2004 Toyota Prius — reported problems

CarFaultIQ holds 851 evidence records for the 2004 Toyota Prius, drawn from official sources and owner complaints.

What owners report: issue areas

Owner complaints are classified by the system they concern: 737 classifications in all. One complaint can concern several systems, so these add up to more than the number of complaints.

  • Lights185 (25.1%)Official recall records for this system: 2, covering model years 2004–2019.
  • Electrical system184 (25.0%)Official recall records for this system: 16, covering model years 2004–2026.
  • Engine98 (13.3%)Official recall records for this system: 4, covering model years 2001–2022.
  • Brakes76 (10.3%)Official recall records for this system: 9, covering model years 2010–2019.
  • Speed control & accelerator52 (7.1%)Official recall records for this system: 1, covering model years 2004–2009.
  • Powertrain (transmission & drivetrain)34 (4.6%)Official recall records for this system: 5, covering model years 2004–2022.

Other / uncategorized: 14 classifications (1.9%) were not assigned to a specific system by the source. They are counted but not treated as an issue area.

These are counts of records held by CarFaultIQ, not a failure rate. More records can simply mean more vehicles were sold or more owners reported. No vehicles-in-service figure exists in this data, so no reliability or risk score can be derived from it.

What the records are about, by source

Each source is kept separate: owner complaints, recalls, manufacturer communications and investigations are different kinds of record and are never added together. All model years.

  • Owner complaints (24,976 records, model years 2001–2026) are most frequently classified under: brakes, lights and electrical system.
  • Safety recalls (126 records, model years 2001–2026) are most frequently classified under: high-voltage battery & electric drive, air bags (restraint system) and equipment & accessories.
  • Transport Canada recalls (121 records, model years 2001–2026) are most frequently classified under: electrical system, powertrain (transmission & drivetrain) and brakes.
  • Manufacturer communications (7,014 records, model years 2001–2026) are most frequently classified under: equipment & accessories, electrical system and engine.

"Most frequently classified under" reports how the records are filed by the source. It is not a finding about causes, and a record can be filed under more than one system. Read the individual records

Mileage reported when the issue occurred

  • 505reports included a mileage
  • 76,484average of those mileages

This is the mileage owners recorded at the time they reported, not an expected failure mileage and not a prediction for any individual vehicle. The lowest and highest figures on record are not shown: they are unverified odometer entries that include zeros and implausibly high readings, so they would not describe a real range. A median is not shown either, because the stored figures are group totals and a median cannot be recovered from them.

Evidence by model year

Records held per model year. Select a year to narrow this page to it.

  1. 2001 326 records for 2001
  2. 2002 308 records for 2002
  3. 2003 235 records for 2003
  4. 2004 851 records for 2004
  5. 2005 1,287 records for 2005
  6. 2006 1,663 records for 2006
  7. 2007 2,233 records for 2007
  8. 2008 1,729 records for 2008
  9. 2009 739 records for 2009
  10. 2010 3,229 records for 2010
  11. 2011 890 records for 2011
  12. 2012 898 records for 2012
  13. 2013 885 records for 2013
  14. 2014 643 records for 2014
  15. 2015 496 records for 2015
  16. 2016 466 records for 2016
  17. 2017 344 records for 2017
  18. 2018 240 records for 2018
  19. 2019 174 records for 2019
  20. 2020 160 records for 2020
  21. 2021 123 records for 2021
  22. 2022 156 records for 2022
  23. 2023 144 records for 2023
  24. 2024 129 records for 2024
  25. 2025 58 records for 2025
  26. 2026 32 records for 2026

Counts are not adjusted for how many vehicles were sold in each year, so a taller year is not necessarily a worse year.

Reports mentioning outcomes

  • 38mention a crash
  • 2mention a fire
  • 29mention an injury

These are counts of records whose report mentioned the outcome. They are not a severity rating and not a safety assessment of this vehicle.

Official records held

  • Safety recalls NHTSA 6
  • Manufacturer communications NHTSA 226
  • Investigations NHTSA 3
  • Transport Canada recalls Transport Canada 6
  • Owner complaints NHTSA 610

Explore the underlying evidence records

Diagnostic codes found in evidence for this vehicle

These codes appear by explicit identifier in official records matched to this exact model and year.

A code appearing in a record means the code was named in that document. It is not a diagnosis of this vehicle, not a fault this vehicle has, and not an indication of urgency. Diagnosis requires reading live data from the vehicle.

Where to go next