All things being equal, I would agree with you. However this country is predominately based upon 'Screw before being screwed' anymore. I for one, refuse to put up with it.

For those who do have good experiences with dealerships/Toyota on this - please post the info as it occurs, as I would be very interested to see how many people will wind up being affected by this problem.

 

Here is my story about a dead MFD. I have also posted this on my blog at:

http://bobcowart.blogspot.com/

There are three installations of this story here, from bottom up. I am interested in collecting names of others who have broken MFDs. I think it's time to initiate a class-action. Any attorneys interested?

Sunday, December 30, 2007
Prius broken Multi-Function-Display update
I have not yet heard from Toyota of Berkeley's owner, Tim Southwick. I wrote the letter in May of 2007 and it has been over seven months (see letter in a previous post). So I have contacted the Toyota Customer Experience hot line (800-331-4331) and had several conversations with a woman named Robin. She has been very courteous and diligent about getting back to me. After about five calls, including calls she made to the national and regional offices of Toyota, she informed me of the bad news. This I find hard to believe, and you may also. Toyota is not going to give me a break on the MFD replacement. Well, actually, they claim that the $850 or so they want to replace it IS a break already, and that a new unit is over $3,000. This is a factory refurb unit they want to sell me. I insisted that I had read on the Priuschat site that people had gotten much better deals, even no charge or $200 or so, and Robin confirmed this. However, she said the customer cited in that post had purchased five Toyotas from that dealer so they were doing the loyal customer a big favor. I said that this is ridiculous. The MFD is known to be bad in the 2004 Prius model year and they often fail. (Toyota technical service bulletin TSB #EL002-05 details this issue.) She said there were nothing they can do for me. I have to say that I'm very disappointed in Toyota, and in Toyota of Berkeley particularly. I asked Robin to have someone from Toyota of Berkeley at least phone me to tell me the news and respond to my letter. But so far there has been no call. It's been a few weeks now. I have no intention of paying $850 to have Toyota repair a piece of equipment that has a known defect, and that there is even a technical service bulletin for. Toyota should replace these free of charge when they come in broken in the way that is the known and expected failure mode, in my opinion! This does not speak well of the Prius, nor of Toyota USA.

Well, four months later.... I have heard nothing from Toyota of Berkeley. I am going to phone the Toyota Customer Experience line next. I have contacted Channel 4 KPIX TV in the Oakland area about this, and corresponded with the consumer advice people. They claim to have contacted a different Toyota dealership and been told about the "goodwill" situation (that if folks are not bringing in their cars for regular service at the expensive dealership shop they do not get treated very well in gray area situations like this) and that the MFD is out of warranty and that therefore I should have to pay full price for repair. I find the inconsistency over this particular failure and repair to be annoying and to not speak well of Toyota. I believe they should simply issue a recall or a blanket policy to replace malfunctioning multi-display units. If anyone has specific phone numbers and even names of contacts to call about this, I would appreciate it if you were to email me.

Bob

Posted by Bob at 10:28 AM 0 comments
Labels: Prius multi-function-display failure MFD
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Prius update: Broken computer
Bad news about my Prius. The multi-function-display, the touch screen in the middle of the dashboard that has all the goodies on it such as the navigation system has failed, and the dealer has just told me that it will not be replaced, even though many Prius owners have reported this failure. Here is my letter to the local Toyota dealership, explaining my chagrin over the lack of coverage. The failure occured shortly after the 36,000 mile warranty expired. A new unit if $4000. A refurb unit is $825+tax.

