I am still driving my 2019 Prius Prime that I got in July 2019. I leased my 3 previous Priuses, & turned them all in after the 3-year lease ended. I liked the Prime though, & the end-of-lease purchase price was lower than the resale value of the car, so I bought this car in 2022. After 4 years, the tonneau cargo cover failed. I use it to prevent people from seeing what's in the hatchback so they're not tempted to break in & steal something, to prevent stuff flying around in a sudden stop or sharp turn, & to keep groceries cooler on the way home from the store. It rolls up like a window shade to get the cover out of the way when you're taking stuff out of the back. After 4 years of use, the springs in the roller failed. I pulled the cover out all the way, trying to get it to retract, but it just flopped around. I read here & elsewhere about taking it apart for repairs, but I couldn't fix it. I called my dealer, who said they don't fix them, but instead replace them, for a ridiculously high price. I found one on eBay for $100 & bought it. One year later, the spring on that one failed as well, so it again no longer retracts. Must be a design flaw. Either that or they don't expect you to keep your car for more than 4 years.
Could be a bad batch. This is the more solid, roller blind style? Our Gen 3’s fine still, but just over 100k kms on the car, and we furl/unfurl ours only infrequently.
Yes, it's the roller-blind one. The 1st one that came with the car lasted 4 years. The 2nd I bought on eBay, so I don't know where the seller got it. This is my 1st of 4 Priuses that I've had longer than 3 years. I never had an issue with the same type of cargo cover on my previous cars.
FYI, you don't have to buy a Prime cover. The standard retractable will work fine. I just picked up a 2021 Prime with the retractable cover, and had kept the cover from our totaled 2022 AWD-e, and checked to see if it would work, and it will, as the end is shorter in the middle than the rounded Prime cover, but otherwise is the same, and it will hide anything under the cover except a small sliver in the middle.
Thanks for all the comments & advice. Someone hit my car from behind recently, & the body shop fixed the roller on my cover without my even asking, so it works again. Of course, insurance paid them over $10K for replacing the hatchback door, sensors, & other parts.
Yes, well, at least it was fixed. We had our 2022 AWD-e just since the end of January, and a month ago someone decided to use IT to brake at a light rather than their own brakes, hitting us at at least 45 mph, punching us into the car in front of us. $17-18k estimate with a 99 day timeline totaled it out. The crazy thing is, if I had the room and time (and of course funds), I'd have taken the "scrap" and repaired it over time. The passenger compartment was untouched, no airbags went off, it was DRIVEABLE with just a warning for a sensor crushed in the front bumper cover. I could DEFINITELY have seen turning it into an AWD-e El Camino of sorts.
