So after all the hype and reputation destruction, it’s cured by nothing more than plugging a non-descript box with a touchscreen into the car and pressing some buttons.
I’ve just had our new long-term Prius recalled and reprogrammed to cure the thing with the brakes, which has gone from being described as “there’s nothing wrong” to a full blown, country-wide recall.
Toyota issues Prius recallIt’s the first Prius in the UK to have the procedure carried out, so there was a little head-scratching from the blokes at our local Toyota outfit while they ran through the instructions that had just turned up from Toyota HQ, but the actual reprogramming took under two minutes.
If you’ve got a Prius, bargain on a maximum of 45 minutes, allowing for messing around with parking (which is always, always impossible at every dealership I go to.)
The boss at the dealership said they’ve been somewhat overrun by phone calls from customers, although rather too many of those calls are from people who are getting the throttle pedal and the brake issue mixed up. The Lexus dealer down the road is getting calls about the brake problem…
Standing in the dealership waiting for the service manager, I overheard a woman on the phone. “Well, while I’m here I’m going to get them to check the brakes as well because you never know, do you?” she was saying.
Actually you do know – if it’s not a Prius it isn’t going to have a brake problem. And what was she driving? An Aygo.
