2023 Toyota Prius Reliability Report

The contact owns a 2023 Toyota Prius Prime. The contact stated that upon approaching the vehicle after it had been parked and turned off in the garage, the contact noticed that the hatch door was opened. The contact stated that upon pressing the power button on the hatch and the hatch door power button inside the cabin to close the hatch door, the hatch door failed to close. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and advised the contact to call Roadside Assistance. The contact called Toyota Roadside Assistance who advised the contact to attempt to close the hatch manually. The contact was able to close the hatch door manually. The dealer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 7,920. The VIN was not available.

The contact owns a 2023 Toyota Prius Prime. The contact stated while driving 40 MPH with the headlights activated, the low-beam headlights were not providing adequate illumination to light the sides of the roadway properly. The contact stated that shadows were projected to the side of the road from the headlights. The contact had taken the vehicle to a dealer who diagnosed the vehicle and determined that the headlight housing was causing the low beams to be partially shaded. The dealer was informed that when the high beam headlight was activated, the light from the headlight was not casting shadows and the side of the road was lit. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was informed of the failure. The failure mileage was 9,176.

The 12 volt battery was low, apparently from opening and closing doors during a camping trip. After a few days of sitting unused, I attempted to drive the vehicle. I pushed the start button and the car indicated that it was "ready". When I went to shift the transmission into Drive, the transmission went into Neutral instead and stuck there. At the same time, "low battery" indicators began flashing and the displays started blanking out and flashing. I again attempted to shift into Drive so that I could initiate the gas engine and recharge the battery while driving. However, I could not shift out of neutral and then the car went out of "ready" mode but was still powering accessories. When I attempted to restart the car, it would not let me because it was in neutral. At this time, I tried to shift back into park (push-button) and got an error message that said, Parking Brake Unavailable. So here I am with a vehicle that I need to start to get the battery charged but it won't let me out of Neutral or into Park, which prevents it from starting. Repeated attempts to get the car into Park electronically were not successful and there is not a manual parking brake. The issue is that there was no way to exit the vehicle to get help without risk of it rolling away. And from a technical standpoint, while there was not enough power to shift into park or actuate the parking brake, the vehicle was still powering all non-critical functions like infotainment system, AC, convenience lights, windshield wipers, headlights, parking lights, etc. Some things could be powered down, others could not. It seems to me that, in the absence of a manual parking brake, powering the parking system electronically should have priority over all other systems. In short, I was stuck in the vehicle with my foot on the brake pedal to prevent a rollaway accident. Had I not realized this, I easily could have exited and been run over trying to pop my hood for a jump start. Or rolled over the people downhill.

The car was being driven on US287 south from Wichita Falls, TX toward Fort Worth, Texas on an open road, in the middle of the afternoon, in clear sunshine, no clouds, no rain. On a stretch of the highway where the road dipped down into a gully, and had a normal rise afterwards, the automatic braking system activated, gave a warning of an impending collision and applied the brakes to stop the car HARD. Luckily, there was no traffic ahead or behind the vehicle at the time of the incident. The car came almost to a stop before it realized that there was no danger ahead of the vehicle and the automatic braking system released from the emergency situation at about 5 mph. If there had been cars on the highway following the vehicle, it is doubtful that they would have been able to slow down in time to prevent a rear end collision. The vehicle was slowed down in a maximum breaking action on an open highway, with an open road ahead of the vehicle. The system interpreted a hill ahead of the car as a danger to be avoided.

Driving at highway speed on Interstate 30. Warning lights came on the dashboard. The Prius began to stall. Could not steer vehicle to shoulder. Prius came to a stop in the outside lane of travel. Rear-ended by Tractor Trailer rig. Passenger died. Driver sustained serious injuries. Witnesses called 911 prior to the collision to report that a vehicle had stalled on the interstate with its flashers on.

Body / Liftgate The rear hatch unexpectedly dropped and fell on my head while the vehicle was stationary. The right-side rear hatch gas strut separated from the body at the mounting point. The left-side rear hatch gas strut had also shown signs of imminent failure and subsequently broke near its mounting point. This resulted in loss of hatch support and uncontrolled closure, creating a risk of head and upper-body injury. The failure appears related to structural stress at the strut mounting locations, not misuse. Seat Belt – Rear Center Passenger The rear center passenger seat belt upper cover can be easily pulled off by passengers, which breaks the plastic retaining tab. When the tab breaks, plastic fragments fall into the seat belt mechanism, causing the belt to jam and fail to retract properly. This results in impaired seat belt function, which is a safety concern for rear passengers. The vehicle has not been modified, and the failure occurred during normal use. Vehicle mileage at time of incident was approximately 150,000 miles. The rear center passenger seat belt issue has been present since the vehicle was new. The rear center passenger seat belt mechanism was replaced twice by the dealer during the warranty period, with one replacement performed as a goodwill repair after Toyota Corporate declined coverage. Despite these repairs, the same issue reoccurred, indicating a persistent design-related vulnerability rather than isolated misuse. The issue results in seat belt jamming and failure to retract, which is a safety concern.