NHTSA Complaint #11573133 — 2011 TOYOTA PRIUS

The 2011 Prius has an issue known to Toyota, in which the brake booster pump fails after an indiscriminate amount of time, leading to significant loss in braking ability and control. Toyota knows of this because they issues an extended warranty coverage for these vehicles and this issue, that did not extend beyond 10 years, or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first. [XXX] ) When I was driving my car down Highway [XXX] I lost braking control completely, with a series of constant beeping starting to emit from the braking system. Luckily through mashing the brake pedal and using ebrake I was able to get the car to slow down and pull off the highway. The brakes sporadically and randomly cut in and out with the power braking, leading to uncontrolled stopping power and jerky or inactive braking. There had been lights on the dash indicating the traction system or braking system had issues but these would frequently turn off and on and didn't result in a loss of braking ability or performance and had been there a couple months. Upon taking the vehicle to a Toyota Dealership (Charles Maund North Austin) I was told it was a C1391 error regarding a failure of the brake booster pump assembly and that it would need to be replaced and reprogrammed for about 3300 dollars. After looking online I saw there were many other people with this issue, all who were unable to fix this in the given 10 year frame. Many unsuspecting second owners of this vehicle do not know that there is a hidden danger waiting for them when their power brake pump assembly fails. If I had been a less experienced driver I would've certainly crashed and Toyota, knowing of this safety concern already, should have done the right thing and issue a recall for these vehicles. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)