The contact owns a 2007 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that the gear shifter failed. As a result, whenever he attempted to shift into reverse the vehicle would shift into neutral independently. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 75,000.

- Manassas, VA, USA

I have a 2007 Prius, and every time I go over a bump in the road, my car accelerates, and I get a run away feeling that lasts about 30-45 seconds. In addition, when I am at rest, and the motor is on and my foot in on the brake, the car makes a noise as if the horn is lowly honking. I have described both of these things to my dealership, and they told me that they never heard of this problem before. They said that they checked it out. It still remains.

- Rockville, MD, USA

My near death experience drive my 2007 Toyota Prius on August 30, 2007** **while driving my 2007 Prius behind a 16-wheeler and at an average speed of 60mph, suddenly my Prius' engine & motors roared and the speed surged so strongly that if I didn't ride the brakes, I saw myself ramming into the back of the 16-wheeler in front of me. Also at this time, a Cadillac SUV was following me to close on this Georgia secondary-highway#121 whereby I visualize a tragic accident about to occur. After about a half-mile riding the brakes and feeling the pulling torque of those powerful electric motors on the front wheels, I saw my chance to exit ahead where two trash dumpsters appeared. As I stopped the Prius, I notice smoke coming over the hood. So I jump out of the Prius. I saw flames round the front wheel well that soon flamed out. I contacted aaa auto club South and had the Prius towed 45 miles back to the ann taylor Toyota dealership/service center where I originally purchased the 2007 Prius. Five days later, I was notified by the service center that a piece of flexible "carpet mat" suddenly "rigged" enough in order to become wedged onto the accelerator and no additional services required. (invoice#tocs368561 dated 09/05/07) now in disbelief and scared, I had my 2007 Prius re-inspected at precision tune auto care (invoice#165110 dated 09/06/07). This inspected yielded evidence of a previous fire and burned rotors! I contacted by phone Toyota Corp customer service and usaa auto insurance. I contacted a legal attorney that advised me that my circumstances required hiring a mechanical engineer to disprove Toyota's assertion or drive the vehicle until the run-A-way acceleration occurs again. As of this date, having been "stonewalled" the past two years, I want to verify that your department has a record of my incident.

- Augusta, GA, USA

I have a 2007 Toyota Prius. I turned it off and went in the house. When I came out it had gone into my garage door and damaged the front end and the garage door. Obviously accelerated after being shut down.

- Thousand Oaks, CA, USA

When I bought my new Prius in 2007 I knew there was something strange. Everytime I went down this big hill near my house the car would shoot forward a bit and it would be hard to brake. I called my dealer and they told me it was an advanced safty feature. The more I drove the car the worse it got. I would avoid routes with hills in the rain. In 2009 when I had my 2nd child I decided to get rid of the car because the problem was getting worse. It was as if I was sliding on ice in the middle of the summer

- Washington, DC, USA

I've complained -- with no response or help -- to a Toyota dealer about 2 concerns I have with my 2007 Prius that I've always believed were manufacturer/design defects: 1) the brakes skip when I hit a pothole, especially the one I traverse every weekday turning into my worksite. 2) during hard acceleration early in a drive (the uphill left turn leaving my neighborhood), there is a hesitation for about a second or two -- like the engine is going to stall and die (it hasn't yet.) when I 'floor it" to move into a hole in traffic, I get full power for a couple of seconds, followed by no power for a second and then a return of power. It's as if I took my foot off the accelerator, only it hasn't moved. My fear is that some time the delay will cause me to get hit and that some time the engine will just die. I've noticed this from when the car was within the first month old (I took delivery 4/30/07). Stevinson Toyota (golden, co) said they hadn't heard of such complaints. When I took it in about a year ago, they said they couldn't reproduce the problems and did nothing.

- Wheat Ridge, CO, USA