2006 Toyota Prius
Complaints about this year name hid far more often than the other years of this generation — 26% of them, about 3× the usual rate of 10%.
Generation 1 of the Toyota Prius, which began in 2004 and ran to 2009. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 1,439 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 162 |
| Involving a crash | 82 |
| Involving a fire | 5 |
| Recalls | 6 |
| EPA combined | 46 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- hid — 26.2% of this year's complaints, against 10% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: hid, hid headlights, prius hid, hid headlight.
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
- hid headlights — 9% of complaints, 3× usual
- prius hid — 7% of complaints, 3× usual
What owners wrote
THE HID HEADLIGHTS ON MY 2006 TOYOTA PRIUS (40K MILES) GO OUT WHENEVER THE CAR [VIN] (BRAKING, SPEEDING UP, TURNING, GO OVER A SPEED BUMP). THE LIGHTS TURN BACK ON IF I FLIP THE HEADLIGHT SWITCH ON AND OFF. THIS APPEARS TO BE A WIDESPREAD ISSUE AFFECTING THOUS…
THE HID HEADLIGHTS ON THIS VEHICLE ARE INTERMITTENT. EITHER OR BOTH HEADLIGHTS FAIL WITHOUT WARNING, AND RE ILLUMINATE BY CYCLING THE HEADLIGHT SWITCH. SO FAR ONE DEALER REPAIR ATTEMPT HAS NOT BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN FIXING THE PROBLEM. REPAIRS FOR THIS HEADLIGHT S…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 12V537000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 12V536000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 09V388000 VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
- 06V096000 AIR BAGS
- 10V036000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 06V188000 STEERING
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 2006 Toyota Prius? What happened to yours?
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