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.
1. applying brakes normally, but during braking hit a bump, or a seam in the road, or wet pavement, or small patch of ice. 2. ABS system kicks in, however appears to kick in too aggressively and all braking force seems to disappear while car feels as if it is accelerating. Maintaining brake force or re applying brake eventually brings car to halt. 3. nothing has been done to remedy this. No warning lamps are lit, etc. I will call Toyota tomorrow. Have owned car since new, about 6 months, and this scenario has occurred several times now.
I have a 2010 Toyota Prius (purchased in October 2009). I have noticed on several occasions the brakes momentarily don't work after going over a bump. I feel a lose of control of the car.
On Nov. 3, 2009, I purchased a Prius iv 2010. On Nov. 10 coming to red light on a dry road. Brakes gently applied. Right front tire hit a bump in road. Car slightly accelerated before brakes kicked in. It has happened a few more times since then. In each case, the road was drive. Every time when brakes are applied and car then rolls over a bump or hole in pavement this acceleration occurs. Last time was on Dec. 15. East houston in nyc. Coming to a light. Brakes applied. Car was almost at a full stop. Tires touched on good sized flaw in the pavement and the car slightly sped up. I was really fearful that time the Prius was going to hit the car in front.
The roads were covered with snow and were quite slippery. I was coming down a hill to a stop sign at about 10 mph. I hit the brakes lightly, the ABS engaged (I could hear/feel the brakes pulse), but the car didn't slow down much. I jammed on the brakes, the ABS was still engaged and the car finally stopped in the middle of the intersection, again slowing down very slowly. If it had not been a four-way stop, somebody would have hit me! I kept driving and the same thing kept happening to me: I hit the brakes, the ABS engaged and the car stopped very slowly. In some cases, it felt like the car even accelerated a little bit before finally (and slowly) coming to a stop. I am a mechanical engineer and used to work for General Motors - I have driven lots of cars - and this has never happened to me before. I immediately drove home and drove my 2002 Honda civic (which does not have anti-lock brakes) down the same road. While the car did slide in the snow, it stopped in about one-third the distance of my Prius. There is definitely something the matter with the braking system and/or the traction control system when the ABS engages.
I have a new Toyota Prius 2010 and have experienced the loss of braking combined with a simultaneous acceleration about 4 times now. It is incredibly scary. I have never had this happen on any other car that I've driven. It happens when I hit a bump in the rear. I now see that many people are experiencing this as I saw an article on msnbc.msn.com. I now see that others are experiencing the same problem. This has to be investigated. The last time it happened I was facing a cliff and had the car not stopped, my daughter and I would have gone off the cliff and probably would have perished. This is asking for accidents to happen and something must be done to fix this problem. There are way too many of these cars on the road. I do not have the win number on hand, but will add it tomorrow. This has occurred approx 4 times and the car accelerates at the same time I lose braking capabilities.
- Santa Monica, CA, USA
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2010 Toyota Prius, 4500 miles while braking, the car hit a set of flush railroad tracks. The bump of the tracks caused the braking system to feel like it stopped working, and I had to re-pump the brakes to get braking to re-engage. The car has had a couple more similar episodes of the brakes seeming to dis-engage.
While braking, my car hit a bump and it felt like there was a sudden surge of acceleration. I had to press the brakes extra hard to feel like I regained control of the car. This is definitely a repeatable problem, just drive the car over a pot-hole or a bump while you're breaking to recreate the condition.
The contact owns a 2010 Toyota Prius. She experiences poor brake functionality during brake application. The vehicle was taken to a dealer for inspection. The technician could not duplicate the failure, so he could not provide a remedy. The failure mileage was 1,000.
There are times that on my 2010 Prius that the brakes seem to fail. If there is anything in the road (I.e raised lane markers, potholes, raised concrete) that the tire engages in during braking, it takes longer than it should to make a safe stop. Also, when I park on a slight incline there seems to be braking issues where the car 'jerks' when I am in reverse. These two issues continue on a regular basis.
Coming up to stop sign, perhaps 25mph, at intersection of service roads leaving workplace. Car coming (also probably 25mph) from the left. There was some light snow (not covering), but nothing unusual. Applied brakes to stop. Brakes worked at first, but then seemed to stop working for several seconds, leaving my wondering if I was going to go through the stop sign and have a slow-speed collision with the car coming from the left. Luckily the brakes eventually seemed to grab, and the car rolled to a stop right at the intersection.
It was snowing and very slippery. I was slowing down and turning into my driveway when suddenly it felt like I had no brakes. This is different from ABS which had gone off occasionally during the trip. As a result I ended up hitting a snow bank at the end of my driveway.
