Other visibility problem on the 2007 Toyota Prius
When other visibility problem gets reported
Owners of the 2007 Toyota Prius report other visibility problem at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 27th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 40,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 115,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 78,040 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38,860 miles | 53,425 miles | 65,950 miles | 93,500 miles | 116,900 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
Putting it right typically runs $150–$1,400 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 14 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 200 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 65,000 miles.
By volume the 2016 carries the most reports, with 35; the 2007 has 11. 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.
We own a toyota prius. When we turn on the heater and turn it to the feet, warm air starts blowing from the vent on the driver side to the face. We took it to the dealer "capitol toyota", capital auto mall, san jose, ca. The dealer said that they would charge big time to fix it since we were just over 36,000 miles in 30 months. We didn't get it fixed. We believe that this issue is somehow related to its electrical/electronic systems issue. We also noticed about 2 weeks ago when we were parked in the line for gas, that the engine suddenly was roaring as if we were revving it to very high speeds without even the heater or A/C being on. We also think it has related front defrosting issues. *tr
I own a 2007 prius and noticed this problem for several months already. March 7, 2010 was a raining day in san diego. At about noon, I drove my wife to the market with the prius. I needed to turn on the warm air to defrost the windshield for better visibility. What I got was the cold air from the A/C. I checked the A/C indicator and it wasn't on. I touched the indicator to turn it on then off but nothing changed. The air was still cold. After shopping at the market, we started the prius again to drive home. The air then changed to warm. What we learned was only a total turn off could change the 'stuck' condition in the prius. This was not a dangerous incident but it could relate to the electronics malfunction in another serious accident. *tr
Both HID headlights failed on a winding country road. I quickly turned the headlights off, then on then was able to swerve the car to prevent going off the road. I had intermittent problems with one light failing. This was the first time both lights failed at the same time. I spent over $400 to replace the lights. There is a class action case against toyota that covers prius with under 50k miles. Since I had over 70k miles on my prius, I was hesitant to make the repair, because of the cost until both lights failed. This is an intermittent problem that gets worse as time goes by and should be recalled before someone is killed. *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
Other speed control problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 11 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 visibility problem happen on the 2007 Toyota Prius?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other visibility problem on the 2007 Toyota Prius?
11 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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