3,536 of the
15,583 complaints filed about the Toyota Prius
are about the lighting —
23% of everything owners reported.
The worst model year for it is 2007.
The 2026 Toyota Prius illuminates a road distance on an unlight, rural road of 110 feet on low beam. Parked at the beginning of one white dashed center line, the low beams illuminate two additional white dashed lines. Road lines are a standard 12 ft painted line with a 37 ft interval between lines for a total of 110ft of illuminated road. The average stopping distance of the Toyota Prius traveling at 55mph is ~260 feet. I am able to see less than half the stopping distance of the vehicle. I have hit a deer twice because of the lack of road illumination. Each deer strike was with with two separate 2026 Toyota Prius vehicles. Both vehicles had the same illumination pattern. Fortunately, it was a deer strike, however, imagine for a moment if it were a human walking along the the road or a disabled vehicle. This is a safety concern and does not meet the NHTSA regulation FMVSS N. 108, summarized below. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) regulations under FMVSS No. 108 mandate that low-beam headlights provide sufficient, controlled illumination for night driving while preventing excessive glare, generally aiming to illuminate approximately 200–300 feet ahead. I did complain to Maplewood Toyota about the issue and the Service Team stated they can only adjust the headlight within the Manufacturer's suggested range. This vehicle was purchased as a new, I made an assumption that everything would be properly adjusted coming off the manufacturing floor. Maplewood Toyota did not complete an inspection of the vehicle to determine "as found" headlight aiming prior to the deer strike. There were no warning lamps, messages or other symptoms related to this incident. Jeff Rabinort, Service Manager had a conversation with me following the incident. He did confirm there was a maximum adjustment that they could make to the headlight, but was unclear what that was. I encouraged Jeff to drive a 2026 Toyota Prius on an rural road for confirmation.
NHTSA complaint #11732534 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Both taillamps holding moisture. Could cause electrical issues or fire. .. same year and model car have same reported issues and were fixed by manufacturer. This vehicle is the same but different level.
NHTSA complaint #11724219 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
My Prius suddenly malfunctions and goes berserk randomly. No other way to describe it. I've taken it into the dealer twice, and I'm not confident I'm driving a safe car. I've not done anything to the car and it has not been in an accident. It's unclear why it does it. When it has an episode it is not safe to drive, won't turn on and won't turn off. The alarm goes crazy. Nothing works, all the dash lights turn on. I have videos. This has happened about five times and I've been called back from the dealer to pick it up. I"m not confident it is safe to drive, and I don't think Toyota is taking my concerns seriously. The vehicle has about 7400 miles and is otherwise pristine. All service is up to date. It is a lease.
NHTSA complaint #11708925 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The contact owns a 2005 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that while replacing the instrument cluster, the contact discovered that the turn signals were inoperable. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who determined that an unknown part needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 143,500.
NHTSA complaint #11698502 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The contact owns a 2005 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the left turn signal was activated, however, the left turn signal failed to function as intended. In addition, the contact stated that the four-way flashers failed to function as intended. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed with a computer failure. The contact was informed that an unknown part needed to be replaced, or an unknown software update was needed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure but provided no assistance. The contact referenced an unknown recall with a similar failure description; however, the VIN was not under recall. The failure mileage was approximately 143,500.
NHTSA complaint #11698556 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The contact owns a 2026 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that while driving at night, the headlights were activated, and the contact became aware of a blind spot on the roadway. The contact stated that there were dark spots coming from the driver’s side headlight. The contact stated that it was difficult to see the roadway while driving at night. There were no warning lights illuminated. The local dealer was contacted, but was unable to fix the vehicle. The dealer informed the contact that it was a new technology failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was contacted, filed a complaint, but no additional assistance was provided. The contact requested a vehicle buyback. The approximate failure mileage was 1,100.
NHTSA complaint #11692080 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The headlights are either too bright or aimed poorly that it blinds oncoming traffic, who frequently flash their high beams at me. This occurs without any load in back and without me using the high beams. Can Toyota either adjust the bulbs or place a film on the headlights to prevent blinding oncoming traffic? Thank you!
NHTSA complaint #11654206 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The headlights at night are too low. They only illuminate 1 car's length away and Toyota doesn't want to touch it to raise it more. I asked my local dealer SF Toyota Service Center, where I said "It feels dangerous", and they just kinda shrugged their shoulders. This is not a defect, it seems to be as intended (or at least as rolled off the factory floor) because other 2023 Prius owners agree it is aimed too low. Someone believes they were "optimized" for the Radar Cruise Control camera, and not the driver. Some also report that an internal component of the headlight is casting a shadow within the light beam, indicating a second issue related to the headlight visibility. My ask: I want Toyota to fix both issues on my vehicle. I feel limited to day driving which is a problem, especially when I want to do outdoor recreational activities like hiking in the mountains or seeing a sunset at the top of a mountain. The beam cutoff is too low when the road isn't flat. This is especially a problem when there are zero reflectors on the road, which is an issue in areas like the highway into Santa Cruz.
NHTSA complaint #11648631 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The headlight bulbs keep going out. I have replaced the bulbs at least 2-3 times a year for the past few years. I have asked dealers about this and they tell me there is no recall or tsb. This is a hazard to night driving because of decreased illumination, especially in dark roads with not enough lighting. Please recall/fix this issue!!
NHTSA complaint #11642400 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Attached is a report from the Florida Attorney General's project office. Vehicle front headlight bulbs burn out prematurely and frequently and without warning causing reduced visibility at night on dark roads. This is a common and on-going problem for Toyota and other manufacturers and me. Toyota recognized this and issued its own recall ending in 2019, but my car was missed. The 'fix' for me is advice that I should drive my car with high beams on, but in bad weather or on-coming traffic this fix is also a safety hazard. My fear is that one night both bulbs will go out and I will be unable to see the roadway. My car is available for inspection. Constantly replacing bulbs has been and continues to be an expensive issue.
NHTSA complaint #11629190 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Background: Nothing failed or malfunctioned. There is no incident. This reports describes a design defect that puts the driver at risk. The dealer has acknowledged that the cars performs this way and says it cannot be fixed. Toyota customer service says this is how the car operates and short of a recall will do nothing about it. Problem: When the headlights are turned on, the dash and screen become so dim that they are only visible at night. If it is necessary to turn the lights on during the day, the screen and dash are too dim to read. There needs to be some way to set the brightness such that it overrides the nighttime setting. Driving with the lights on all the time is considered safer (and it is the law if it is raining out). This defect means the driver has to choose between having the lights on and being able to consistently see the dash and screen.
NHTSA complaint #11622305 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The low-beam headlamps on thousands of 2011 Toyota Priuses were burning out very prematurely (a matter of weeks, not months). Toyota Corporate said they created a customer support program to replace the headlight wiring harness free of charge, but this program ended in 2019. I believe that Toyota should be compelled to issue a recall to replace the wiring harnesses on all 2011 Toyota Priuses, because working headlights are a critical component of a safely traveling vehicle. The cost of replacing the wiring harness is more than $700, a real dent in a working family's budget. For now, we are replacing the burned-out bulbs. However, we believe a recall initiated by NHTSA is warranted in this case.
NHTSA complaint #11622018 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The right or left headlight will rabdomly turn off, and tyrn back there 8s no ryme or readon to it,and while driving at night it is cery dangerous, aparebtly its not just this car, this is a common issue and it needs to be fixed
NHTSA complaint #11611394 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
My vehicle has an ongoing issue with the headlights not being bright enough to drive at night with. I have replaced the headlights more than 5 times now over the course of a year, each time with different brands including Toyota OEM headlights. Each time, they are still not sufficiently bright enough to see with at night. This has led to 3 collisions with curbs and objects which caused damage to my vehicle, because I could not see the objects while having to drive at night. I have brought the issue up to Toyota and they said they would not do anything about it. I brought it in for service to Toyota and they tried to charge me $200 to even look at it, money which I do not have. I am forced to continue driving at night for work and fear I will get into a more serious crash or hit a pedestrian as the headlights aren't bright enough to see safely at night. The photo I have included shows a gash in the tire and dent in the rim where it hit the curb. The issue seems to be the headlight wiring or connectors. When I replace the headlight bulbs, they are a bit brighter initially. Thus initial brightness only lasts about a week, and it's still not sufficiently bright to drive safely. They then dim even further to the point where it's like driving without headlights at all. Again this has led to 3 collisions at this point since I'm required to drive at night and don't have the money to fix it. Toyota refused a good faith repair and did not acknowledge there was an issue, however if you do a web search for "Prius headlights too dim" it seems to be a major issue with many other Prius owners. It should be noted that even the high beam headlights are not bright enough to sufficiently see with at night.
