How has the first year went???????????????

Look at the history of the Classic & Iconic models. The first year experiences were overwhelming positive, only a handful of actual problems despite being new and high quantity... especially the 60,000 delivered in the United States for 2004.

Expect feedback to be in the form of just annoyances by newbies. Most owners you'll never even hear from. It's just another realible vehicle like Camry & Corolla have been over the years.

For me, the 2010 has provided a fantastic ownership experience. Even the efficiency, despite harsh cold here in Minnesota and E10 for fuel, has been above EPA estimates. Just a little over a week shy of 1 year, I have driven 19,545 miles and the calculated average comes to 50.01 MPG.
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We had the bad luck to have two flats from nails/screws in the road in the same tire. The second one hit the earlier patch, the shadow of the screw is at 1:00 position. This was after the tires had been rotated, it was the rear tire on the second flat:

So now we have four, Sumitomo T4s, new tires. These are the ones I would have gone with had we been able to wear out the originals. Not a planned upgrade, for $304, it works for us.

As a preventative, I had the transaxle oil changed at 5k miles and analyzed. There were some small debris found and the viscosity had decreased at a rate that straight-line, suggests 15 k miles. I'll drain and test again at 20k miles.

Bob Wilson

 

How did the first year go? vs. Did you have a breakdown that made the car undriveable? Is a pretty extreme yardstick to use in evaluation.

I don't think you are going to have a lot of people with a brand new Toyota reporting they had a breakdown that made the car undriveable. If that was the case, in any substantial numbers, for any repeatable reason, we would of heard about it in this forum long before now.

Since I was considering a 2010 Prius pretty closely I watched carefully. Seems to me the commonly reported 1st year problems were in no particular order, A: A verticle cargo net that pulled the side panels when installed. B: Dash Rattles and Squeaks and (probably the biggest) C: The ECU reflash to adjust braking feel (Actually changed first on the assembly line mid-production run).

This past year has got to be one of the worst years for Toyota as a whole, but given Prius sales have remained solid, I think Prius is fine. I think Toyota will be fine.
The 2010 Prius was commercially released last May, so I think asking how the first year for owners has gone is a good question, but narrowing the definition of how that first year has gone, down to only did you have a breakdown that made the car undriveable or not....is too narrow a scope.

As an observer, I think Cargo Net, some complaints about the quietness of The Dash-squeaks and such, and a Brake software update....is pretty good for a first year model.

(There also have been some reports of a noisy/rough engine at start up, but I personally am not including it as a first year issue, because it seems complaints about this happening have died down)

In anycase, Toyota, Honda or Ford...any major automaker, in this day and age, I'd be very suprised if they released a 1st year model so majorly flawed that a significant number of the vehicles were experiencing breakdowns to the extent of making the vehicle unuseable. Plus if they did? We'd hear about it before now.

I personally evaluated 3 seemingly relatively common reported complaints about The 2010 Prius...2 relatively minor, the braking adjustment being overall the biggest and most hotly debated issue.

I think that's pretty good for an automobile as popular as The Prius, sold to new drivers in as large a number as The Prius, and an automobile that has a totally new engine and a powertrain that was reportedly 90%+ redesigned.

I'd say it wasn't perfect by a long shot, but while being a very bad year for Toyota, Prius performed admirably and has been a relatively bright spot in what has to be a dark period for Toyota.

 

Electric Me's point seems to be if the Gen III had breakdowns like the F-150s in the first year it'd be all over the forum in numerous threads (just like the brake issue) and you'd have heard about it long before now.