5/30/07

RE: My 2004 Prius MFD failure


ATTN: Tim Southwick Jr., Toyota of Berkeley, CA

Dear Mr Southwick,

In August of 2003, I reserved and paid in advance for a new 2004 Prius that I have been very happy with, for the most part. I was an early adopter of a new technology, buying even before the car was available. I took possession in October, 2004. Having previously driven a Honda EV+, I was all in favor of electrics and hybrids. I am an author of over 40 books about computers and technology, and have written over 100 magazine articles about high technology, and have promoted the Prius actively since happily purchasing it from Marty Zeitman at your dealership. I have sent numerous people to your dealership to look at Priuses, and probably am responsible for a few of your sales. I myself purchased the full package #6 with all the bells and whistles. It hasn’t been perfect, with the navigation system sometimes leading me astray, for example, but that is to be expected.
At about 35K miles, the multi-display unit began to malfunction. No navgation, no radio, energy system not showing battery level, etc. I’m sure you are aware of this issue. I thought it was a glitch and would clear up, as the car is basically a computer on wheels, and we all know that computers lose their minds sometimes. Since I write books about computers, I know all about that! I just waited and hoped the problem would clear up, but it did not. I Googled about, read the Prius forums, and found that lo and behold I was not the only person with this problem! In fact, it's happening on 2004 Highlanders and Land Cruisers with the navigation system, and on 2004 Prius with or without the navigation system. I even hear there a TSB #EL002-05 which identifies this problem, which means Toyota is aware of this issue, so most likely it is an inherent design flaw meaning it was there from the beginning, including before the 36,000 mile mark was passed. In any case, the owner’s manual clearly describes the MFD as being part of the hybrid system, so it shouldn't even be an issue. This failure should be covered up to 100,000 miles!


After realizing this was not going to clear up, I was about 5K miles past the warranty. I brought my Prius into your dealership today for reprogramming (since I received a TSB recall, called SSC 50P), and had it all checked out. Repair team captain Ray Prasad told me that it was indeed defective and I would not be covered, and I could have a refurb unit installed for $800 or so, plus tax. I was not happy about this, and so I then had a long conversation with Dave, your shop manager, who explained that because I had not come in for regular service at your dealership, I was not favorably looked upon for an out of-warranty repair of the MFD. I said I did not understand this policy, since I had already given the dealership quite a large sum to purchase the car. He explained that this was essentially irrelevant. He said that good will was dependent upon bringing a car into the dealership for service. (Apparently the good will of brining you $28,000 has very short legs.) Oddly enough, he then went on to explain that actually the dealership lost money doing oil changes because of the labor costs. I explained that I was getting my oil changes for $15 when I supply the Mobil 1 5W-30 that I like to put in my cars, and that even includes a filter, so we were both better off if I got my oil changes elsewhere. I also said that last time I asked for a tire rotation, his shop refused to do it because there was not enough tread on the tires. At that time, I felt pretty rudely treated by Ray, who grilled me about where I was getting my service done, which is another reason I had not returned for regular service, by the way.

I feel I came to Toyota of Berkeley in 2003 in good faith, and paid MSRP for a car I had never even seen before. I did not haggle, or even try. I paid $28,000 cash. This was the first new car I have ever bought. I sold my Nissan 300ZX and Audi 5000 to be able to afford this. Now this car seems has a known defect that was not recalled by Toyota. Maybe Toyota was hoping most failures would happen after the 36K warranty expired. Yet many people seem to be getting a pretty good deal from some Toyota dealerships who admit this manufacturing defect. (I can quickly find more than a few examples on Prius-chat of owners saying they got replacements for either no charge or a few hundred dollars.) But not me. I now have a state-of-the-art hybrid with no navigation system, intermittent radio with limited tuning ability, limited climate controls, and no energy readout.

I currently have a blog online at http://bobcowart.blogspot.com/ talking about the Prius mostly in positive terms. My 45 technology books are available in over 15 languages (see Amazon.com under Robert Cowart) and have sold over 1 million copies worldwide. I would love to continue to praise the Prius to my readership and those who read my blog. However, this recent development has me wondering whether Toyota’s reputation for reliability might be falling into question. While I applaud Toyota for taking the leadership to research and produce the Prius (which I realize has been a loss leader while the demand for hybrids heats up), I also feel they must own up to electronics design errors, just as computer manufacturers such as Dell and Lenovo have done recently around defective batteries that were well out of warranty. It appears the MFD in the early 2004 Prius was defective from the outset and should be replaced without making disgruntled owners jump through hoops at their dealerships.

