AS far as recent reports, I don’t think there has been a dramatic increase. Two things have changed:
1. Toyota can’t ignore these incidents, or easily dismiss as driver error anymore.
2. The public is now being heard/listened to. There were hundreds of these reports (around 2000 if I remember correctly), before this hit the news big time. The spot light is on, where as before the reports were ignored, explained away, or denied.[/quote]
Early model Prius issues are a statistical anomaly.
A statistically unlikely event happening in a way that is potentially lucrative and magically safe seems a bit hard to swallow when it occurs to a person who is broke and desperate.
