Prius goes off the deep end...

I posted this a couple of other places. I need some input on what I should do/say to handle this situation. Here goes:

Last night, driving home I had one solid bar left on the gas gauge. As I traveled up an incline, the bar began flashing and the "add fuel" message popped up. Fine, but things went very bad from there.

I was a mile or so away from home but pass four gas stations on the way. Before I could even contemplate filling up, the hybrid warning light came on followed by every other light on the dash. I then lost considerable power and watched as the speedometer sort of counted down. I couldn't even make it to a part of the road with a shoulder before the car simply "seized" and wouldn't go further.

This all happened over a few hundred feet. Sitting in the middle of the road just past a blind curve at 10 p.m. was rather daunting, but fortunately roadside assistance had a truck there within minutes. At this point, I figured something wacky had gone wrong with the computer and Toyota could just reset it and all would be well.

The tow operator couldn't get the car into neutral. We looked everything up in my manual just to be sure, but no such luck. He put it on dollies and towed it away. First thing this morning, I called the service dept. and was told that a) it probably wouldn't be fixed under warranty and B) they had no Prius tech until Monday so they knew nothing other than that I'd been negligent and let it run out of gas.
:cussing:
He even tried to argue that since they were unable to determine if my issue could be repaired under warranty that I was ineligible for a loaner car. Luckily, I contacted my salesperson who slipped me a Corolla (a surprisingly nice little car, by the way) while they sort this out.

I guess it comes down to this: we know for a fact that there is gas in the car. Upon lifting it onto the truck bed, the second tow operator said he could hear it in there. Even if the gas tank were empty, I had no previous indication of such, so how could that be construed as my fault? The behavior of the car in general during all this tells me there's something else going on. I could tell from my conversation with the service advisor that they want to wriggle out of this if possible. The man even started quoting me diagnostic fees I would be responsible for. There was never an apology or sympathy, just blame and uncertainty. Has this happened to anyone else and how were you treated? What was the outcome? I have noticed at oil changes that most of their employees don't even know how to drive the car into the service area, so there isn't much confidence there. I guess any info you all can throw my way is appreciated. I'll be biting my nails all weekend (and driving the bejesus out of this pretty new Corolla).

 

I checked and my VIN doesn't fall under the fuel gauge TSB. I've only had the car since April and it was manufactured in March. That morning, I put around 3 gallons in (I'd forgotten my check card) and according to my MPG I'd have gotten just over 150 miles out of that. According to the odometer, I was a hair over 100 when this incident happened. Not that I was relying on that, but the bottom line is that my gauge was not blinking at all, and in an instant it started blinking and the car was dead within a minute. That's my issue. And the sloshing trick? You brought back memories of my Eurovan before I fixed the broken gas gauge. I was relying on quick calculations but was unaware that my husband had taken it out earlier that day. It began to sputter during my commute, we pulled that same trick and got to a gas station just barely. Ahhh, fun stuff. This situation, not so fun. BTW, if it helps mine has just over 13k.

 

We tried restarting it several times...the ICE would kick in for a brief second, the dash would light up again, and the car would be inoperable. We never could get it into a "ready" position. Even in worse case scenario (out of gas) why would I be responsible for the gauge reading incorrectly? By that logic, on my Camry, when the orange light first comes on or the needle gets close to "E" I should stop the car immediately? I don't think that makes sense. Moreover, if it WAS out of gas (and I am 100 percent sure there is gas in that tank) why would the car do all of the strange things it did? I mean, even the truck driver said it looked possessed. At one point, when we were desperately trying to get it into neutral, the fuel gauge came on and showed full for a minute and then the whole thing began to flash (still showing full) I just want everyone to understand (especially Toyota) that I did not intend to drive it any further than a quarter mile to the gas station, but the car didn't even give me that chance. In that case, even if you figure only a 1 gallon fuel reserve and lowest possible MPG a quarter mile, or in my case, a few hundred feet-isn't too much to ask, is it?

 

So far as the strange things, one that stands out was this: I had my hazard lights on as well as the headlights just for visibility, but after a few minutes the right headlight wasn't on and the right hazard blinker both inside and out wasn't on either. The left counterpart of all these worked fine. Did my car have a stroke?!

Also, when I tried to "reboot" the car, it would come on like normal, no warning lights, the ICE kicked in and started charging the battery according to the energy screen and then a second later it was gone again.

The tow guy actually works for another local Toyota/Ford dealership and has towed several Prii as well as Insights. The very idea of "several" scares me because I've seen less than ten individual ones in the area since they came out. He said he's seen them do nutty things at times. He also told me that in the last two weeks they had taken 16 Ford cars off of the flatbed, brand new from production, with serious engine problems.

We still don't see eye to eye on the fuel part. If I'd driven while the gauge was blinking even a mile or so, then I could accept the blame and move on. This isn't what happened. I should not have to calculate my gas consumption/refueling down to the last mile. This is why we have gas gauges, isn't it? I owned a cheap rusty car with that problem, not an expensive new one. It seems to me that none of these things should have happened as a result of running out of gas anyway. It looks as if some computer system has failed or become corrupted somehow. I have a feeling that regardless Toyota and I will be going around in circles Monday if the difficulty of getting a loaner car is any indication. I'll just make sure I bring the toddler with me to the dealership BEFORE his nap. :wink:

 

In this particular instance, I went out to get dinner about 10 miles away on two bars. On the trip back, it went down to one as I entered the last stretch of highway and to me that meant "get gas at the next opportunity" I would say it was three miles of driving before all this happened. I always get gas when I have one solid bar left and it was my intention to stop at one of the several clustered near my home. In 13k miles, I've gotten to know the car very well and things have never progressed even close to this quickly. My MPG always seems to average 50.1 over almost every tank so I do think to get gas when I approach the 500 mile mark.

If it were a regular car, no one would even think about filling up on the last notch before empty as an emergency measure...but that's what I'm being told about the Prius. Heck, there wasn't even a single gas station between where I went and the last quarter mile before home. Certainly, if my one bar had started blinking during the drive and all this craziness hadn't happened immediately thereafter I'd have pulled over to a safe place and walked that last little bit to get some gas.

However, I've never heard of any Prius owner who "just" ran out of gas experiencing an inability to drive or really any of this. I know for sure that's not what happened but Toyota is already leaning that way. I'll fill you in on the details Monday.

 

WHOA...I don't know if I had a momentarily lapse in intelligence when I first read the fuel gauge TSB but I just looked at it again and my VIN ending in 65098 indicates it does. Is this going to help my case?