I look forward to your reply, and will await it prior to contacting regional or national Toyota Customer Service.

Sincerely,

Robert Cowart

 

If this link is still active, I just got my MFD diagnosis on the 04 Prius two days ago. I would appreciate very much any new information on either solutions or success dealing with Toyota - either locally or with Torrance regional staff.

It boggles my mind that Toyota does not consider the hybrid power train monitor part of hybrid 10 yr./100k warranty - especially given that its competitor Honda's web site emphasizes that the driver feedback aspect as a source of mileage as much as the electric engine.

I am a Cal-EPA employee where more than 50 staff have Prius personal vehicles and all the political appointees given cars have hybrid or hydrogen test vehicles. I will be discussing with my associates at the California Air Resources Board (I work for another Dept.) how the lack of an MFD would affect the PEVZ rating and mileage rating for this vehicle. I have been told that the reason the hybrid battery warranty was extended from 8 years to 10 was to obtain the PEVZ rating under regulations.

This might be contributory to any class action suits as another line of warranty argument. Particularly since Toyota knew of the part weakness/failure and did not recall it or extend its warranty.

Toyota was more than willing to replace the ECU computer that did not need it for free as part their diagnosis and charge me for a new starter battery @$150 because slightly low voltage was claimed to be a possible cause. Now that they know the problem they want $907.50 to fix it. Anyone know of a better repair option? I simply can't afford this as a CA State employee on a 15% furlough. Nor can the rest of our "Prius fleet".

Thanks to all you for trying to keep Toyota honest. My prior 25 years of driving were a much better experience with Honda - however I was swayed to Toyota by what appeared to be a better hybrid design. I may be headed back to Honda after this is settled.

 

My 2004 Prius is now having this MFD failure. Looks like no one has found a satisfactory resolution?

 

I gave up and fixed it myself. I Bought an MFD from a later 05 Prius (part & serial number compatible but after the known problem) from a wreck over Ebay and used the instructions readily available on the internet to installed it myself in 20 minutes. My cost was $165 without a core charge. Has worked fine for the last 18 mos. I made the money back plus by buying Toyota stock low during the accelerator pedal fiasco and selling higher. I consider myself even on $ but not trust of Toyota. If you do this, watch the MFD part #s carefully. There are several variations each year based on features.

 

Ummm, isn't what's in the first post satisfactory? A # of people on Priuschat have fixed it thanks to Hobbit's notes.

pEEf can fix it and there's another resource at http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-p...ml#post1278735.

 

Like many other 2004 Prius owners, our MFD started shorting out. I found this thread and realized that no amount of repairs (short of re-soldering) was going to cut it. I contacted the dealership in my area and they told me that a new MFD would cost just over $4,400 (just for the part!). He asked me if I wanted to order it, and I told him NO!! I looked around online and found a company by the name of LKQ that sells used MFDs for a tenth of the cost (including a two year warranty!). I bought a 2006 model with the same part number and it was perfect! The install took less than 10 minutes.

So, if any of you need a replacement multi function display screen for your Prius, check out LKQonline.com They have amazing customer service and will help you find a store in your area, or will direct you to the right page to order it online.

Thanks to everyone that posted on this thread, you got me moving in the right direction (buying a replacement) instead of waiting for ours to start working again.

 

I have a 2007 Prius that is having the same problem as the 2004. I noticed it very intermittently and always reported it to my dealer. They could "never duplicate the problem" while the car was under warranty. Now that is no longer covered, the MFD Display is really whacked out. The dealer told me I needed a new one at a price of $6000, and I started looking for a reconditioned unit to no avail. Dealer now states they can use a reconditioned unit for $1600 base for the part. Very frustrated as I have been reporting this problem since before the car went out of warranty.
After searching the web, I have found many other 2007 Prius owners experiencing the same issue?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks