Denial of Extended Warranty is a safety and liability issue for Toyota

pria_the_prius

I have seen multiple forums about faulty combination meters on the Toyota Prius. For those that have experienced these issues, has anyone experienced a loss of braking and powersteering on the vehicle? This has happened to me 4 of the 100+ times my dash lights were not working. On those 4 occasions I was driving without the dash lights and all of the warning lights came on and the car lost power steering and the ABS braking and I had to use the emergency brake to stop. Fortunately when this has happened I have not been on the highway and there was no snow or it could have been very dangerous. This issue has only happened when there is a malfunction with the combination meter. I understand this can create many issues within the vehicle including braking difficulties. The response of the Manager at my local Toyota shop said "well, at least you have brakes, you just won't have them in an emergency stop." Wow! I've read accounts of people going 65 mph and losing brakes when this has happened which could be very deadly. I'm surprised at Toyota's response with this possibly deadly issue. I'm also surprised that the Combination Meter Failure has not be recalled because based off what I have read about 3% of Prius owners have experienced issues with this and the braking system. At what point does a "warranty" become a "recall"? Please note that this issue is separate from the "accelerator recall".

I'm one year past the 9 year extended warranty of the combination meter of my prius and have unfortunately been denied a Goodwill warranty to repair this part that has been faulty since 2012 (which was the same time they initiated the extended the warranty in the fall of 2012.) The warranty enhancement covers this failure for a period of the longer of 9 years from date of first use (DOFU) (no mileage limit) or before September 30, 2013 (which ever is longer for the condition described).

Technically I was in the shop to address this concern before 2013, but two of the dealerships I went to were unaware of such an issue and did not fix it. I only recently discovered through my own research that 3% of Prius owners experience this same problem. Has anyone else experienced difficulty in obtaining the extended warranty coverage for their Prius?

I could not attach the document but here is a link to the warranty for others having issues with their dash lights going out: file:///C:/Users/ksieb/Downloads/114901842-Prius-Combination-Meter-Warranty-Extension.pdf

stever

That link goes to your local hard drive. Try this one instead.

pria_the_prius

Thanks!

erbowen

I called yesterday (my dashboard literally isn't coming on now), and they're refusing to extend the warranty. I think it's absolutely ridiculous. I never received any notification that there was an extended warranty, but have been experiencing the problem for many years. It never was this bad (so if I took it to the shop, it had fixed itself already). I am really angry at Toyota and cannot believe they are unwilling to extend the warranty.

Mr_Shiftright

Well they can't keep extending it forever unless the government forces them too. They have to cut it off at some point, unfortunately. I don't think the repair is too burdensome if that's your only option. Also I'm not sure that the other poster's problem of the car cutting off is actually caused by the dashboard failure. He may have had compounded problems.

But yeah, you're right, it was a common problem with these cars.