Other speed control problem on the 2007 Toyota Prius
30 crashes 1 fire 6 injuries 1 death 38 of the 89 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other speed control problem gets reported
Owners of the 2007 Toyota Prius report other speed control problem at a median of 32,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 17,500 miles and a quarter after 52,500 miles, from 76 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 2,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 82,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 79,362 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
53% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,798 miles | 17,750 miles | 33,250 miles | 52,500 miles | 82,160 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 30 a crash, 1 a fire, 6 an injury and 1 a fatality are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $250–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 19 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 1,500 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 60,000 miles.
By volume the 2010 carries the most reports, with 221; the 2007 has 89. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Cause: flat tire in the front left or front right of the vehicle. The front left demonstrating the most severe hazard failure: the traction control system engages regularly due to a discrepancy between the spare and normal tire size. Traction control cuts power to the drive wheels and cannot be overridden, causing vehicle to lose speed in non-deterministic manner. Vehicle is not responsive. Condition is worst during the first 40 miles driven on the spare tire but consequently improves due to learning inside the car computer. Unfortunately, vehicle is most dangerous when the driver has the least control over the situation. Correction: none, the manufacturer claims the vehicle is operating as designed. *tr
Tl*the contact owns a 2007 toyota prius. The contact's spouse was backing down a 20 degree slope with her foot on the brake pedal. The vehicle accelerated backwards downhill at approximately 5 MPH, but then accelerated to 35 MPH. The contact continued to depress the brake pedal. The vehicle struck a tree and the contact's head struck the head rest. He sustained a head injury and can provide a police report. The dealer was notified and the vehicle was repaired. The current mileage was 12,700 and failure mileage was 10,600.
To:NHTSA.webmaster@DOT.gov subject:toyota prius 2007 model comments: although my dealer has run a complete battery of computer tests, no explanation is apparent for the vehicle accelerating on its own at high speed on the highway. It has happened to me twice and it is terrifying. The two instances were a couple of months apart. Both times, I was on the highway and had driven 10-20 miles without a problem. Once the gas pedal was physically jolted up, the problem was corrected. When it is occurring, the brakes do not slow it down by more than 3-4 MPH. My dealer is a-1 toyota in new haven. *tr
Also reported on the 2007 Toyota Prius
Headlight failure or clouding
Other lighting problem
Other brake problem
Other body or interior problem
Other electrical problem
Loss of braking
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 89 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other speed control problem happen on the 2007 Toyota Prius?
Across 76 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 32,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 17,500 miles and a quarter after 52,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other speed control problem on the 2007 Toyota Prius?
89 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.8 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed