Body problems of the 2007 Toyota Prius - part 1

Catalytic converter is easily accessible and there should be a recall to have a safety operation and stop all these cars from being sold in the market because there is a rise in many thefts of the catalytic converter due to it being very easily accusable without any guard in place to prevent thieves from getting to it to remove and sell for parts. Spray paint can be cleaned off and VIN numbers can be sanded down. Simply trying that will not work. I was unaware that it was stolen off of the vehicle until I drove it a little ways to where the vehicle was then burning and I could smell it catching on fire.

The main dash. Display, speedometer, will not show up due to electric problem. Power from rear, aux, battery is interrupted some how. The cruise control will be inop in this situation. There is no way of knowing when the condition will show up, but when door is opened, the indicator light will not come on. Car will have been parked, turned off. Different fixes on the net. My fix is to in plug rear battery's 2 connections, wait then hope, and try again.

First issue is with the rear latch being useless sometimes depending on the weather as the molding is all melted and access to the trunk being impossible. Second and most important I've noticed the braking on this car is very very suspect. Purchased this vehicle around 6 months ago from westbury Toyota and I've learned I need to apply my brakes at least a good 50 to 100 feet before the vehicle in front of me. Couple months ago the car in front of me braked so sudden that I also hit my brakes, the abs sign flashed as if it "was" working but the car just kept going, I ended up pressing the brake all the way to the floor and still no result. If I hadn't kept my distance I would've definitely ended up in that cars trunk. I can say from all my experience as a driver and all the cars I've owned this car has the worst braking system in the history of motor vehicles. Feels like braking a 747 plane. Extremely dangerous braking.

The rear hatch is extremely hard to open in the summer and now in the winter even harder. I feel this is a safety hazard. My car is parked under a carport winter and summer. I have less than 80,000 miles on the vehicle. I need to be able to get in the rear hatch to change a tire or get a fire extinguisher in case of emergency and I sometimes can't get it to open. Is there some way Toyota can help make this right. The rubber part that you press is harder than a stick and won't release. This happens some times at the grocery store parking lot or at any store parking lot. Sometimes it happens when I arrive home and can't get my groceries out because the hatch won't let it release. Is this a defect that can be corrected?.

Hood latch will not open 50, 60% of the time. Many people are having this problem and I feel it should be recalled. .

The rear lift gate latch on my Toyota Prius has stopped functioning. The exterior rubber over the latch mechanism/switch has melted, turned gummy and will no longer function to open the lift gate. In cold weather the latch has been even more difficult to open and the trim piece containing the trunk hatch latch bezel while trying to get the latch to release broke. I can no longer open the trunk of my car from the outside. This is a security and a safety hazard as I can not access the rear hatch of my car in under normal use nor an emergency and defeats the primary purpose of a hatchback car which is access to the car's interior. The car jack and emergency spare tire, battery located just behind the failed hatch latch. I am disabled, I can not put a wheel chair in/out. This is unsafe and Toyota refuses to assist with the repair. This replacement part/service only is warranty for 1 year at a price of $675 to repair. Under the ada act - please investigate and advocate a recall.

After I noticed that the SUV sufficiently ahead of me in the same lane was stopping to make a left turn, I started slowing down with plenty of space. I glanced for a second to my right side to check safety around another set of headlights. When I faced forward I could see that I was getting too close to the about-to-turn car ahead of me. I immediately slammed on the brakes, but the car kept moving forward and slammed into the SUV's rear end. Thankfully there were no physically injuries, but the collision caused low/moderate damage to the SUV and major damage to my Prius -- enough that the radiator was clobbered, and that my car had to be towed. At the time of this post, the repair shop has not yet finished evaluating it and reporting on all the damaged parts and the estimate costs. Prior to purchasing this vehicle about 9 months ago, I had checked for active recalls but found none, and I confirmed the same shortly after the purchase. Apparently, though, Toyota has not yet issued a recall on the brake system even after many similar complaints about such a failure during an emergency need for a total stop. I am really interested in pursuing further action, possibly through legal avenues.

When the temperature dips below 40 f, the rear gate does not open. The rubber covering of the switch to lift the gate gets very hard and does not respond to pressure to open the rear lift gate.

