Gen 4 Cat thefts?

[mpm235]

What is the Gen 4 Prius like for Cat thefts? Are they as susceptible as the Gen 2? Thanks, Mark

[TonyHSD]

I think they have been some reports but in general not many, mostly gen 2 , gen 3 Priuses , Auris gen 2 and gen 1, Lexus CT200h , Prius plus, these are the most common targets from Toyota. 

[Chris Dance]

I was advised that the Gen 4 is just as likely to be targeted as the Gen 3 and should be protected with a catloc.  The catloc just makes it harder for the thieves to steal. A determined gang could still get the cat but the catloc is a deterrent.

[PeteB]

I can only recall 2 4th Gen Prius cat thefts being reported on this site, one was a plug-in.  IIRC one was only a few days old!

It should be remembered that the 2nd Gen Prius was probably the version that sold in highest numbers, followed by the Gen 3 (only about 1500 Gen 1 were sold in the UK [I had 2 of them - both ex-demos]).   The 4th Gen sold in quite low numbers, so it stands to reason that you'll hear about thefts from Gen 2 far more frequently than others.

[TonyHSD]

If gen 4 Prius is a target that means Corolla 2019 > also is, basically the same chassis and drive trains, even cats are closer to the engine the large opening under the car gives an easy access to the bolts and easy to cut. , however thieves works by orders and money paid per catalytic converter, traders tell them from what cars to get and gen 2 gen 3, Prius plus and Auris gen 2 and gen 1 hybrids are top of the list along with jazz and sprinter vans and so on., this might play a role too. 

[Dancing Badger]

Toyota say that newer models (including the gen 4, presumably) use less precious metal in the cat so are hopefully less of a target for thieves. My initial thought was that the thieves may well not be aware of that but I suppose the thieves know their own market so perhaps it will help. Then a couple of weeks ago I read this on my local Facebook page, "Warning to all Prius drivers - just had my catalytic converter stolen whilst parked for less than 10 minutes at ASDA. Broad daylight, very busy, £1000+ to repair..." 

It doesn't say what model Prius it was, but this was at my local Asda, which gave me the willies. So I promptly booked my gen 4 into the dealer for a catloc and a tilt sensor. No guarantees, but it's worth having a deterrent - I like my car and I intend keeping it for a while.

It turns out that it's not quite that simple. The dealer has had it for two days now, I'm hoping to get it back tomorrow. It was supposed to be in for one day. Apparently they're having problems with the wiring for the tilt sensor. I can't understand what problems they could be having with the wiring for a Toyota accessory on a stock Toyota that takes them more than two working days to resolve. The dealer initially said yesterday that there was a wire that was "split" and needed replacing, and then when they rang me earlier to say it may still not be finished today the further explanation was that it was a difficult job as the wiring goes through the bulkhead and has numerous connections into the existing wiring and they have to make sure it isn't triggered by driving. That's not very convincing and I still don't see what the issue is but as the chap on the phone wasn't a technician it was pointless pursuing the discussion - I just established that they haven't had the dash out (don't want any rattles) and he assured me that it was just the back of the glove box that they need access too.

They've loaned me an Aygo (a nice black one with 166 miles on the clock) and I'm working from home with nowhere to go anyway so I'm not particularly inconvenienced but I can't say I'm filled with confidence in whoever is fitting the sensor. It's clearly not supposed to be a big job - I was quoted (in writing) £301.34 for the catloc and tilt sensor - that doesn't come near the amount of labour it's had. Unless they've just parked it up and are drinking tea and watching Netflix. I will be asking questions when I finally pick the car up, and if possible would like to speak to the technician (when did mechanics become technicians? Is it like Marathons and Snickers?) who worked on it - what's the betting that they're on their day off? I shall return with an update when I have one....

[Catlover]

£301 seems very cheap. The standard price for a catloc is £250, what the cost of a tilt sensor is I don’t know, but they left with £51 to spend on the parts and fitting!

[Catlover]

On 2/2/2021 at 4:53 PM, mpm235 said:

What is the Gen 4 Prius like for Cat thefts? Are they as susceptible as the Gen 2? Thanks, Mark

If you thinking of fitting a catloc, I did on my Gen4 Prius. The cat is in a vulnerable place on Gen4, I got one off eBay, posted up from London, and fitted by my local garage. It is made from 3mm flat plate, thicker then most available but I don’t know how thick a Toyota plate is. Cost me something like £55 inc postage plus £15 for fitting. You could fit yourself if you have ramps but 4 poster lift and a mechanic was much easier for me.

