2016 Toyota Prius
This year drew an ordinary 179 complaints for a Toyota Prius — the model's median is 162. What they were about is the unusual part: 30.7% of them mention windshield, against 11.4% across the model's other years.
First year of a new generation. The Toyota Prius was redesigned for 2016. 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 | 179 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 162 |
| Involving a crash | 13 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 54 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- windshield — 30.7% of this year's complaints, against 11.4% across the model's other years (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: windshield, crack, small, rock.
- tire — 16.8% of this year's complaints, against 6.7% across the model's other years (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: tire, spare, spare tire, size.
- coolant — 8.9% of this year's complaints, against 2.5% across the model's other years (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: coolant, overheating, exhaust, technical.
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.
What owners wrote
WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 60 MPH ON THE FREEWAY, A VERY SMALL ROCK HIT MY WINDSHIELD AND CREATED A CRACK THAT WAS ABOUT 1 INCH BY 1 INCH IN SIZE. MERELY TWO DAYS LATER, I WOKE UP TO FIND THE CRACK HAD EXTENDED 3/4 OF THE WAY ACROSS MY ENTIRE WINDSHIELD AND C…
SMALL ROCK CHIP CAUSED WINDSHIELD TO CRACK ALL THE WAY THROUGH ACROSS THE ENTIRE WINDSHIELD. I'VE BEEN DRIVING SINCE I WAS 17 AND NEVER HAVE HAD A WINDSHIELD CRACK FROM A SMALL ROCK CHIP, EVEN THE SHOP SAID HE HAS SEEN A LOT OF THIS GENERATION PRIUS COMING IN…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 17V658000 HYBRID PROPULSION SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 18V579000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 16V672000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V085000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V741000 PARKING BRAKE Fixed free of charge.
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 2016 Toyota Prius? What happened to yours?
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