First Generation Prius, Momentary Power Cut Outs And Crappy Keys

[yolliedolly]

Hello

This is my first post and probably should probably have been done years ago but I believed my dealer when they said they could not find anything wrong. I have a first generation Prius and from the outset it has this curious habit of cutting power for a couple a few milliseconds or seconds from time to time. It might happen once a day for a few consecutive days or once a month. It occurs when the car is travelling at speed ie using the petrol motor, but is not necessarily going faster than 30mph. It has happened on the motorway going at 70mph as well as in a traffic controlled 20mph zone. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any rhyme nor reason. The key thing is that I notice the problem when cruising at a constant speed and suddenly I find myself slowing down even though my foot on the accelerator has not changed position. My response is to put the accelerator down and gradually the power comes back. The time frame is short, as I said a few seconds at most, but if, for example, I was overtaking or moving into a faster lane on a motorway, it could prove extremely dangerous. Has anyone else experienced this kind of problem? My car was originally bought by my parents, who were the first to report this problem but their local dealer never found anything. After my parents sold the car to me, I also reported it to my local Jemca dealer on more than one occasion but similarly they found nothing. Since all these problems emerged with Toyota, I called the helpline and it transpires that on no occasion did either my parents' or my Jemca dealer ever get in touch with Toyota's technical team (there would have been a note made on their system), which makes me wonder how much effort they really put into trying to identify the problem. Of course now the car is well out of warranty, but before I take things further, I would like to know if anyone else out there has experienced such a problem. My parents bought exactly the same model of Prius three years later (would that make it a second generation model?) and have never experienced the same problem with that car.

One other thing, the keys keep falling to pieces (I am on my third). It has been implied that I use brute force in putting the key into the locks/ignition, which is rubbish. This car has only 30,000 miles on the clock and is 10 years old, so is obviously not used a whole lot and ergo has not seen too much key action either! These keys cost £200 a pop, but seem not to be fit for purpose. Anyone else had similar problems?

thanks for reading.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Is it an original UK spec car or a grey/second hand import from Japan?

[yolliedolly]

hello

as far as I know it is a UK model bought from authorized toyota dealership, Jemca.

[phil4]

hello

as far as I know it is a UK model bought from authorized toyota dealership, Jemca.

I can't really suggest anything on the car problem, don't have one, and with it's age, sounds like it wouldn't be covered under any warranty anyway.

However the keys, if you've bought a replacement recently certainly should be covered, if not by a warranty, by the sale of goods act. Suggest you try and get a replacement under one of those.