[Dancing Badger]

To continue the story of my Gen 4 and its catloc and tilt sensor - this is turning into a saga, so if you don't feel like reading War and Peace here's the short version - I went to pick the car up and they'd made a hash of fitting the catloc.

For those of you who have half an hour to spare, here's the full story - there's a bonus car review at the end! I phoned the dealer today to see how they were getting on. "It's just being washed, Mr Badger," they said, "it'll be ready shortly."  So I made my way back to pick it up and asked what the problem had been. The explanation was as follows - this is the first catloc or tilt sensor they've fitted to a Gen 4 Prius - they've done several Aurises and they are easy, but apparently this wasn't. Their initial issue was feeding the wiring through the bulkhead - it has to go through the existing rubber sleeve which contains the main loom, and there isn't really room for the several wires that have to be fed through; and the difficulty of this is compounded by the fact that you can't really see what you're doing because of where it is. In attempting to do this they managed to damage one of the existing wires and had to replace it - they've assured me that it's all been sorted and there are no faults found. 

The chap then went on to explain that they then struggled with actually wiring it - he reiterated that they haven't done one before and added that the instructions which they downloaded from Toyota were not at all clear. I've seen the instructions for the Auris (I think somebody here linked it, or it could have been PriusChat) and they did indeed look pretty vague - diagrams which don't make it at all obvious what goes where. I think somebody described it as being like the ones from Ikea, although I'd argue that Ikea ones are clearer. I've built flatpack, and I've fitted alarms, so I feel qualified to comment! 😉  Given that the work is taking place up in the dark recesses under the dash I do have some sympathy with this. When I was 18 I bought a second hand kit car, a Rochdale Olympic (I'm not making this up, Google it). It had a panel in the middle of the dash with seventeen switches on it which said interesting things like "heater" and "rear fan" (I never found out where the rear fan was or what it was supposed to do) that didn't do anything when I switched them on. I removed the panel to discover that the bloke who'd built the car had clearly bought a catering size pack of yellow wire - every single wire was yellow. And because the car was fibreglass, every circuit was earthed back to the fusebox rather than the body. Or the Battery. Or another circuit. Or not at all, which was an issue.  So that was fun. Look, I was 18, I was naïve, but I learnt a lot about automotive electrics from that car. Anyway, I digress. 

"Next time we do one," he said, "it'll go much faster." Not sure that was very comforting, having been the guinea pig, but I expect he's right. He said Toyota allow 1.6 hours for the job so it's obviously not meant to be such a challenge.

Ok then, so that's all sorted then, he's explained what went wrong, but it's all done now, job's a good 'un, I'll be on my way. Err, that'd be a no.😒  He led me out to the car, explained how to turn the sensor off for when it's being legitimately worked on and also how to reset it if it goes off, explained I need to register the catloc as they can't due to data protection laws - this evidently provides insurance, I didn't know that. But I don't know the details, I didn't read the leaflet which is still in the car which (spoiler alert) is still at the dealer's. He apologised again for the job taking so long and we said goodbye. And I started the car, the ICE came on as the traction Battery was down to 2 bars - and what a racket! There was a loud vibration that I could feel through the floor. So I trudged back in and told him. Back into the workshop it went, and I sat in the waiting area where I couldn't have a brew because of Covid and entertained myself playing a game on my phone.

Quarter of an hour later, my guy was back. He gave me a not very clear explanation of how the catloc is fitted, and said that there are two plates which should be flush together but there was a tiny gap so they were going to drill it, bolt the plates together tightly and shear the bolt head off (this sounds slightly alarming if I'm honest, it's presumably not designed like that) and everything would be hunky dory, trust me, I know a technician. 

I resumed my game.

Quarter of an hour later, my guy was back. Actually it wasn't just the two plates, the catloc plate was touching the exhaust (or the cat itself, he wasn't clear). So they'd have to take it back off, and either adjust the exhaust or adjust the plate. I didn't like the sound of that at all. "Hang on," I said, "don't go adjusting the car to fit the catloc - adjust the catloc to fit the car!" He agreed with that (I wasn't asking). He said they've got a couple of guys in tomorrow morning or maybe they'd leave it till Monday and get the workshop supervisor to do it. I said I'd wait till Monday. And before picking it up I shall be asking them to thoroughly road test it to make sure nothing fouls as they clearly didn't test it today - as soon as the ICE started it was obviously not right.

