This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
My 2008 Prius won't stay in gears occasionally gear jumped back from D to N mode. Fortunately, it didn't happen when I drove 70 miles per hour. I went to Toyota center and they said I have to pay for the shift lever. I don't know why I should pay for it, it is a defect of this car, not because how I drive this car. Plus, I don't have this money, so I didn't repair for it. I need to report this before someone get killed. I think Toyota should recall 2008 Prius, to make sure our (customer) safety.
On occasion the vehicle will pop out of D or will have a problem getting into D. this day I parked, left the vehicle running (on) since it was cold in boston and my wife was sitting in the passenger seat. Existed the car, retrieved a package I was delivering from the back seat and left. About 5 min later, my wife said that all of a sudden she feels the car moving forward and before she can stop it the car crashed into a truck with a very large tow hitch assembly. The crash nailed my front hood virtually dead center. Dealer could not replicate but seems from other online comments that this is not unknown about gear difficulty although popping out of P seems like a new add-on or maybe few of us ever leave a car running.
The contact owns a 2008 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that while driving 30 mph, the power train moved into neutral independently. The contact moved the gear shifter back into drive. One week later while the contact was driving 60 mph, the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken to a dealer for diagnosis and the contact was informed that the gear shift mechanism would need to be replaced. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The vehicle was repaired. The failure and current mileages were 57,000.
Last week I went out driving with a friend, I was delivering meals on wheels to various homes in my area. At one house I brake the car to a stop and shifted into park and left the motor running. I then got out of the driver's seat, went and opened the back door, took out the necessary meals, closed the door and then went into the house for the delivery. In the meantime, my friend sat in the parked car and after a very few minutes got out of the car to look at something in the neighboring garden. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the car creeping forward. She rushed to the car and tried to stop it but couldn't and so began to scream my name" just at that time I finished my delivery came out of the house and noticed the car was not parked where I left it and heard her screams. I ran to the driveway and saw the car moving forward. I ran after it, managed to open the door and pushed the power button to turn off the motor. This stopped the car just in time before running either into a tree, into another car or off the driveway down a cliff. We were, obviously very shaken up by the incident. No one knows why or how the car went out of park into drive. Both my friend and I are sure the car was stationary when I left it and when she left it. It seems to have suddenly shifted. I have gone back to that site to check if there was in incline or anything that would have caused the car to move. The ground was flat, dry and nothing was there to account for this incident. I am writing this to see if this is a problem for the Prius. Is it something I must be aware of? is there something that must be done to prevent this from happening again? and I would like this to be noted and made a record of by the company and the board of transportation. I would be interested to know if anyone else has had this problem"
When I put the car in drive, it slips back into neutral. In order to drive the car, I must hold the lever in the drive position. The dealer is charging me $500 to fix but I believe this is a defect and a safety problem and should be addressed by the manufacturer. I have read many examples of this problem on toyotanation.com under "2008 Prius won't stay in gear".
- Redlands, CA, USA
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The contact owns a 2008 Toyota Prius. The contact stated while driving the gear would shift into neutral on its own. The contact shifted back into drive gear but the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken to a dealer for inspection and they stated that the lever assembly needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure but provided no assistance. The failure mileage was 71,000. The VIN was unavailable.
The car shifts from both R (reverse) and D (drive) to N (neutral) for no apparent reason. This usually happens after first getting into the car. I'll shift into R, and it will drop to N. same for D. this can happen a few times each time. Usually, when I hold it in place long enough to start moving over 3 mph, it seems fine and I do not need to continue holding the shift lever. However, lots of reports online, and I am a bit concerned that this will happen more often. This has not happened while actively driving (always in parking lots so far). It may be related to heat, as most occurrences have been on hot days, but not exclusively. This seems to be a defect in the 2008 Prius.
After 10 minutes of city street driving, the car was idling in park for 2 minutes. The car was then put into drive and the brake slowly released. As soon as the engine turned over to assist the battery drive, the shift knob bounced into neutral and the dash indicated neutral as well. With the brake on, the shift knob could be placed back into drive and the dash indicated drive. The car stayed in drive for the first second before the engine turned over then slipped back into neutral. This repeated 4 more times. Placing the car in park, turning off the air conditioning, and powering down the car did not prevent the car from slipping into neutral. The car stayed in drive only by holding the shift knob in the drive position. After the 3 minute drive home holding the shift knob in drive, the problem did not repeat. Later that evening and the next day the problem did not repeat. It was approximately 80 degrees F on the afternoon of the occurrence and the car had been parked in the sun for 7 hours, the air conditioning was running at the time of the occurrence.
Vehicle will not stay in gear, usually hot days when it happen. Weather its in rev or drive it will shift back to neutral. It started July 2011. Took it to dealer they could not duplicate. Now yesterday May 27th it happen again. You would have to hold down or up gear shift to have gear stay in place.
I stopped at my mailbox yesterday and put the car in park. When I got back in the car and attempted to drive away the car slipped into neutral all by itself. I put it back in drive and again it slipped into neutral. It did this 5 times before I finally held the knob down into drive so I could get the car home into my driveway. When I started the car this morning it seemed to work fine, but I am finding tons of reports on the internet of people experiencing the exact same problem and even a you tube video of a lady who documented when it happened to her.
My 2008 Toyota Prius pops out of drive into neutral sporadically. I have to hold the gear selector in the drive position with my right hand while I drive one handed with my left.
The contact owns a 2008 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that the vehicle was stopped and shut off when it began to drive forward. The vehicle continued to drive forward and drove behind a building before crashing into bushes. The contact also stated that she left the keys in the ignition when she shut the vehicle off, but the vehicle was shut off while shifted in the park position. Upon locating the crashed vehicle, the contact stated that the keys were in the ignition and the vehicle was still shifted in park. The vehicle was not taken to have the failure diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 36,000.
