general problems of the 2001 Toyota Prius

The contact owns a 2001 Toyota Prius. While driving 20 mph, the vehicle lost complete power and braking ability without warning. As a result, the contact drove over the median aand crashed into a pole. The air bags deployed. A police report was filed. There were no injuries. The vehicle was towed to the local dealer (titus-will Toyota, 3506 s sprague Ave, tacoma, wa 98409). The vehicle was not declared destroyed. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage and VIN were unknown.

My car is experiencing what is known onlline as "the big hand syndrom". While driving, the accelerator pedal changes resistance and it feels like someone grabs the car and it dramatically slows. You then have to press harder on the accelerator pedal to maintain speed. Well one day, the car stopped working, no matter how hard I pressed on the pedal it would no accelerate. I was on the highway. I took my car in to the local authorized Toyota dealer and was told that the accelerator pedal was bad and needed to be replaced. We replaced the pedal and experienced the same issues, and replaced the accelerator pedal again. I'm still experiencing the same issuses and the Toyota dealer said theres nothing they can do except keep replacing the pedal cause thats the code it is throwing up. This is a major safety issue for my vehicle as I can and do lose acceleration at any given time. It doesnt seem to matter how fast im going or the driving conditions. It is completely random, and cannot be replicated on comand. The date listed is the first instance, and it has happened too many times to count or make record.

2001 Prius was parked in garage ~6hrs, fire started and smoldered, apparently using up oxygen inside the car. I went in the garage for something else, noticed the headlights were on and opened the car door to turn them off. When the door was opened, acrid smoke poured out, and the fire was given fresh oxygen, and it took off. Windshield cracked from heat, left front dash melted. Fire dept put out the fire quickly, but the car is ruined and the cause unknown. Thankfully no damage to garage, house or people. I had smelled a funny smell hours before, but thought it was something outside, so the fire had been smoldering for some time. Lights apparently went on because the fire/heat had shorted something.

In 2007 I had a side impact with my vehicle. I told Toyota to check for any damage with the computer components in the car. They said they checked everything out and said it was fine. Monday I had the computer and inverter go out on my 2001 Toyota Prius and I asked my insurance company aaa to check if it could be related to the accident. There response said it was internal shorts in the system not caused by the accident. The hybrid computer and electronic system just decided to short out. The cost to get it repair it is $4,800. 00. The mileage is 190,000, past warranty. Nothing is wrong with the engine part just the computer electrics part. I don't have that kind of money and I still owe $10,100 on it yet.

The contact owns a 2001 Toyota Prius. The contact walked outside and noticed that the vehicle's windows were black. She opened the door and smoke billowed out of the vehicle. She shut the door and called the fire department. The weather was dry and sunny. The purchase date and powertrain were unknown. The current and failure mileages were 79,000.

I own a 2001 Prius purchased July of 2001 my wife and I have had a near stall so many times we have lost count. The first time was in the first week of purchase 2001 and we have had the car checked and have been told they cannot find the problem since they can not recreate the problem. I guess we have been lucky our Prius does not stall completely just slows to 15-37 miles per then we have to stop and wait for the lights to clear. It has gotten to the point where this is happening almost daily. The last time we took it in for service and had them check to find the problem they did not inform us that there has been a problem all along. We love the car as far as mileage and enjoy driving the Prius. We have always spoken highly of the Toyota corporation but we are getting rather annoyed they cannot fix our problem or the problems of other pruis owners. We would like to know if Toyota has sent out a warning to all owners. We have never been notified of any problems and we have owned this car for five years. We had one recall the batteries were redone, but no stall warnings. Thank you for your time peter kalous.

