I recently resurrected a high mileage (243,000 mile) 2004 Prius that was destined for the scrap yard due to a failed head gasket and other minor issues including a binding shifter assembly. Many Prius chat members with a 2004 Prius have reported that their shifters can stick in the drive or reverse position due to a warped shutter and when this happens the park button is disabled (this condition had resulted in quite a surprise to me on more than one occasion). I was easily able to fix this issue by trimming a plate to make up for a warped shutter but I bet there are a lot of non MacGyver people still driving their unsafe sticking 2004 shifters due to the high price a dealer would charge to replace the shifter assembly. I filed an online NHTSA report.....hopefully my report and others can help the folks out there that are living with this saftey issue
How many Nhtsa complaints are there? You really need a boatload and some accidents/deaths are helpful to get some action
It looks like 7 complaints (would 7 reports likely indicate 70 plus shifter failures?) I would hope it wouldn't take a death to become a recall
Me too. But unless it is a massive failure (think airbags) nhtsa is reluctant and mfgs could care less. Age sometimes plays a part as well
