1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Prius 3rd gen common issues before buying

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by Haschwalt, Jul 31, 2019.

  1. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,571
    48,862
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    and there are surely many with prius problems whenever make it here. statistics? idk
     
  2. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2008
    23,073
    14,980
    0
    Location:
    Indiana, USA
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    For every Prius owner who has found PriusChat, there are, looks like, around nine who have never bothered, and for the ones who have bothered, often an issue they were having was the reason they bothered. Selection bias is the result.
     
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,571
    48,862
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    idk about that either. there are tons of no problem posts here. way more than problems
     
    Raytheeagle and mattbatson like this.
  4. mattbatson

    mattbatson Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2017
    114
    82
    0
    Location:
    asheville NC
    Vehicle:
    Other Non-Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    So
    Toyota gave an extended warranty...at great cost to the company... for the brake accumulator issue

    I doubt they would do that unless it was a REAL problem and was pretty widespread...right?

    This is a known issue with Toyota hybrids

    You can talk about consumer reports and who is on this forum and so forth.... but the fact is that even Toyota admitted to there being a problem

    Now
    A Chevy might have 4 items that fail to the one item that Toyota has (hypothetical numbers)
    But if with the Chevy it is things like wheel bearings or brake calipers or window switches.... and all of those can be fixed easily by the owner or any mechanic

    I would gladly take that over a 4500 dollar failure that pretty much no one but the stealership can fix

    The minute I’m stuck dealing with the local Toyota stealership...that’s when I know it’s time to bail

    So consumer reports might be right

    Or they might be wrong

    But as someone who owns two Toyota hybrids... And someone who has owned cars for over 30 years...I think a Prius is a bad decision
     
    Haschwalt and bisco like this.
  5. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2008
    23,073
    14,980
    0
    Location:
    Indiana, USA
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    I think probably neither one of us has actually tallied the post histories of the 153,482 members to check the first post made by each member and see what categories they fall into, and in what proportions. It might not be too hard to do using API access and maybe Amazon Mechanical Turk, maybe with a bit of machine learning.

    My rough sense, after about 11 years of watching, is that yes, there is a category of "hey guys, I just got a Prius and everything is awesome!". There's a category of "HEEEEELP I've just looked up your forum desperately and read 50 threads about problem X like I'm having." And there's a category of "hey guys, I just bought a Prius and haven't had any trouble but just found your forum and read 50 threads each about problems X, Y, and Z and now I can't sleep and what can I do to make sure this obvious bucket of explosive bolts doesn't swallow my life savings and leave me stranded on a mountaintop??!?!!?"

    And meanwhile the nine other owners who haven't bothered coming here are giving CR survey data leading to a "most reliable passenger car of the decade" designation.

    It's really not too hard to understand how both those things can happen, if you assume that having a problem with the car gives a stronger incentive to seek out a help forum for the car than not-having-a-problem does. It's not necessary to think that only people with problems post here, but only to think about relative strength of incentive.

    So I'm not sure I understand what you're saying udk about, unless you're wanting to take the opposite bet and say that people not having problems are the ones with the stronger incentive to come here. Do you think that's likely?
     
    #105 ChapmanF, Aug 8, 2019
    Last edited: Aug 8, 2019
    CR94 and GrGramps like this.
  6. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,571
    48,862
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    idk :cool:

    i have also read that consumer reports owner satisfaction reliability surveys have more to do with infotainment than serious mechanical issues.
     
  7. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2008
    23,073
    14,980
    0
    Location:
    Indiana, USA
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    That's an easy fact-check. The categories evaluated and the results in each were already posted back in #20.

    [​IMG]

    Infotainment is in that last category ("in-car electronics") out of the seventeen. That's also the category where the car made the worst showing.
     
    Lovec1990 likes this.
  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,571
    48,862
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    interesting how 2010 is the worst. first model year blues, or just oldest?
     
  9. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2008
    23,073
    14,980
    0
    Location:
    Indiana, USA
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    I'm reading the chart as '09 worst. 2010 if you restrict to Gen 3. I would say "first model year" and "age" are both real influences. The showing for '09, which wasn't a first-model-year, might suggest a bigger role for age. Still, that column of mostly-green for 2009 is what those columns look like near the top of the rankings. They look way different for cars near the other end.
     
    Raytheeagle likes this.
  10. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,571
    48,862
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    2009 is a beast, anecdotally
     
  11. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2008
    23,073
    14,980
    0
    Location:
    Indiana, USA
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    And that's hardly inconsistent with the bottom-line verdict in the chart.
     
  12. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,571
    48,862
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
  13. Haschwalt

    Haschwalt Member

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2019
    110
    31
    0
    Location:
    New York
    Vehicle:
    Other Non-Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    upload_2019-8-9_11-0-17.jpeg upload_2019-8-9_11-0-42.jpeg

    upload_2019-8-9_11-1-10.jpeg upload_2019-8-9_11-1-22.jpeg upload_2019-8-9_11-1-22.png

    I'm seeing some years where the engine and transmission are fine in certain models, but other years are peppered with random issues.

    What problems have you had with your Prius? What year(s)? What type of maintenance did you run with them?
     

    Attached Files:

  14. Lovec1990

    Lovec1990 Junior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 24, 2019
    74
    41
    0
    Location:
    Slovenia(EU)
    Vehicle:
    Other Non-Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    based on this image 2012 and 2014 are best gen 3s too buy, but witch 2012 pre facelift or facelifted version?
     
  15. Haschwalt

    Haschwalt Member

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2019
    110
    31
    0
    Location:
    New York
    Vehicle:
    Other Non-Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    I don't understand your ? but the '12 is the facelift. '15 is the best year due to possibly fixing the oil burning problem. You can check the August '19 edition of Consumer Reports – this information is very recent.
     
  16. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2017
    6,103
    4,032
    1
    Location:
    Wilkes Land
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius
    Model:
    Four
    There’s not enough 2015s with high miles so the jury’s not out on that yet. Even if it has updates rings and stuff, if you don’t follow scheduled oil change maintenance, it will start to burn oil overtime so having a 2015 doesn’t shield you from oil burning. I have a 2012 with 125000 miles, burns no oil yet, no coolant loss, 64 mpg for the last 6 months and I drive about a bit over 2500 miles a month.

    I don’t use Toyota filter and oils either, oem ain’t good enough.
     
    #116 Grit, Aug 9, 2019
    Last edited: Aug 9, 2019
    Mendel Leisk likes this.
  17. Lovec1990

    Lovec1990 Junior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 24, 2019
    74
    41
    0
    Location:
    Slovenia(EU)
    Vehicle:
    Other Non-Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    not all when i look at german website for used cars there are 2012 that are prefacelifted and some are facelifted. I asume facelifted version was not avaible from 01.01.2012
     
    bisco likes this.
  18. Haschwalt

    Haschwalt Member

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2019
    110
    31
    0
    Location:
    New York
    Vehicle:
    Other Non-Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    Do you change your oil every 10k miles?

    @Grit "I don’t use Toyota filter and oils either, oem ain’t good enough."

    What do you use?


     
  19. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,571
    48,862
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    euro model years run a little different than n/a.
     
    Mendel Leisk and Lovec1990 like this.
  20. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2010
    54,474
    38,106
    80
    Location:
    Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    Touring
    They've worked for me, not that I have a clue. Not sure how you would come to that conclusion though.
     
    #120 Mendel Leisk, Aug 9, 2019
    Last edited: Aug 9, 2019
    mikey_t likes this.