Not sure why I'm posting this other than to vent. I'm the happy owner of an 11-month-old 2005 Prius with 18k; my wife decided she wanted one too, so we bought a second one two weeks' ago.

However, we've seen it for only 24 hours in that time. When we picked it up at the dealer, it was obviously not fully prepped (the antenna was still in its original bag and not mounted), clock wasn't set, and the navigation system was showing that we were on the other side of the country.

Two weeks' later, Toyota, the dealer and the nav manufacturer still have the car and have been trying to figure out why neither the original nav system, nor the one they've since replaced it with, work.

Setting up a "case number" with Toyota only marginally helped; the customer service rep who called me back to say that they were escalating the problem to the manufacturer was actually giving me information that I'd had two days before (and in the two days that had gone by, no one had actually followed up with the manufacturer).

When I called this morning, I was told that the tech had talked to the manufacturer the day before and that he'd be working on the car again with the manufacturer on the line...AFTER he finished the work on another car that he was working on this morning. [given that they've had the car for two weeks, you MIGHT think that he'd work on ours first...but you'd be wrong.]

Love the Prius...in this case, somehow this lemon got out of the factory without being checked and got through the "extensive" dealer prep without someone actually finishing the prep!

Meanwhile, my wife is ready to give the car back if they'd take it.
Okay, I feel [almost] better now. Thanks for listening.

 

<sigh> Two weeks and we finally may get the car back tomorrow. Can you believe two weeks to find one loose wire?

Anyway, one good thing to come of this...another discovered "hidden" command. Push and hold the Info button and turn the lights on and off five times (really, this DOES work) and the entire diagnostic menu pops up. You can see what satelites you're tuned into and test out a whole range of Prius electronics. Don't know what the "off" command is, but rebooting the car gets you back to the normal display.

 

good to know they solved the problem! i used to own a car that was certified as a lemon after i had to bring in a lawyer. i had an engine problem that was never resolved, and it only happened under very specific conditions which the dealerships were never able to recreate. 13+ service visits (not counting regular maintenance) in a little over three years and i eventually lost my cool and started biting people's head's off on the customer service helpline

and of course i'm a happy FEH owner now...