Calling all lawyers , gen3 lawsuit question

Head gaskets fail on lots of cars, pretty hard to say the motor has an issue with 150k on it. Think we are just not expecting to see this on a Toyota.

 

For comparison, GM’s NorthStar v-8 which debuted in the early 90’s had major head gasket or more specific head bolts pulling the Aluminum threads in the block. A statistical graph was created on a Cadillac owners forum that showed a very high failure rate in 96-99 Model years. We had a 95 Eldorado. That model year used an iron block. Head gasket failures were very rare in the 93-95 year engines. A buddy of mine bought a 99 deville he had head gasket failure at 175k. Meanwhile, my Eldorado had 328k on when we sold it and is still on the road to this day more than 2 years later. The owner lives in my town and I see the car on the road every once in while.


Anyway, I read somewhere that Toyota put the Life expectancy on the Gen 2 Prius at 176,000 miles. At that point they deemed the car having a full life. Anything beyond that was just considered bonus longevity miles.


iPhone X ?

 

"Bad After 150K"

As already pointed out that is the problem.
150K is well beyond warranty.

In one way it's a testament to Toyota's earned reputation of quality that failure after 150K is even considered premature.

I don't think there is a lawsuit here.

Without comparative facts, figures and numbers it's hard to even know how much a real problem it is.
I really haven't read a lot of posts where people are avoiding older higher mileage Prius because of fear of head gasket failure.

 

At 150k ..... anything can happen. It's only been maybe 20 years that a car could even reasonably make it to 125k ... 150k being rare even around 2000.

Owning a fleet for almost 30 years .... I have some experience. Every car line has some failures -- what's amazing about the Prius is what does not fail ... so many live to have head gasket issues ... that's the surprising part.

 

I'm thinking that if they haven't been dinged for the infamous gasket leak (exhaust manifold?) or the EGR fouling...which might actually be CAUSING the head gasket leak, then they're not going to do a TSB for the head gasket.

 

150,000 miles - that's 11 years average life of a vehicle in USA - a vehicle with a 3 yr warranty, or 8yrs on the Hybrid battery (10 in some states). Here, some manufacturers will stretch the warranty a little (but not to 11 years) with some items (CVT transmissions I believe) - but I doubt a head gasket would ever be covered. In fact, that's about the average age of a vehicle in USA.

In Australia, the average is more like 15,000km/hr, so that's 15-16 years life - and our average age is 10 years.

I reckon there'd be no hope - any lawyer would rub his hand$$ together - ea$y money for him with no chance of $ucce$$ - except for him!!

 

The problem here is perceived reliability.

Many of us migrated from the gen2, or we bought a gen3 on the basis of the gen2's reliability.

and that's where the issue are, the gen2 and gen3 are very different cars, the gen2 was car that was capable of dealing with intergalactic mileage with nominal specialised servicing, whereas the gen3 needs things like the ego cooler cleaning out and a oil catch tank fitted and cleaned regularly in order to about issues.
im not saying the gen3 is a bad/unreliable car but the emissions requirements have mean that it doesn't quite have the edge on its predecessor when the milages start to exceed 150k miles

 

it seems normal to over engineer something, then make cuts as you go along to increase profit but still reach warranty in most cases.

 

I bet they also look at what issues crop up durin the warranty periods and use them for judgement making the next time .

Since toyota shares Parts and pieces amongst the various vehicles, they have a good pool of data for decision making .

Do each iteration gets more of the same data based decision treatment .

 

Bingo. My first vehicle was a mid-2000s Subaru with the 2.5L engine. When I was looking for the car, I budgeted for a head gasket repair knowing ahead of time that it was a widespread issue with those models.

 

at what mileage?

 

when we traded in our windstar, they gave us more money because the head gasket had been done at 90k.

 

Good to know that when you saved them effort and time, they rewarded you.

 

Check the NHTSA site.
NHTSA | National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

 

They don't value cars like that. KBB and NADA are amateur mathematicians who only know how to average sales prices (=Average(n:x, z:y). They examine sales prices, not cars.

 

I'm not sure exactly what the general failure mileage was across the line of cars with the old 2.2 and the old 2.5, but mine were done at around 137,000 miles.

 

Long ago I owned a car that needed the bolts that attached the head to the block torqued every 40k miles. I didn't and paid with a blown engine.

 

I'd listen to Ol' lead foot. He looks like someone who doesn't hear the word "no" very often........if at all.

 

You have to realize that the head gasket must withstand tremendous pressures that vary over short periods of time. A 7:1 compression engine will experience pressure differentials from about 120 psi (compression and power strokes) to -9.0 psi (-20 inches of mercury) on the intake stroke, over eight times a second at 2000 rpm. Heck, it is a wonder they don't fail more often. Even an advanced material like JB Weld would eventually fail (that's said with a twinge of sarcasm for you public school grads). Head gaskets should probably be considered a maintenance item at 100,001 miles. Rather than complain, you should be thankful that Toyota didn't source their head gaskets from Pep Boys. Just sayin'.

 

Really? You actually BELIEVE that horse manure from a salesperson at a STEALERSHIP? I would bet that the only difference they got in their trade in from any similar car was the warm feeling and story that they could proudly tell their friends about their sales experience. Oh wait. That emoji you used might be a SECRET message that COULD color the actual meaning of your reply. Now my head hurts.