Dear Toyota, the 2010 is a rattler.

Mine is a King snake, not a Rattler.

So far in my 2010 III, the rattles are all caused by me. Stuff in the door pockets, stuff in the glove boxes, stuff in the tray under the bridge.

I have been proactive on some issues before they rattle by putting felt tabs on the glove box doors, lubricating the rear seat latches, and putting shelf anti-skid liners in the center console and cup holders. Good practices for any car.

It seems that the build-date matters--later models don't rattle so much, so perhaps Toyota has listened and made some improvements. I don't know the build-date, but bought mine in April, 2010. 22,000 miles so far, in both summer heat and -20F winter temps.

 

Same here.

 

I also have been able to trace all of my rattles to my "stuff." I have had my Prius since October. I do get some creaks in the dash when it is super-cold and my car has been sitting outside, but they go away as the interior warms up.

 

I would agree with you, but nobody else makes a car that gets over 50mpg and has a great record over the last tens years for not breaking down.

 

I'm suprised the 3rd Generation Prius seems to have a weakness in this area, as I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Head Engineer involved in it's creation worked his way up in Toyota in the department responsible for interior quality, which would include interior quiteness.

 

I don't think its unreasonable to expect that Toyota would build a vehicle that did not require the owners to take such steps to retrofit their brand new vehicle to guard against rattles...

 

Velcro does wonders

 

Where I had noises, it was the upper glove box and the console, where I have now put some rubberized shelf liner. Water bottle and fire extinguisher fit tightly in the water-bottle holder in the driver's door, and for the sake of my marriage, I ignore the noise my wife's sunglasses make in her door pocket.

I do recall lots of rattles in the '52 Chevy pickup, but usually, the tappet noise from the solid lifters in the "Bluefire-6" drowned them out.

 

I have read complaints about rattles and creaks in the Gen3 Prius but never had this experience until this morning. Last night the temperature plumited to near freezing; an unusual occurrence for So. California and a first for our Prius. When I got in our V this morning, I heard squeaks and rattles from joints in numerous plastic panels that are normally silent. The sun is out now, under a beautiful blue sky, and the plastic interior of our Prius has returned to the normal silence that I have, until now, taken for granted. It seems that those of us living in warmer climates, where our plastic panels remain more pliable, may be largely immune to the squeaks, rattles, and tics reported by others. Could it really be that simple? Is the fix for the illusive Prius rattle as simple as dialing up the thermostat? OMG, could this mean that the Prius efficiency that perturbs global warming, also promotes the rattles that so many Prius owners detest.

 

I remember some squeaks, rattles and an occasional moan from the back of my 72 VW bus too, but I don't recall any complaints.

 

My Prius and thousands of others experience -20F to 100F, and still the rattles are [mostly] due to our stuff in the wrongs places or without padding.

 

The last Gen 3 I drove is the one in my avatar pic. Two weeks ago we drove it from cold Minnesota to central Florida and back. It was rattly around the radio & upper glove box in the cold but quiet when we were down south in the 65-75 degree weather. Once we returned northward into 50 something temps and below, it got rattly again. That car was an early 2010 with 30k something miles on it, I told my wife that was an issue for early builds

Mike

 

you probably didn't have internet access in your area yet.

 

In eleven months and 11k miles of driving over all types of roads and temperatures our Prius has no rattles at all. (Except for the minor ones I created with my unsecured stuff.)

 

Maybe it's the quality of the roads? No matter how good the quality of the Prius interior is, it will rattle due to bad roads eventually.

 

I have traced every noise in my car to the junk in the storage compartments. It's been a great reminder to clean the car. Other than that, my early build III has been rattle free.

 

My 2010 V remains fairly quite until the outside temperature gets down to around 35 degrees at night. That only happens for about 2 months here. (All summer I had no rattles at all.) As soon as the heater warms up the interior a bit, the rattles stop. There is nothing in my car except the registration in the glove compartment, so it's not carried items rattling. It is specifically the flying bridge, the left dash area near the window, center dash occassionally, and the ever-present right seat-back. I have been in Mazdas, Corollas and other cars of similar size that are very quiet even in extreme low temperature.

I believe the eco-friendly materials of the Prius do not lend themselves well to a quiet interior. I suppose I could fix all the rattles, but I won't. I'll just turn up the radio and wait for the car to warm up! As gas prices rise, so will it's value. If it begins to get worse, I'll sell it and buy something that doesn't rattle. There is a threshold beyond which mileage-savings satisfaction diminshes exponentially with owner dissatisfaction. At that point, I'll go back to Infiniti.

 

The problem is that some of us are previous gen Prius drivers and can compare. I'll say that the last gen Prius was better built and had nicer features, like the info screen standard on all models. But I'll also say that I really like my current Prius because it looks better and performs better, but its the details that Toyota got wrong.

 

i think you've nailed it. hopefully, there will be continued improvements in the weaker areas.