Prius Recall

Seriously. And mine hasn't shifted an inch since I bought the car in April.

I read one story where someone crashed at 120mph because of the floor mat issue. I thought, "they couldn't figure out how to shift to neutral?"

My wife's Scion xB mats shift more than my Prius'.

By the way, I filled up tge top half of my tank for the first time at 43F. It clicked off a full 1.25 gallons early. With patience I was able to get it filled up, but I froze my butt off doing it

My old 1999 Corolla van has a hook anchored to the floor to keep the floor mat from moving. The hook goes through a hole in the mat. All this is loctaed under the drivers seat and only that side has this feature. So there is no way this could have happened to my car. Now my question is, how is that other Toyota models does not come with this simple feature?

Update: Just read on NYTimes.com that there's a difference of opinion between Toyota and the NHTSA. Toyota is telling customers that the problem is only with improperly fitted floor mats, but the NHTSA is saying the problem is complicated and the investigation is continuing. Further, the NHTSA says there may be an acceleration problem with the vehicle that has nothing to do with floor mats. Stay tuned.

I have my 2008 prius for 2 years and 80.000 miles all I have doen is only the oil change air filtre and new tires to my this is the best car built on this fears.

In response to your note, I was almost killed a month ago because of the gas pedal sticking -- no floor mat being part of the problem. I went from 3 mph to about 80 in stop and go traffic when this happened. I was too scared to take my hands off the wheel as I went off the road and into a gully at 80 mph so that I would not kill anyone else. I broke both of my hands because I was gripping the steering wheel so tight... just to try to control the car. Until you have been in that situation please do not pass judgement on the abilities of the driving skills of those of us who have. I avoided killing myself and others; but had two broken hands and a concussion, plus my doctor says I now have an acute stress reaction. I still love the prius, but I will never get into a 2006 model again.

Mechanical throttles get sticky over time. I had an old 78 Corolla that had that problem a couple times.

BTW, that's when I figured out to shift to neutral when the gas petal sticks to the floor.

valerie,
Neutral is best. This disengages the motor from propelling the vehicle.

Then you should brake and pull off to the side of the road at the next safest spot. There you would have the ability to double check you vehicle for anything that may be affecting the accelerator.

You don't want to turn the car off while driving because this can lock up the steering wheel.

--
Eric Powers
Green Drive Expo
* SF Bay Area - Second weekend in June
* Madison, WI - Third weekend in July
www.GreenDriveExpo.com

In the case of unprovoked acceleration, turning the power off on the vehicle would lock the steering whell. I would think the best option would be to move the gear to Nuetral, and not power off until you came to a stop. That makes sense, but I have not had the problem with my prius. ??

Obviously "Anonymous" above is a spammer who has never driven a Prius. Only a crack addict on a caffeine overdose would consider a Prius to be "under powered" or lacking in acceleration.

Spoken as though no other car has ever been recalled for a safety issue.

I had a 73 Dodge Charger when I was 17. my first car. I was driving on the highway and the throttle got stuck. The traffic was light and while I was scared I let the car go and kept my foot lightly on the brake. When I got to my exit I shifted to neutral and coasted to the side of the road with the engine screaming. Turned off the car and called my dad for some help.

These problems can happen to any car. It’s a machine built by man. People should have the skills to handle the issue. After all these are heavy pieces of machinery. When it could be a larger design issue companies like Toyota should deal with it. Seems they are. We shall see. Regardless my Prius has performed flawlessly after 70000 miles. My Dodge Charger broke down often :)

There is NO neutral!!!!

Seriously, one put's the car in drive or reverse and shifts to the letter N; nothing, the car does not recognize neutral. It just keeps going.

I recently bought a 2004 Prius with 35K (cheap from all the bad press). I have practiced going down the highway accelerating and shifted it to neutral. You must hold the shift lever in neutral for it to recognize that you want it to be in neutral. Engine does not rev too high due to the computer keeping the RPM's from going too high.
If you own a Prius and are worried about unwanted acceleration please practice this procedure. As far as I can tell this is one of the best made cars I have ever driven or worked on. I don't work for Toyota I just know whatever the problem is, they will figure it out. Toyota will rebound as a trusted vehicle for all to drive. Till then drive carefully and practice putting car in neutral under accleration just in case.

i'm just ready to purchase a 2006 prius for a college daughter.

are these problems still happening?
what questions should I ask re recall problems being being fixed? -- austin

Believe it or not, this past weekend I experienced an idle surge in my 2009 Prius.

My wife and I were running errands. She was driving (even though she gets about 85% the mileage I get), so I’m sitting in the passenger seat and our daughter is riding in the back.

We pull up to a store that she’s "only going to be in for a minute." She puts the car in park goes into the store, emergency break is off. Its hot-ish outside so she left the car running and the A/C on. The car switches into electric idle mode. Its taking a little longer than expected and the hybrid battery gets down to two bars. This causes the ICE to kick on to recharge the battery. When the ICE kicked on, the car rocked forward what felt like 6” and rocked back.

The distance it rocked was probably less, maybe half of what it felt like. But I know it wasn’t just me because my daughter who had been reading a book looked up and said, “Are we moving?”

Actually, I think I was partially reclined with my eyes closed.

I know what your taking about with apparent motion. I usually get it if I'm stopped at a light and the car next to m starts creeping forward and it makes me feel like I'm rolling backward.

This didn't feel like a gradual motion. It felt like someone gave the car a sudden push and it rocked forward and back.

Prius is no doubt one of the best cars ever created. I am looking forward to have this stuff by next year. I was there in california where the car show has been held and i've seen that the specs of the car are excellent. by the way, does anyone here knows what type of engine this car uses? i guess it's the V8.