Prius Lemon?

Sorry to hear that you are having these issues.
Since you've just recently bought the car, give Toyota a chance to get the bugs out. I think that once they do, you'll stop worrying about buying the extended warranty. That is until just before the original warranty runs out. But then you'll have a couple of years of, hopefully, trouble free driving to assuage your concerns.
Good Luck!

 

sorry to hear that... that's not the typical experience of prius owners and it's disappointing to hear that you're going through it.

i'm surprised they weren't able to get that in and out in less than 4 days... this may be a dealer issue. are they super busy all the time? i know when things are crazy at DH's place they end up taking in more cars than they can finish by the end of the night because of sheer volume. if that's the case it may help to go to a smaller place for future service. if you're at a really small place, the techs may not have a ton of experience with the cars and it'll take them longer to diagnose a problem. (truly good diagnostic techs are a rare find, honestly, most of them fumble around for a while before figuring it out) then it may help to go somewhere bigger.

posting your location in your profile can help you pick up some local recommendations

 

Try bringing a box of Cheerios to your mechanic! I once had a very good mechanic who, when stumped would grab his box of Cheerios and slowly munch and walk around the car thinking and deliberating while diagnosing. He would then suddenly light up, put the box down and rip into the beast and quickly fix the problem. Sorry to hear you may have that rarity, a Toyota lemon.

 

We had a toyota 4 runner that we used the lemon law on........had it 9 months 3 months in the shop

But my prius has been a dream at 2156 miles

 

Your story reminds me of the 2002 Hyundai Sonata I bought new. It spent more time in the shop than out of it for the 1st 2 years. Most of the trips were for chicken s--t stuff. It never actually failed on the road-(Surprised me). I was very happy to trade it in in Jan. for my trouble free Prius. You may have a lemon, but maybe it will work itself out.

 

I was sort of in the same boat... my Prius died twice within a week of owning it. I too had expected more given Toyota's reputation for quality, but I didn't notice the decline thereof.

However, other than the squeaks, rattles, malfunctioning MFD, and latches that fall off, it's been fine since.

 

call your dealer and get the codes, then post them here, there are people here that can probably tell you what's wrong and then you can call the dealer and tell them the "fix"

 

Sounds to me like a misdiagnosis the first time. Are you sure the guy working on it is Prius certified? There aren't any dealers closer to you for warranty work? As someone else suggested, try to get the code(s) and post them. I wouldn't doubt it if both the charcoal filter and evap are fine, and its actually a sensor issue, which hopefully they'll find before they give the car back to you.

 

ha! :lol:

my only concern with DH doing that is that he's usually got so much dirt on himself at work, i wouldn't want him inadvertently eating any of it!

 

Do a search of the lovely 2000 GMC Sierra SLT pickup truck I bought new. Not only was it a completely unreliable truck - including huge puddle of gear oil in my garage the first week of ownership - but the local dealer I purchased it from was a complete Tool as well.

About the only issue with my Prius was the infamous stall, which happened during my afternoon commute home. My local dealer bent over backwards to keep me happy.

 

Post the DTC and let us help. If they want to replace the gas tank etc. Yes it is under the passenger seat and they can get at it. In my experience (limited to a few mods) the Prius comes apart and goes together easily. Makes sense. If you are a design engineer you are obliged to make it easy to build. Costs less. I am a very old assembly line worker (college) and ease of assembly makes bucks for the company and satisfaction for the customer. You may want to look around for a new dealer or push the present one.

 

Formerfarmer also asked about prepaid maintenance, which I vote against. Any of this charcoal stuff is going to be warranty. As far as the extended warranty, I bought it in 2001 and had no claims. Thus it was a free kilobuck for Toyota. Just one data point.

 

You do know that you don't have to take to the dealer who sold it to you, right? Any dealer should be happy to do warranty work; find one with a good Prius certified tech, we hope one a lot closer to your home.

 

Its interesting that there's a recall on Corollas and Matrix's with identical codes:
Bad Evap Pump