Prius Panic, or “How I Am Now Stuck in Bureaucratic Purgatory and Unable to Go to the Grocery Store”

So, um—the Prius.  The one that I drove cross country?  Now I am afraid to drive it, because it might do this.  I’m not joking, ever since that San Diego guy’s car careened out of control, now every time I get in my car (which, by the way, is the exact same year, make, and model as his), I drive on the right side of the road and look for safe places to crash, in case I feel the “runaway accelerator” kick in.

I’m serious, people.  I am looking for places to crash because I figure crashing while going 40 is preferable to letting it go all the way to 90, right?

The logical conclusion would be to get rid of the car and just get another one, which I’m happy to do. Only I can’t, because of oh, so many good reasons.   Here are a few:

1.        You can’t really sell a Prius right now, and you know how I hate to lose money.  But, ok, even if I declare this a “money is green paper” moment, overlook the fact that I might actually take a huge loss AND sell someone a car that has the potential to careen out of control, there’s always the next factor, which is

2.       I don’t have a New York State driver’s license, so I can’t even go out and buy or lease a car right now.  Nope.  Can’t trade in my car, which by the way I have to re-register in the State of New York, which by the way I can’t do unless I have a New York State driver’s license.

ALSO

3.       Turns out I can’t get a New  York State driver’s license because I don’t have the ORIGINAL COPY OF MY SOCIAL SECURITY CARD.  Are you following this?  I just want to go to the store to get some sparkling water, people, and I’m afraid to do it in my own car, and I can’t get a new car because of a bureaucratic mess that’s piling up on itself like a seven-layer dip at a Superbowl party.  No social security card, no NY State driver’s license, no new car.   In case you’re all like “why don’t you have a copy of your Social Security Card, everyone should have that,” please let me remind you that my mother is deceased, and when I cleaned out the house where I grew up, I was unable to locate some of these important records.    So, put that in your pipe and smoke it.

So, what do I do?

That’s right.  On Friday, I had to get in my “Prius Panic, potential to careen out of control at any moment car and drove to the Social Security Administration in Connecticut, where I applied for a new card, and was told that I should expect to wait TEN TO FOURTEEN DAYS.  After that I can apply for a new driver’s license, and if my car hasn’t careened out of control by then, I might be able to drive it to a dealership to get another car.

So, my question to you is this:  once this bureaucratic morass is figured out, what do I do with the Prius?  Should I sit on it until Toyota solves this problem?  Trade it in and take a huge bath for something that isn’t even my fault? 

By the way, in case you’re curious, I did call Toyota (both the dealership and the 1-800 number where of course I did not get a live person), and was told that the matter was “under investigation” both by Toyota and by NHTSA, and that if I wanted, I could sell it back to them at wholesale, which made me want to punch someone in the face repeatedly, or maybe slam down the phone over and over again, just to hear it make that satisfying “hangup” noise.

At any rate, by the time I get another car, I’m pretty sure they’re going to have issued another recall (at least that’s what the Wall Street Journal is saying), so it will probably get fixed , and this ridiculousness will just be a distant memory.  And, of course I am super grateful that I just drove all the way across the country in a 2008 Prius without incident.  But, it would be really, really nice if Toyota would just buy these cars back at market rate, since they’re the negligent ones, don’t you think?

Also, what kind of car do you think the president of Toyota drives?  I’m guessing it’s not a Prius.

Comments

[Shannon]

OMG total nightmare. Seriously, I could not feel for you any more than I currently do, because I would be feeling and acting the EXACT SAME WAY in your situation. And yes, Toyota SHOULD buy it back at market rate! Because yes, THEY ARE NEGLIGENT! ARGH!

p.s. I'm totally sick. Like, lie in bed moaning sick. Which is not as bad as being in a runaway car, but sucks nonetheless.

[Kimberly]

In case you haven't heard the news yet, everyone is very suspicious of that guy and his out of control Prius. Like, Toyota and the NHTSA both say that there's no way that what he says actually did happen. Here's a link to the story: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/officials-unable-to-spot-reported-prius-fault-2010-03-15?reflink=MW_news_stmp

Turns out the guy is super shady apparently...bankruptcy, stuff getting repossessed, and apparently no one believes his story either.

So, I think you and your Prius are safe. Good luck getting all the paperwork ironed out though. That's why I hate moving.

[Shannon]

Hmmm, but still, there have been other episodes recently of this same thing happening to other people. I saw footage on The Today Show of the stone wall that a woman crashed into at the end of her driveway. Haven't there been at least 3 or 4 of these instances? They can't all be faked!

[Kimberly]

I thought those issues were not with the Prius though. I drive a Lexus hybrid, so I've been worried about this too. In any case, here's another story that indicates that 2008 Priuses (Priuii, what's the plural of Prius) just can't do what this guy is saying: http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/15/autos/toyota_prius_presser/

"If the brake is pressed at the same time as the gas pedal, power to the engine will be reduced just as if the gas pedal had been released, the automaker said. During driving tests on Sikes' Prius and on an identical 2008 Prius, the system operated as expected, according the report, preventing the car from pushing forward while braking."

I'm just saying, I wouldn't panic based on this particular incident. And it does sound like the Prius has actual systems in place to control things like this. Hybrids are so different from other cars that it is hard to have the same types of issues.