2010 Toyota Prius brake failure. Everytime while braking if there is a bump or on even a slight bit of ice on 1 wheel only, the brakes will release completely and go back to accelerating rather than braking. It happens when I exit the highway and there is a change in surfaces from tar to concrete. It happens very often and can happen anytime. This occurs at any speed from 10mph up and I have experienced it from 10mph and as high as 55mph. The problem first occurred around 500 miles on the car and I now have over 8500 miles. This started in August around the 15th. I have a 2007 Hummer H3 and I have compared the braking with the same conditions and speeds and the Prius is not responding correctly. The Hummer brakes even with the changes. I have also compared on a 2006 Volvo S60. These brakes are failing and it will eventually result in a crash or a pedestrian being struck. There is no pulsing of the breaks there is only releasing for ice or for any surface other than perfect. There should be some type of repair or recall immediately. I have noticed this but thought it was only me until I saw the msnbc article. I will not let my wife drive this car since she is pregnant. It is not safe. While sitting at traffic lights the traction control light keeps turning on and blinking and will lock the brakes until the gas pedal is pressed. I have never had an anti-lock or any type of breaking issue in 15 years of driving various vehicles.
Events leading up to failure: Hitting the brakes and hitting a bump in the pavement of the road at the same time. How often: All the time, if you are hitting the brakes, and hitting a bump at the same time. What was done: Nothing. Toyota claims nothing is wrong.
The contact owns a 2010 Toyota Prius. Occasionally when he drivers over a rough terrain or speed bumps when attempts to apply the brakes, the brakes will not function for several seconds. The vehicle has not been diagnosed by the dealership. The current and failure mileages were 6000. Updated 01/29/10 updated 02/01/10.
In reverse car speeds and brake stiffens and unable to slow reverse speed. Also, two times while accelerating at 25 miles per hour the car seemed to lift up then settle down. Very frightening. Updated 02/02/10 the consumer stated when the vehicle was in reverse, the brakes froze. The day after the vehicle was at the dealer, the consumer parked on a small incline, the front facing up. When she started the vehicle, she pushed the start button, put the vehicle in reverse, disengaged the emergency brake, and immediately the brakes froze and the consumer started to go backwards without control of the backing up the car. The consumer was unable to control the backwards movement so she immediately shut down the power. She then started the vehicle again, put it reverse, disengaged the emergency brake and everything was normal. Updated 03/01/10 updated 05/05/10.
I have a 2010 Toyota Prius (generation 3). Purchased on 10/15/2009. I have experience unexpected loss of braking when decelerating to about 5-10 mph and when the vehicle hits or goes over a bump. This have happened multiple times. There were no property damage, however, the unexpected loss of braking and a feeling of acceleration is unsettling. I feel this may eventually lead to a vehicular collision.
While braking over a rough surface such as potholes, train tracks or just rough pavement, the brakes feel like they cut out for a brief (well under a second) period. This could be ABS activating or it could be the changeover from regenerative braking to friction braking or something I am not aware of. I would describe the feeling as "floating" or hitting a patch of extremely slippery ice or like my foot has slipped off the brake pedal. I am confident that this event increases stopping distance but I have no idea how much and it may only be inches. I know from reading, this has been reported years ago with the previous generation Prius. Overall, I am extremely pleased with the car but this is something I believe should be investigated. Oh yes, it is fairly easy to reproduce and has happened to me 3-5 times in the 6000 miles I have driven the car. It is not nearly as terrifying now as it was the first time but when it happens it definitely grabs your attention! it has not caused me to get in an accident but I believe the potential is there for an accident to occur.
I own a 2010 Toyota Prius, and like many have experienced the brakes "cutting out" when slowing down and going over a rough section of road. I drive throughout the houston, Texas area and have had this issue happen many times, usually unexpectedly. There are a few places I drive regularly that create the issue and I anticipate them and adjust my driving accordingly.
2010 Toyota Prius with 2500 miles. Since purchased on 8/2009, I had more than ten experiences of unexpected acceleration (sudden unintended acceleration) on reverse that feel like two or three time (stronger) faster than normal reverse. Accompany the higher speed reverse, a heavy, abrupt braking with a slight touch of the brake during this event. The big "jerk" (braking) rock the entire car and banged heads again the headrests.this only happened with electric mode and most time with the car parked a slight incline. This unintended acceleration sometime happen a few time a day or it can go two, three weeks without any problem. The dealer can not find anything wrong with my car. And Toyota have no information about this problem. However, if you go to priuschat forum under gen III 2010 Prius main forum-braking in reverse, there are many people with the same problems. I strongly believe this is very dangerous if a new driver get in my car and not know about it. There is one post in priuschat forum that best explain the problem: Just yesterday, my Prius-III backed up with sudden unintended acceleration, with my foot only on the brake pedal.... I recognized what was happening because it happened once before, just over 2 months ago. Just a few days after I got the car. When I was backing out of an inclined driveway... I suspect that some unusual element of the timing of turning the car on and shifting into reverse, and possibly the internal state of the computer and the hybrid power system combine to produce this "abrupt" reverse acceleration as I am gently easing off my foot pressure on the brake pedal... the abrupt braking effect does occur, but only in response to the much more dangerous "unexpected, unintended" reverse power (acceleration), to stop the car motion. No matter how gently the brake is eased further on to stop, the stop is "abrupt" by garygid orange county, ca. I am trying to work with Toyota on this issue. Thank you.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Kensington, MD, USA