Oh and they didn't do the recall that they were going to (something to do with a seat belt) as they didn't have the parts. But they have (I think, I didn't actually check this, but surely...) successfully replaced the rear wiper blade. "We've not done very well with this one, have we?" he said to me as I left. He was very apologetic. I've used this dealer for years and they've generally been pretty good, but they dropped the ball this time. I'd have been very frustrated if I'd had anywhere to go, but although I haven't really been inconvenienced that much I'm not feeling very confident in this job which I had thought was pretty straightforward.

A post script some of you may find interesting - instead of giving me the Aygo back, he loaned me a Yaris hybrid, one of the new models. I liked it a lot on my brief drive home, although the Yaris is a bit small for me. The engine barely runs around town and when it does it's nice and quiet - apparently it's a 1.5l three pot version of the 2.0l Corolla engine so it has a bit of a beat to it, but it sounds quite nice. I found the old model seemed to rev a lot compared to my Prius, I didn't feel that way about this one.  It feels quite lively to drive. Rides fairly smoothly, and I liked the styling inside and out - the interior is a bit dark but quite funky - a digital display in front of the driver and a big central screen. It was showing 50.5 mpg on the display but it's only done 217 miles and I've only done 5 of them. Still, for those of you who might consider a Yaris it's definitely worth a look - it felt, looked and drove better than the previous model which I drove last year. 

Hopefully I'll be able to check back in here on Monday afternoon to announce that everything is tickety boo with my Prius but I'm not counting my chickens until they've hatched, grown up, been killed and plucked, coated in breadcrumbs and the Colonel's 11 secret herbs and spices, deep fried and served in a cardboard bucket with fries and a side of gravy and a refreshing lemon-scented towelette.

Phew, that was a long post. I don't post often (stop cheering!) but when I do I make up for lost time.

[Mikw]

25 minutes ago, Dancing Badger said:

To continue the story of my Gen 4 and its catloc and tilt sensor - this is turning into a saga, so if you don't feel like reading War and Peace here's the short version - I went to pick the car up and they'd made a hash of fitting the catloc.

For those of you who have half an hour to spare, here's the full story - there's a bonus car review at the end! I phoned the dealer today to see how they were getting on. "It's just being washed, Mr Badger," they said, "it'll be ready shortly."  So I made my way back to pick it up and asked what the problem had been. The explanation was as follows - this is the first catloc or tilt sensor they've fitted to a Gen 4 Prius - they've done several Aurises and they are easy, but apparently this wasn't. Their initial issue was feeding the wiring through the bulkhead - it has to go through the existing rubber sleeve which contains the main loom, and there isn't really room for the several wires that have to be fed through; and the difficulty of this is compounded by the fact that you can't really see what you're doing because of where it is. In attempting to do this they managed to damage one of the existing wires and had to replace it - they've assured me that it's all been sorted and there are no faults found. 

The chap then went on to explain that they then struggled with actually wiring it - he reiterated that they haven't done one before and added that the instructions which they downloaded from Toyota were not at all clear. I've seen the instructions for the Auris (I think somebody here linked it, or it could have been PriusChat) and they did indeed look pretty vague - diagrams which don't make it at all obvious what goes where. I think somebody described it as being like the ones from Ikea, although I'd argue that Ikea ones are clearer. I've built flatpack, and I've fitted alarms, so I feel qualified to comment! 😉  Given that the work is taking place up in the dark recesses under the dash I do have some sympathy with this. When I was 18 I bought a second hand kit car, a Rochdale Olympic (I'm not making this up, Google it). It had a panel in the middle of the dash with seventeen switches on it which said interesting things like "heater" and "rear fan" (I never found out where the rear fan was or what it was supposed to do) that didn't do anything when I switched them on. I removed the panel to discover that the bloke who'd built the car had clearly bought a catering size pack of yellow wire - every single wire was yellow. And because the car was fibreglass, every circuit was earthed back to the fusebox rather than the body. Or the battery. Or another circuit. Or not at all, which was an issue.  So that was fun. Look, I was 18, I was naïve, but I learnt a lot about automotive electrics from that car. Anyway, I digress. 

"Next time we do one," he said, "it'll go much faster." Not sure that was very comforting, having been the guinea pig, but I expect he's right. He said Toyota allow 1.6 hours for the job so it's obviously not meant to be such a challenge.

