls back you can see the line from the shadow drop down the mirror till it finally hits the sensor on and off from the road bounce. This is where the mirror will darken once again. I have tested this time and time again while driving and on a back road with my second car parked with high beams on.

The issue is there and real. It may not bother everyone, however I'm trying to make people aware of it. I'm sure Toyota would rather deal with a few hundred or even a thousand people than put out a fix for this. It's probably pointless trying.

As for the SC I have not had the chance to test it on a 2010 or 2011. I tried to look at one on the lot but it was not working. At least on the 2012 the volume is so low you can't hear anything unless you are in all most total silence. No go while driving, impossible on the side of a freeway. When I took it in for service the repair tech couldnt hear and understand the operator. So they said it was low and no adjustments. I cant tell where the speaker is. Somewhere in the dash burried, and from the sound of it, it's very small

Other than these 2 issues I love my car. I'm not a Prius hater. I been driving them for 6 years now, great cars. I could go on and on about the good things about the car, however these 2 issues are very annoying and trying to get Toyota to accept them seems impossible. Well the dealer does, but it ends there.

 

Very Interesting Chris

I tried using mirrors but never could get the angle I wanted, never thought of a prism....or 2.
I would like to see your set up and where you put the prisms



For anyone else who is interested. I have been up Toyotas customer service line as about as high as I can go. They will not admit to a problem, I know for a fact Im not the first to complain about it. They responded they deal with people on a one on one basis. How convenient. They need a dealer to check it out. The dealer sees it is working as intended as there is nothing wrong with it but a design flaw with the back spoiler. Since they are never open at night dark hours they can not do a real time test with high beams. I have convince a few people at the dealer that there is a problem but they wont sign thier names to it. Customer service won't refer the problem back to their test team. After 9 years of the problem being there and 2 major redesigns, I dont think the problem is being fixed. Admitting to a flaw at this point would cost them too much money. All customer service would do is take my comment which goes into a huge data base that probably never gets read.