The back latch to the trunk/hatch is defective. The rubber exterior part has melted and is all gooey and sticky. In the winter time it freezes. We are unable to open or use the trunk. This is a safety issue and also can not access spare or compartment. This is a faulty part and there have been thousands of similar reports. I would like this fixed as is a manufacturing flaw and defect.

The trunk latch on my '07 Prius has "melted" and is no longer working. Since the latch is no longer working, the trunk is unable to open, and also unable to remain in a fully latched, closed position. Because of this, I am unable to lock the doors. Sometimes, I can give the trunk door an extra push to turn off the "door open" sensor to lock the vehicle, but because it is not fully latching and the vehicle is being locked from the outside, the anti-theft alarm will go off.

Hatchback door does not open in cold weather.

Rear hatch door latch failure, starting with softening and then complete melting of the rubber cover and finally to latch not operating at all, especially in cold weather.

The trunk opener switch on my 2007 Prius no longer works reliably because it is made of a defective rubber which has at this point melted into a goopy mess. This means that the opener switch can become stuck in the closed position, rendering it impossible to open the trunk until the release mechanism of the switch overcomes the tensile strength of the goop. As a cursory google search shows, this is a common problem which Toyota routinely refuses to repair. It is a potential safety issue because a pet or child could be difficult to retrieve from the trunk area if the trunk cannot be opened. An unexpected hazard such as a leaking propane tank or a battery fire in the trunk area could similarly be difficult to mitigate.

The headlights work intermittently and have needed bulb replacement 3 times so far. Also all the tail light and the tag lights went out at the same time recently and required bulb replacement. When driving we had no idea the lights were out and only found out when we were pulled over by police. This constitutes a very dangerous situation in my opinion. Also the hatchback handle sometimes fails to work due to the rubber cover deterioration.

Hatchback will not unlock. The rubber that covers the latch has degraded to the point where it is sticky in the warm weather and rock solid in the cold weather where you can no longer press it to open the truck.

The rear hatch latch rubber cover has dissolved over the last couple years to the point you can no longer open from outside. If someone was in an accident you could not open the rear hatch door and you are trapped inside of the vehicle with no time to get yourself out or pull anyone else out, I have seen online complaints about this going back into 2011. This is happening on a lot of cars, especially Toyota Prius's. As of right now I can not open the hatch door on my 2007 Prius. It has just gotten worse until now when it will not open. I used to have to fight by pushing down and pulling up, but it will not open at all now.

Read hatch door latch switch failure due to rubber cover that has deteriorated and melted into sticky goo. The switch now is intermittent. Black tarry rubber gets on my hands when I try to use it. The price to repair was quoted as $350.

Trunk release hatch button degraded. Turned sticky, felt like, tar. To open the trunk took considerable effort. This is a safety issue, not being able to open the trunk or opening with difficulty. Trunk release hatch button "melted" then the entire garnish broke off when trying to open it.

The rubber cover on the rear hatch handle is defective and melting. This causes the rear hatch to stick, not allowing access to the rear hatch when the vehicle is parked. This happens multiple times when trying to gain access to the rear hatch space.

I got unintended high speed and I could not stop the car. It stopped because the wheel was hit by the curbe.

The black rubber on the hatchback latch has melted and makes opening the hatchback difficult. The black goo sticks to the hand and is very messy because it gets on anything touched including clothes, door handles and children. The melted rubber interferes with the latch such on some occasions, the hatchback does not open.

The rear hatch release on my 2007 Toyota Prius has begun to deteriorate and turn into a rubbery and sticky black mess. This issue interferes with the use of the hatch as the rubber not only gets on your fingers but appears to be blocking the release mechanism. The deterioration started during the summer. . The issue has worsened and today I was unable to open the rear hatch whatsoever.

Tl- the contact owns a 2007 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked in the sun, the dashboard melted and left a shiny substance that caused a reflection on the windshield that obstructed visibility. The manufacturer was notified. The failure mileage was 71,000. Bd.

Back hatch handle melts in hot weather and gets tar on fingers and drips on car body. The only way Toyota has to fix this is to make consumer pay for a new rear handle assembly.

I tried to open the hatchback and the entire handle came off (over a foot long), connected to the car only by wires. I have previously reported to you (last year?) that the rubber gasket that gets pressed to open this hatchback was melting and sometimes would not open the hatch. I noticed many other similar complaints and have been waiting for Toyota to issue a recall. In the colder winter weather this was not such a problem. I called the dealer and they ordered the part and said they'll charge me $400 to replace. I said that I should not have to pay. I go in tomorrow to do this.

