Prius Down!

No, but keep us informed for sure. Please.

 

It's not out of gas by any chance is it?

 

when you deal with the dealer/service dept tell them you want all the codes listed and you want a printed copy of them for you personal file on the car. That way you won't get a lot of BS from them because you know that there are way's of determining what went wrong other than their say so. Plus it's good to have a record of problems with your car so you can track if it has a history of doing this. Helps keep the dealer honest.

 

Just the kind of thing that makes you lose your enthusiasm for the car. If such a failure happens to me, especially in the middle of nowehere, I would start looking for trade-in alternatives and say hasta la vista baby to hybrid technology.

 

When you buy a new car, especially one with such a good reputation for trouble-free performance as a Toyota, you expect trouble-free performance, at least for the three years of the bumper-to-bumper warranty. Having the hybrid system fail suddenly after less than 400 miles, is enough to make you wonder what will happen next. Another worry is having the car serviced by what is apparently an ill-prepared team of mechanics who are probably learning how to fix the Prius by tinkering with your new car. :?

 

The Prius will have diagnostic codes that should tell the technicians what is wrong...there should be very little guess work and you may find it to be a computer issue....most electronics if they go bad they go bad early. This will be interesting.

 

04 tideland bc
Port Townsend, Wa

Johnnycat26, sorry to read about your problem with the Prius,
I think we all have vested interest in the solution, and be grateful if you
would post it - hope it all works out for you!

Harry

 

sorry to hear about your problem and i hope you get it fixed soon.

As far as dumping hybride technology for this isolated incident, one might be better off going back to the horse and buggy if they want 100% reliability form any car.

Let me tell you about a co-worker who bought a brand new Dodge mini-van a few years back. At the time, the thing was the most popular and supposedly reliable mini van on the market. Well on his 3rd day of ownership while on his way to work, the van suddenly lost all power and died on the freeway. unfortunately, he died in the middle of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Well after pissing off about 55.000 daily commuters, his vehicle was towed to the dealership who worked on his vehicle for two weeks and told him the problem was solved. That was Tuesday night. On wednesday morning on his way to work his car once again died(this time he was just entering the bridge but still far enough along to totally screw up traffic.)

I would tell you how he fared with his van, but he refused to drive it after that. After nearly a year he has yet to buy a replacement.

 

Theoretically, a Toyota mechanic connects a handheld "scanner" to the car and the onboard computer tells him exactly what's wrong. I guess my car told the mechanic that the auxilliary battery was partially discharged, so he recharged it and the red triangle went off. Next morning the triangle was back on... so much for theory.

 

If you think that all Toyota mechanics are knowledgeable and well-trained to work with the Prius, visit the link provided by Jonnycat26:
http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/[email protected]@.ef169e3/1832

Guessing seems to be an important tool for diagnosing a sick Prius. :wink:

 

Jonnycat26, just to clarify: was the rental Scion provided to you under the standard Toyota warranty, or do you have the extended warranty? Or did the dealership provide it on their own?