2012 Toyota Prius C problems
NHTSA has received 91 complaints about the 2012 Toyota Prius C, and 29% of them involve brakes. After that come electrical system (16%) and air bags (9%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 91 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Brakes 29% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 18 and 2
- Injuries and deaths
- 21 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 40,000 miles 57 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 14 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 14 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 3 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 3 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 11 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 6 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 2 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 1 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 3 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Among the 57 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 40,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 18 complaints mention a crash; 2 complaints mention a fire; 21 injuries reported. Its complaints are more severe on average than those of 94% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2012 ranks 1st most-complained-about out of 4 model years of the Toyota Prius C with enough data (43 complaints in that window).
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
Car was involved in a 18+ car accident. Traveling at approx 55MPH all traffic came to a sudden stop. The car did stop before impact. Driver pressed himself to the seat while slamming on breaks. A car slammed into the back of the prius which shot the prius forward, wedging it between the 2 vehicles in front of it. Upon impact with the cars it was slammed into the driver's seatbelt did not lock. Driver flew forward breaking bones in his face and obtained injuries to a knee from impacting the console, and whiplash.
The brakes were applied gently as the car was approaching a stopped car. The prius c then accelerated, at which time the brakes were firmly applied, the ABS system engaged, but not in enough time for the vehicle to stop. The prius rear ended the vehicle in front, all airbags were deployed causing injury to the driver, and the front end of the prius was destroyed. It cannot be fixed and will need to be scrapped.
Problem with the fuel bladder causing the gauge to read incorrectly. The gauge gets stuck at a quarter tank and before you know it, you're out of gas. Once this happened, it caused the hybrid system to fail and locked the car up even after putting gas in it. Has to do a master reset of the entire car to get it to start again.