3-day old 2010 Prius already in shop - advice needed

I wouldn't call the consumer "dumb" in this case. The same increasingly complex world and technology of which you speak, is precisely why we expect better quality out of the gate.

The original poster is asking for advice on how to handle the situation. IMO pretty smart.

Yes, there is some risk in being an early adopter of a newly designed product, but Toyota is a world class auto maker and they should be pretty good at it by now. We aren't talking about a noise, a rattle or "red arrows on a display" we are talking about 1/2 the dash disappearing and the auto being rendered useless. I respect that Toyota and the Dealer seem to be acting in good faith to support the product but I also understand that if I was in the OP's position I'd be pretty upset.

Taking the tone of "What are you upset about stupid?" isn't fair. I think anyone and everyone would be upset in this situation.

Nobody is demanding absolute perfection. However I think it is reasonable to want your new car to work.

Seems to me the OP handled everything very well. Is getting the problem resolved, involved Toyota and got a Warranty upgrade and is now seeking some advice at Prius Chat...a great resource for advice in situation like this.

When you are talking about an automobile, a machine that is used to transport people at high speeds you always strive for zero defect. It's as important or more important to Toyota to resolve and find the source of this problem than it is for the consumer. While it seems to be at this point a very isolated incident imagine even a very small percentage of 2010 Prius having this problem. It doesn't take more that a handful of cases to become publicized and ruin the reputation of a vehicle. Toyota has carefully earned the reputation of leader of reliable hybrid production, a shorting dash is not something for either the consumer nor the producer to take lightly. When it comes to automobiles, you want the producer to be striving for as close to perfection in build and assembly and design and you want the consumers believing they are getting a product produced with that mindset.

Before release we are told of the Head Engineer, and his team of up to 200 engineers. We are told about uncountable numbers of hours in a wind tunnel and we are told about record breaking numbers of patents for The Prius. Expectation that the dashboard last more than 3 days is a pefectly acceptable attitude from the consumer and the producer.

In this case nobody is being dumb. In this case you hope the consumer get's their car back in A1 condition and has an ownership experience with the vehicle that is positive. You also hope that if this isn't an isolated incident, Toyota be able to trace the problem back to the source and correct.

It has nothing to do with cost paid by the consumer, it simply is the right thing to do. A 98 cent O ring once brought the Space Shuttle down, a shorting dash is something Toyota needs to investigate. The benchmark for automobile producers must be perfection and the constant striving for perfection. Consumers in turn have the reasonable right to expect the product they have purchased will be safe and reliable as long as maintained and used properly. If it isn't, the consumer is certainly not being "dumb" for being upset and disappointed.

 

Thanks Evan for putting things in proper perspective.

My entire career has been dealing with high-tech electronics. I've seen a number of cases through out the years where hundreds of dedicated hard-working really smart people have put together a new product and all it takes is one person (factory assembler, field tech, etc.) to make one slight error in judgment and the entire product stops working. And unfortunately, frequently it takes some time to figure out what what went wrong and correct it. With technology, the devil is in the detail and perfection is increasingly difficult to achieve.

I would like to take this opportunity to correct "The Electric Me" on one issue -- The Space Shuttle was not brought down by a little 98 cent o-ring. It was a huge expensive o-ring that went around the entire circumference of the solid rocket booster.

Keith

 

Alright, It was a Huge expensive O-Ring...but really it doesn't change my point. We aren't talking about a vehicle designed to take people into orbit but we are talking about a vehicle designed to move people at what can be dangerous speeds. My perspective is that Toyota can not afford to take it lightly regardless of what it might be. The Dash IS an integral part of the automobile and it's unexplained shorting out regardless of how simple the problem might be or NOT be, since nobody seems to really know the cause yet, is important not only to the original poster, but also Toyota. Really if I was Toyota I'd give the guy a new Prius and ship the old one back to Japan to look at until I knew exactly what caused the failure. Until that is determined we don't really know how big or little this problem might be.

My "flawed" space shuttle analogy was simply to point out that often big problems grow from simple beginings. Defective O-Rings, Loose Insulation Tiles....pick it.

"It's a broken piece of electronics people. You don't call a lawyer and return and entire entertainment system when the button on the remote control is broken."-efusco

I'm not advising, and very few posters are advising, that the OP call a lawyer. It clearly isn't at that point yet and probably, hopefully never reaches that point. But failure of your entire dash is a little more than a broken button on a remote control. The OP had no realistic choice but "return" the car, at least for service...it has no workable dashboard!

Listening to your opinions I honestly think we are closer to agreement than it sounds. Go in peace gentelmen...