2010 Toyota Prius
Complaints about this year name bump far more often than the other years of this generation — 15% of them, about 36× the usual rate of 0.4%.
First year of a new generation. The Toyota Prius was redesigned for 2010. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 2,820 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 162 |
| Involving a crash | 183 |
| Involving a fire | 13 |
| Recalls | 10 |
| EPA combined | 50 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- bump — 16.2% of this year's complaints, against 0.6% across the other years of this generation (26.3×). Owners wrote it as: bump, over bump, bump road, hit bump.
- braking — 34% of this year's complaints, against 12.4% across the other years of this generation (2.7×).
- forward — 20.5% of this year's complaints, against 4.7% across the other years of this generation (4.4×). Owners wrote it as: forward, lurches, lurches forward, car lurches.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
Also unusual this year
- braking — 34% of complaints, 3× usual
- pothole — 11% of complaints, 18× usual
- forward — 19% of complaints, 4× usual
What owners wrote
WHEN BRAKING WHILE CAR IS GOING OVER A POTHOLE, CAR WILL BRIEFLY ACCELERATE FORWARD BEFORE STOPPING.
BRAKES SLIP AND LOSE GRIP WHILE BRAKING AND TRAVELING OVER MODERATE BUMPS OR POTHOLES, ALSO HAPPENS WHILE BRAKING HARD.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V684000 HYBRID PROPULSION SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 16V487000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 14V743000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V396000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 14V053000 HYBRID PROPULSION SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 13V014000 AIR BAGS
- 13V235000 SERVICE BRAKES
- 10V036000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 10. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Toyota Prius was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2010 Toyota Prius? What happened to yours?
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