10700946 update--Toyota charged me $331. 61 for the part and $182. 15 for the labor.

The gas tank design Toyota Prius from at least 2007 and until 2010, contains no actual fuel gauge. In the northern states with severe winters this results in owners frequently running out of gas when they think they still have ample fuel as shown by multiple complaints found on the internet, and for us on a trip in February to March 2015 we were in serious fear of running out of gas when in fact if the specification for capacity has any meaning we still had over 4 gallons of fuel. We got so worried, we stopped at a brothel in nevada so my wife could ask how far to the nearest gas station. When we got to the gas station the fuel pump indicator was even blinking to indicate we were in danger of running out of fuel, yet the car filled up with only 65% of its rated fuel capacity. Running out of gas unexpectedly is especially dangerous in the Toyota Prius because so much depends on electricity including the steering to get the car off the road. There is no guarantee it cannot happen when the battery is already at maximum depletion or the main battery itself has failed but not yet been replaced in which case the car is totally dependent on continuous fuel flow. It certainly came as a shock to me to learn that what is displayed is no better than a grossly inaccurate estimate of remaining fuel, or about to run out fuel level. Toyota should be forced to recall all of these vehicles for fuel system replacement in the interests of safety and keeping people from being killed for running out of gas at the wrong time and stopping dead on the highway. As these cars age, they become more dangerous because it is only a matter of time before they will be driven with a bypass of a defective main battery, but epa regulations preventing alteration of anything emissions related will make these cars road hazards across the nation if the problem is not dealt with.

The rubber covered latch to the trunk/hatch has disintegrated so it is impossible to open. This causes a safety hazard as I cannot access necessary safety equipment, including car jack, emergency sign, and jumper cables. I have read many other complaints about this piece on this model, and so believe it to be a defect of the substance used in the latch.

The trunk latch has melted making it very sticky/gooey in hot weather and frozen solid (immovable) in cold weather making it difficult to open the hatch. The situation continued to worsen to the point of while attempting to open the trunk yesterday the entire back piece fell off the car. I can no longer open the hatch at all. This is both a serious safety issue (a life saving access point) and a serious quality defect that Toyota has chosen to ignore. In addition, the cost Toyota is charging for repair is exorbitant (over $500). Also, I've noticed that there are no complaints on later model Prius', so it appears that Toyota has fixed the problem at the expense of many. I do hope that NHTSA will look into this issue.

Tl-the contact owns a 2007 Toyota Prius. The contact stated the hatch back spring was corroded. The contact stated exterior latch would not open unable the hatch back from the inside only from the outside. The vehicle was not taken to dealer nor independent mechanic . The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 100,000. Lb.

The back latch of my 2007 Toyota Prius has degraded ("melted" almost). It no longer functions properly, and I am unable to open the back hatch door easily. Sometimes it requires considerable effort and perseverance to get it open. I am concerned that in the case of an emergency, I will not be able to get the door open. This is a major cause for concern and it is a serious safety hazard.

The cover to the back hatch latch has melted into a gooey black mass this makes it difficult (at best) to open the back hatch. There is no alternative internal method for opening the hatchback/trunk,. Since the spare tire and tire changing gear (jack, wrench, etc. ) are stored in the back, this is a serious safety hazard. This is an obvious defect in the material used for the latch cover - the deterioration of this part can in no way be attributable to neglect or abuse on the part of the driver/owner of the vehicle. Should be recalled and replaced by Toyota.

Exterior rear hatch latch handle sticky/melting. Must use rag to avoid touching the mess when using the door. Latch and lock operation has become unreliable and hatch must be slammed to ensure closure. Practically identical to complaint id 10632829.

Rear hatch release latch has been getting stick to the touch and increasingly difficult to open. Tried cleaning the latch and discovered that the rubber covering the latch seems to be melting. Checked online and discovered that this seems to be a common problem and, if not corrected, will likely result in latch release switch failure. The location of the rubber latch release cover protects it from direct sunlight and there seems to be no reasonable explanation for the failure of this part other than a defect in manufacture.

Water collects in wheel well when driving in wet conditions.