Continued from part 6:
Andy of Brooklyn NY (08/30/07)
Fact is nothing has happened with either of my two Prius cars. I owned a 2005 and traded it for the more advanded 2007 model. I have not experienced any thing that has been mentioned in you article.This is an excellent trustworthy vehicle. No slipping or stalling nonsense. Taction is excellent. Performance expecially on the 2007 model is good. Sorry, but I just don't understand why these people are having problems. I will buy another in 2009.

Janet of Burnet TX (08/27/07)
I was pulling into my garage , half way into the garage, at a residence that was rented to me as I was far from home. Suddenly my Toyota Prius (2007) accelerated out of control and drove into the wall of the garage damaging my nerves , the car and the wall. My husband, thinking it was user error put the car in reverse and it accelerated again without the driver control. It was towed away to Amigo Chevrolet where we were told that they could find nothing wrong with it. The car was under warranty. We were left 900 miles away from home, no car while Amigo had to get technicians from Denver to look at the car. We bought the Car as our retirement car. My husband and I are 70+ and have found ourselves without a car until someone can find what is happening. They say it can't even be traded in ? To date we reported the issue to Toyota and have waited 3 days without a response from Customer service at Toyota.

We are out a car, had to rent a car until some decisions are made. I have a wall to pay for that the Toyota went through and considerable damage to the Toyota. Physical damage was minimal because I was simply rolling into the garage when it occurred, however I am very frightened of the car what if I had been appoaching a group of pedestrians?

Lois of Las Vegas NV (08/24/07)
I have a 2005 Prius.  It has hestitated several time on me. This last time I almost got in an accident.  It chugged along serveral times in a row.  No lights went on.  It has 99,000 miles and has a warrenty to 100,000.  It has been at the Toyota dealership 5 days.  They cannot find any problems.

Dan of Las Vegas NV (08/16/07)
I have never gotten above 40 miles per gallon on my new 2007 Toyota Prius. The only reason I purchased it was for the 60 MPG. The dealership keeps telling me I need to wait until the engine is broke in. It now has over 2,000 miles and the gas mileage is averaging 35 mpg.. The computer states i get 44 mpg on average.

Hilary of Dover DE (08/13/07)
I took my 2005 Toyota Prius in for routine maitenance this morning -- and now, with only 2 years wear (about 26000 miles) the dealership says I need to replace all four tires and get an allignment job (at more than $400 total). My mother's 2001 Prius had its tires replaced by the dealer at 25000 and the replacement tires only lasted 25000 miles. The dealer would not replace my Goodyear tires, even though warranty should be good for 50000 miles (claims the allignment is the issue...)

Marvin of Los Lunas NM (08/01/07)
Gentlemen. I am the owner of a Toyota Prius as well as a qualified Professional Engineer and systems problem analyst. My work has involved automobiles as well as aircraft and industrial systems. I also have a business card for accident reconstruction and expert witness work.

I have had an incident of acceleration, beyond what was commanded, in my Toyota Prius 2 times. The cause is unknown. However, in each case, a simple touching of the lever that disengages the cruise control caused the system to immediately go back to a normal condition with the cruise control off.

I can assure you that the incidences that I had did not involve mechanical sticking or jamming of the accelerator pedal because of a piece of carpet. It was not driver error. The fact that the condition was corrected immediately by disengaging the cruise control indicates that the problem may be in the cruise control system itself. It could be either a mechanical or electronic/electrical problem in the cruise control system.

In each of the instances that I have had, the problem was instantly corrected by my reaction and it has not occurred at any other time. My vehicle has approximately 12,000 miles on it and the problem occurred in the first few hundred miles and again after the first 5,000 mile oil change.

The problem could easily cause a serious accident if the driver, caught unaware, did not take immediate and correct remedial action or if it happened at just the wrong time. This was an intermittent and easily cancelled condition that occurred when I was accelerating on a freeway and did not cause anything but a surprise requiring an immediate reaction.

In each case, the vehicle was accelerating at a rate below maximum and went to and stayed at maximum without driver command. It took an immediate reaction to stop the acceleration. It is necessary for the responsible engineers to search for and find this problem before someone who cannot react correctly in a very short time has a serious accident.

Ben of Walnut Creek CA (08/01/07)
I had a very similar case with the Prius owner you mentioned in your lemon of the week. For me, I was coming up on a red light and there is a large crease or bump in the road.

When my Prius hit the bump in the road the traction control systems kicked in, and at the same time the brakes felt unresponsive and the car felt as if it was accelerating or lunging forward. I almost rear-ended the car in front of me. Luckily I was able to stop the car in time.

