[cwynn]

This is a follow up on previous reports I've made regarding my new 2004 Prius with now 27xx miles.

I got tired waiting to hear what's being done. I had waited a good week or more to hear back from the Minot ND service dept. So I called the dealer we bought it from in Bismarck ND. I thought I should bring him up to date just incase we had to go the route of claiming we had fell under the ND "lemon laws" with this one. It's been in for repair four times for the same problem. Towed in for twice, released as fix three times and now were told to drive it until they come up with a fix.

The Bismarck dealer got back to me a day or so later and tells me that based on his discussions with Kansas city Toyota, and west coast California Toyota that the solution is in the works. He was told that several cars around the country have the same problem more or less. The exception being that our car also has a problem with the curise control not working. The solution I am told is that Toyota is now "designing" a new computer, which I take this to mean they are making a new ECU.

I called the Minot Toyota service representative with this info. He was sort of non plause. Well I thought maybe we should try and reslove the curise contorl. He indicated to me they wanted to await the computer solution. I said that was given no impression that that was going to happen any time soon. It could be a year I said until they "make" a new computer. The service representative said then how about bringing it in Wednesday morning.

It will be interesting to see for a fact that the curise contorl outage is or is not related to ECU.

I might also mention that now that weather is up in the 40's ; 50's and sometimes the 60''s the average mileage is no better than 39.7 per mile.
We hope that this may also be related to the ECU. I haven't gotten around to calculating on my own what the actual mileage is. I'm reporting what is showing on the display pannel.

So if you think it's all honky doory in little Priusville stay tuned

 

[john1701a]

> So if you think it's all honky doory in little Priusville stay tuned

In automotive history, there has never been such a thing as a perfect vehicle. The fact that Prius delivers over 99% reliability is actually pretty darn impressive.

So when we hear of diagnosis problems, all we can do is wish the owner best of luck. In the past, that has worked well. Toyota has followed through to make the customer happy.

A helpful hint is to document every little detail. Vague references don't make finding a solution any easier; in fact, it sometimes makes the situation worse.

Good luck.

 

[Panjandrum]

Lemon law it

Frankly, even though it probably is a relatively "simple" fix, like replacing the entire computer - the fact that they;

1) Haven't done it yet

&

2) Don't appear to *be able* to do it yet

suggests to me that the best route might well be to say "I've had enough" and Lemon-Law that puppy.

Realistically, any new car, even an extremely good one, can have a factory defective part. This isn't really the issue here however. The issue here is that they can't, or won't, fix it!

 

[BIF]

The dealership should give you a loaner while they look your car over. Take the loaner...ask for a good one, like one of their demo Camrys; it will encourage them to get the lead out and return your car to you sooner.

And Panjandrum is right...find out how you go about "lemon law"ing a car, and be prepared for the possibility. If anybody here knows the procedure, please provide some input.

I hope this doesn't happen to me. I don't like being on a first-name basis with service managers.