Car will not stay in drive after it has been idling, in park, on a hot day. When getting back in car and putting the car in drive, it slips back to neutral after accelerator pedal is pressed. Car goes a few feet then slips back to neutral. After putting it back into drive and pressing the pedal again, it slips back to neutral. The only solution is to shut the car off completely and restart after 15-20 minutes. This has twice left me nosed out into a busy street. I first tried to resolve this issue with my local dealership, Toyota, on 9/17/10. They claimed they could not duplicate the problem and said they had never heard of it even though I brought them several internet accounts of others who reported the exact same problem. This year, when the problem started again with the hot weather, I reported it to Toyota usa (case # ). they also said they've never heard of the problem before and insisted that I must have the problem duplicated at the dealership. So, I returned to my dealership but this time with a dvd copy of the problem that I had taken with my movie camera. This dvd shows the issue perfectly. They responded that a Toyota tech has found an "upgrade" that they can provide me for $240 labor. They commented that my car had 52,000 miles on it when the problem first started so they're being really nice in providing the part "upgrade". it's almost as if they're saying that at 52,000 miles I shouldn't expect the transmission to stay in gear!"!" I told them that the power-train is warrented for 100,000 miles and if this isn't a power-train issue I don't know what is. Futhermore, they may regard it as an "upgrade" but I regard it as a safety defect that should be replaced by Toyota at no charge. I have a copy of the dvd, clearly showing the issue, that I would be happy to provide to you. Thank you for your time. Information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
The contact owns a 2008 Toyota Prius. The contact was driving approximately 10 mph when the vehicle suddenly shifted into neutral and the contact was unable to shift into any other gear. The vehicle was then inspected by the dealer and they advised the contact that the shifter needed to replaced due to an electrical failure. The vehicle was not inspected. The manufacturer was contacted and they offered no assistance. The failure and current mileages were approximately 109,000.
On 3 separate days, 2 during the summer of 2009 and 1 during the summer of 2010, our Prius transmission has automatically and repeatedly shifted from D (drive) to N (neutral) without warning while the car was moving. All incidents happened on extremely hot days (temperatures near 100) in the afternoon after the car had been parked out in the sun and without us having made any accidental contact with the shifter / drive selector while driving. This created dangerous situations several times as the car erratically slowed as we entered intersections or pulled out onto busy streets. Our initial response was to depress the accelerator, but when this had no effect, we discovered the transmission light had moved from D to N. it was especially dangerous when making left hand turns on busy streets with oncoming traffic. We discovered that we could keep the car moving by constantly holding the shifter / drive selector lever in the D position. Turning off the air conditioner did not help the problem. After the first time this happened, we took the car to the dealership to investigate the problem, but the service technicians there were unable to reproduce it. This glitch remains a concern to us because the loss of power and acceleration is unpredictable and therefore dangerous, but at least we know we can keep the car moving by holding the shifter in the D position. Because the car is so computerized, I suspect an electronic component of the drive system may malfunction at high temperatures. The mileage number I gave is an approximation since I didn't record the actual mileage when this first happened, but the dealer who serviced the car shortly thereafter should have that information.
When I put my 2008 Prius into the park mode along with the brake but still having the car running, I will open the driver's side door to get my mail. When I then close the door and try and put the car into drive, it will automatically shift into neutral. Numerous tries to get the car into the drive mode will fail. I then coast my car down the hill into my driveway. I have tried shutting off the car and starting from scratch but it will shift into neutral. This has happened intermittently over the last month. I took it to my local dealer and they could find nothing wrong. It occurred after they said there was nothing wrong so I will be taking it back in. The consequences are that I am on a road and can't get my car to drive. One other issue that occurred during this time is that I was driving at approximately 50mph and all of a sudden my car shifted into the B mode. I was able to shift out of it but my concern is that there is something wrong.
2008 Toyota Prius. Consumer states fault in vehicle the consumer stated he backed out of a parking space, shifted into drive and the vehicle refused to respond to drive as he pressed the accelerator. It seemed the brake was on. A master fault appeared on the screen. It said batteries will not charge if let in the neutral position. After several tries, it finally responded.
Last night about 6:00pm cst. My gas pedal stuck on my 2008 Toyota. I was at a used car dealership looking at trucks. I got out of the Prius to look at a truck. I got back into the car put it in drive and when I took off the pedal stuck to the floor. I put the shifter into neutral stopped the car, put it back into drive and the pedal was still stuck. Once again I put the shifter into neutral, stopped the car and put the shifter into park, adjusted the floor mat (I don't know if the mat was the problem or not) then put the shifter into drive and it was fine. I sure it is not related but I had just had the car in the shop (smart motors) the previous week to adjust the tire pressure light.
I left my 2008 Toyota Prius running and had to run back into a home where I'd just left a sales appointment. Eventhough I had the key fob in my pocket, I noticed out of the corner of my eye as I was crossing the street back towards the house that my car was careening into the Buick parked across the street. I ran and jumped in and steered it away from T-boning the parked Buick, but could not keep it the driver's side of the Prius from scraping along the driver's side corner of the Buick's rear bumper.
I own a 2008 Toyota Prius which surges ahead when I am braking under certain conditions: Wet, uneven surfaces, and bumpy roads. It is scary because I nearly hit someone at a stop sign and I feel out of control when it does this. On average, happens 1-2X week. It happens when my foot is off the gas pedal and I am under 20 mph. It seems like a computer error and not accelerator related.
- Birmingham, MI, USA
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- West Columbia, SC, USA