The following has happened on 4 different occasions, 3 times I have been driving on the interstate several hundred miles from home at speeds of 65 to 70 miles per hour. On these occasions the dashboard warning lights have come on and the gasoline engine shuts down. The vehicle's electric motor will continue operating in a limited capacity, so I can steer to the side of the road. The engine will start working again when I try to restart the vehicle, but not for a considerable amount of time, this has been very frightening, as I am usually alone in the car. The last time this happened I had to wait approximately 30 minutes on the side of the road at dusk before the car started again. I had called several tow trucks, but they told me they could not come for another 45 minutes to 2 hours as they were that busy. I have had my car into the Toyota shop every time this happened and they keep telling me nothing is wrong. Well, something is wrong. . . I can't believe I am the only person having this trouble. Is there anything that can be done to make them fix this problem. I bought this car used and in good faith, obviously because of gas prices. But now I guess I know why it was traded in after only 2 years. The last time this happened was October 10th, 2005.

I own a 2001 Toyota Prius. On 05/12/05 I was driving to work. I was driving about 65 mph on the 405 freeway. The car suddenly hesitated, then lost most of its power and the warning lights came on. I was barely able to get it to the side of the road and turned the car off. I restarted it. The lights stayed on, but it drove ok. I took it to a dealer. They reset the warning lights and told me the gas pedal sensor was bad. I did not get it replaced. Car has run ok since then. This is the second occurence. It also happened about one and a half years ago. Simular symtoms. Took car to dealer and they reset the warning system. No other work was done or performed. They said they couldn't find anything wrong with it. Very hazardous. Car just stumbles and loses most of its power. A second major defect was the front end, which started to have steering problems Toyota replaced entire front end under warrentee.

Gas motor failed to continue operating while driving on the road twice. Once in August,2003,again March,2004. Vehicle lost power both times-created a serious safety hazard because I ccould not maintain speed on roads where speed limits were 40 and 50 mph. There was traffic around the vehicle in both instances. On second incident-narrowly avoided a collision from the rear. Other vehicle swerved to avoid my vehicle. Dealer replaced defective computer in 2003 and defective accelerator sensor unit 2004.

Vehicle description: passenger vehicles. Insufficient electrical contact can occur in the torque sensor that controls the power assist operation of the electric power steering gear box. The torque sensor could send improper electrical signals. Dealers will repair the electric steering gear box. Right turn signal does not cancel after a hard right turn. Vehicle would pull out in front of the consumer because they think he's going to make a right turn.

While driving vehicle shut down and would not restart. All 3 times that this happened consumer was on the freeway. Consumer owned the car for 1 year before it started stalling, and it has stalled two more times since then. Each time the car was taken to Toyota, and each they time they were unable to figure out what the cause of the problem was.

Driving on the freeway early am, still dark, gas engine failed, ecu failure shown on screen. Electric motor was going at maximum with no "gas" pedal applied. Pulled over, turned off. 300v batt already fully discharged when it got to the dealer. They charged it and it has not happened again before selling in 2006. 2001 Prius. Later on had two bad rack & pinion, the 2nd one failed a couple months after replacement on a long freeway trip at mile 300. Very hard to steer even at highway speeds. Toyota replaced again.

2001 Toyota Prius. We had a Toyota Prius hybrid gas/electric car the first that came into the USA. The car would reach a certain mileage and the computer which controlled everything in the car would go bad. We would get a few miles from home and the car would not work. It would shut off. We would have to sit for a few minutes and than the car would only go 35 miles an hour or less and we would have to turn around and go home. On one trip to California, when we got to colorado the screen said the go to a service dealer. We had to spend the night in northglenn colorado and went to the dealer . We had to take the car into the dealer so many times. They would replace the computer and all the parts, even the gas tank. The car would also lock you inside and you could not get out. The computer and the electrical system in of this model are all bad. They reach a certain mileage and bad. They were doing all the recalls from our car. They promised us a new Prius signature Toyota in benton harbor mi, and never got it. Finally in 2005 they said they would trade our Prius car for another car corolla, but they charged us $8,000. 00 more. Please help us get our money back. No lawyer will take it since comes from japan. We had tried everything and could get no help. Wrote Toyota and never got them to reply to us. Tried their mediation and they held the papers until the time ran out than sent us a paper saying not valid any more. Help us get our money back. Let people know that Prius cars are bad. Do not buy. The consumer also stated the gas pedal would become stuck at times, which caused the vehicle to increase in speed. Updated 04/27/10 updated 10/29/10.