I also have many other safety issues with the Prius like ALL of the onboard controls in the car being on that computer screen (which you can't see during the day time in sunlight), and having to take your eyes off the road to adjust climate or change the radio to try and look at a screen you can't read. Also, my legs fall asleep after 20-30 minutes of driving the vehicle.

Toyota Customer Experience (their customer service call center) basically told me working as intended and it sounds like normal operation. I hate this car, will be glad when I'm rid of it, and will likely never buy a Toyota ever again (and I'm a repeat Toyota customer). Dublin Toyota my dealer as well offered NO help on actually validating whether or not this was normal operation and tried to sell me a new car at an outrageous price.

Paul of San Mateo CA (08/01/07)
I have problem with my 2002 Toyota Prius! The car stall on the freeway with 3 warning lights but luckily I am already close to my destination and took the exit ramp. I believe there is problem with the hybrid component. The warning lights are PS which stands for power steering, warning light and hybrid component warning light. Before this incident happen, I have several incident where I feel the car is losing power but no warning lights and the car recovered.

Irwin of Studio City CA (08/01/07)
Twice, on Julyb 29, 2007, our 2006 Toyota Prius took off like a rocket in circumstances just like Herbert's wild ride in Michigan last October. According to Angel: (1) No one has ever had this problem before and (2) They can not recreate it. My instructions to him are to tell me what caused this.

We had no damage YET. But this is a $30,000 car and right now it is unsafe to drive. Fortunately, CA has a lemon law. We might just need to pick it up and bring it back twice more. Of couse they will claim there is no problem.

Manuel of Claremont CA (07/30/07)
I have read your article on Toyota's false advertising for mileage on the Prius vehicle and want to share my experience. I bought a 2006 Prius last March based on Toyota's advertisement of 50 miles to the gallon on the highways and 60 miles to the gallon in the city. I have driven the car nearly 10,000 miles and what I have found is that highway mileage is about 48 which is very close to their claim. HOWEVER, mileage in the city is a horrendous 38-42 compared to the advertisement of 60 miles per gallon. I took the car to Claremont Toyota who is the dealer I bought it from, but I was told that everything in the car is working the way it is supposed to work. They said that the low mileage was probably related to driving habits. I responded that I have tried very slow starts and smooth stops without any noticeable improvement. They said that they could not help me and that I should write to Toyota.

Jessica of Rancho Cucamonga CA (07/25/07)
On July 2nd, I purchased a Toyota Prius. After asking, I was told by the salesman that I was able to drive in the carpool lane alone with the Prius. I am a commuter(driving over 120 miles a day roundtrip) , and this was reason enough for me to purchase the car. 3 weeks later come to find out that the clean air stickers are no longer even issued.

I called the dealership to find out why I would have been informed that I could drive in the carpool lane and to try to settle the issue. I spoke with a total of 4 employees before speaking with the GM. They were all as cordial as they could have been giving the circumstances. One woman even tried offering 2 free oil changes, which was a complete joke, considerin the fact that this is a $41,000.00 vehicle!! I finally got in touch with the GM who was a complete jerk about hte entire situation.

Telling me they would do NOTHING. Too bad, so sad attitide.

He stated that there were plenty of newspaper articles and news segments and that had this happened in December or January, he would have seen a concern but now, since it was July that it was not a concern to him. What he did not know is that I recently moved to California, as I had lived in Wisconsin for about a year before moving here. So for him to make those assumptions was ludacris.

Furthermore, afer calling him out on his terrible atttude and lack of care for an upset customer, the GM of West Covina Toyota felt it was appropriate to hang up on me!! (which I have witnessesfor, in case this turns into another his word against mine) I have called Toyota Corporate, who informed me that they only deal with vehicles that are defective, and recommended I contact consumer affairs to further help me with my dilema.

I do not want this Prius that I was tricked and lied to in order to get the sale! I am wasting money on the vehicle and not saving any time, as I thought I would by driving in the carpool lane! I realize that this was not in writing, but I do feel that at a car dealership, the salesman should have been honest! I would not have purchased the car if I could not have riven in the carpool. My previous vehicle was a 2004 Toyota Celica in great condition that was good on mileage to begin with! Please help! Thanks!

I feel that I am now stuck with a vehicle that was purchased for the reason of drining in the carpool, a perk that no longer even exists, due to the fact that I was told by the salesman that I could. I am now paying $583 a month instead of $327, which I was paying on my previous car, all for nothing.