NHTSA complaint #11595133 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
One afternoon, in the Summer of 23, I entered my Toyota Prius to run some errands. Once I proceeded to power on the car, none of the dashboard lights illuminated. This included the gas gauge, speedometer & transmission indicator. Fortunately, I was only driving a few blocks down the road from my residence as I live in a small rural town with little congestion, little traffic and mostly two-lane roads. I can't imagine this occurring in a much larger metropolitan city. When I arrived at my destination, I discovered that my Prius wouldn't shut off. This dashboard malfunction was preventing the Toyota from powering off. I quickly completed my errands with my vehicle running during this entire ordeal. Finally, when I returned home, I frantically researched on YouTube regarding this issue and discovered many others who also were having these no-illuminating-dashboard problems. Some YouTubers offered workarounds but the solutions will be temporary as the problem will eventually worsen until the Prius owners have no working dashboard lights. From the way I understand it, this problem is nothing more than a small computer board that's behind the speedometer and this computer board has a small diode that tends to burn out on all kinds of Toyota Priuses when it reaches around 150,000 miles.
NHTSA complaint #11580571 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
There is a safety design flaw with the dash lights. If the headlights are ON The dash lights are turned down to a significantly lower illumination automatically and cannot be turned back up to full brightness. This is a big issue when driving with your head lights on during daylight rain/fog. The dash lights won't turn up to full brightness and are very difficult to read, especially for anyone over 50 years old when the head lights are turned on. Alabama law requires head lights be on, not just DRL, but head lights. The dash is VERY dim. This has never been an issue before with any car I have owned.
NHTSA complaint #11575822 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Brake master control system failure with constant issues over 80k miles. Forward running lights control housing has not held a light fixture since day one and dealership wants to charge for light replacement. It’s a faulty part and burnt through the housing. Olathe Toyota refused to repair under warranty saying it was a customer issue but is clearly a safety problem. Irresponsible dealer management.
NHTSA complaint #11572184 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
I CANT SEE THE ROAD. Who is in charge of allowing these new bright LED headlights? They make it very hard to see where I’m driving when they’re eye level with my car!! So all I see is a bunch of LED lights coming straight at me, which is very unacceptable because now I can’t see the road. Making it a very obvious safety concern which is weird when I thought the government is supposed to be preventing stuff like this from happening. What the heck
NHTSA complaint #11571556 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
I was dropping my daughter off at school and the car completely shut down on me and turned off in the middle of an intersection. I have just had brakes and oil changed but ever since I got the car codes keep popping up and when checked it’s all good. Front lights keep glitching and even with new brakes there is still a bad sound. My dash computer thing keeps going in and out. It happens a lot more when it rains and makes a sizzling sound I’m afraid to drive it in the rain. I’m besides myself how the car turned off on me and my child we couldn’t move I could accelerate and we almost got hit then another light came on and I couldn’t even turn my wheel. Very dangerous
NHTSA complaint #11569995 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Hello. My 2008 Toyota Prius had a malfunction with the "combination meter" which caused the vehicle dashboard to turn off completely, and we could not turn off the engine at times when stopped and parked. The dealer fixed the problem at a cost of $1580, and both the dealer and Toyota corporate through their brand engagement advocate acknowledged a long term problem with the combination meter. They had extended the warranty coverage for owners for this specific problem for about 10 years but not for owners like me with a vehicle 15 years old. I believe Toyota should cover and reimburse owners for this problem, which is potentially dangerous, no matter the age of the vehicle, especially for long term, loyal owners. There are many of these vehicles still on the road. Thank you. [XXX] [XXX] [XXX] . INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
NHTSA complaint #11566820 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.