2015 Toyota Prius
This year drew an ordinary 162 complaints for a Toyota Prius — the model's median is 179. What they were about is the unusual part: 10.5% of them mention properly, against 3.1% across the other years of this generation.
Last year of its generation. This Toyota Prius ran from 2010 to 2015, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 162 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 179 |
| Involving a crash | 29 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 48 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- properly — 10.5% of this year's complaints, against 3.1% across the other years of this generation (3.4×). Owners wrote it as: properly, seem.
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
I HAVE NOTICED THAT THE BRAKES SOMETIMES DO NOT APPEAR TO WORK PROPERLY, AND ONCE I WAS INVOLVED IN AN ACCIDENT DUE TO THE POOR BRAKING PERFORMANCE. ONCE I QUICKLY TRANSITIONED FROM THROTTLE TO FULL BRAKING AND THE CAR DIDN'T SEEM LIKE IT WAS APPLYING FULL BRA…
VIOLENT SHAKING WHEN APPLYING BRAKES IN FORWARD AND REVERSE. VEHICLE DOES NOT SLOW AND STOP PROPERLY WHEN BRAKING. VEHICLE INTERMITTENTLY SKIPS WITH NO SLOWING OR STOPPING EFFECT WHEN BRAKING.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V369000 HYBRID PROPULSION SYSTEM 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 2015 Toyota Prius? What happened to yours?
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