Ok then, so that's all sorted then, he's explained what went wrong, but it's all done now, job's a good 'un, I'll be on my way. Err, that'd be a no.😒  He led me out to the car, explained how to turn the sensor off for when it's being legitimately worked on and also how to reset it if it goes off, explained I need to register the catloc as they can't due to data protection laws - this evidently provides insurance, I didn't know that. But I don't know the details, I didn't read the leaflet which is still in the car which (spoiler alert) is still at the dealer's. He apologised again for the job taking so long and we said goodbye. And I started the car, the ICE came on as the traction battery was down to 2 bars - and what a racket! There was a loud vibration that I could feel through the floor. So I trudged back in and told him. Back into the workshop it went, and I sat in the waiting area where I couldn't have a brew because of Covid and entertained myself playing a game on my phone.

Quarter of an hour later, my guy was back. He gave me a not very clear explanation of how the catloc is fitted, and said that there are two plates which should be flush together but there was a tiny gap so they were going to drill it, bolt the plates together tightly and shear the bolt head off (this sounds slightly alarming if I'm honest, it's presumably not designed like that) and everything would be hunky dory, trust me, I know a technician. 

I resumed my game.

Quarter of an hour later, my guy was back. Actually it wasn't just the two plates, the catloc plate was touching the exhaust (or the cat itself, he wasn't clear). So they'd have to take it back off, and either adjust the exhaust or adjust the plate. I didn't like the sound of that at all. "Hang on," I said, "don't go adjusting the car to fit the catloc - adjust the catloc to fit the car!" He agreed with that (I wasn't asking). He said they've got a couple of guys in tomorrow morning or maybe they'd leave it till Monday and get the workshop supervisor to do it. I said I'd wait till Monday. And before picking it up I shall be asking them to thoroughly road test it to make sure nothing fouls as they clearly didn't test it today - as soon as the ICE started it was obviously not right.

Oh and they didn't do the recall that they were going to (something to do with a seat belt) as they didn't have the parts. But they have (I think, I didn't actually check this, but surely...) successfully replaced the rear wiper blade. "We've not done very well with this one, have we?" he said to me as I left. He was very apologetic. I've used this dealer for years and they've generally been pretty good, but they dropped the ball this time. I'd have been very frustrated if I'd had anywhere to go, but although I haven't really been inconvenienced that much I'm not feeling very confident in this job which I had thought was pretty straightforward.

A post script some of you may find interesting - instead of giving me the Aygo back, he loaned me a Yaris hybrid, one of the new models. I liked it a lot on my brief drive home, although the Yaris is a bit small for me. The engine barely runs around town and when it does it's nice and quiet - apparently it's a 1.5l three pot version of the 2.0l Corolla engine so it has a bit of a beat to it, but it sounds quite nice. I found the old model seemed to rev a lot compared to my Prius, I didn't feel that way about this one.  It feels quite lively to drive. Rides fairly smoothly, and I liked the styling inside and out - the interior is a bit dark but quite funky - a digital display in front of the driver and a big central screen. It was showing 50.5 mpg on the display but it's only done 217 miles and I've only done 5 of them. Still, for those of you who might consider a Yaris it's definitely worth a look - it felt, looked and drove better than the previous model which I drove last year. 

Hopefully I'll be able to check back in here on Monday afternoon to announce that everything is tickety boo with my Prius but I'm not counting my chickens until they've hatched, grown up, been killed and plucked, coated in breadcrumbs and the Colonel's 11 secret herbs and spices, deep fried and served in a cardboard bucket with fries and a side of gravy and a refreshing lemon-scented towelette.

Phew, that was a long post. I don't post often (stop cheering!) but when I do I make up for lost time.

That's quite a read and a right palava!

Still, at least you go to test drive a new Yaris, they're rather lovely, aren't they?  They're so different to the model that went before it.

[Dancing Badger]

1 minute ago, Mikw said:

Still, at least you go to test drive a new Yaris, they're rather lovely, aren't they?  They're so different to the model that went before it.

 

Indeed they are, I was impressed, a big improvement on the previous model.

[TonyHSD]

That’s an interesting reading, thank you. 

[Mick F]

On 2/5/2021 at 10:01 PM, Dancing Badger said:

 

Indeed they are, I was impressed, a big improvement on the previous model.

Off topic really, but what are the improvements?

I have a list of nine issues with ours.  The first eight are rather annoying, and never had those issues with any car we've ever owned.  The ninth one just seems like a software design mistake.

 

Toyota Yaris Hybrid Excel 2014

Headlights inadequate on full beam

Poor internal storage

TPS switch almost inaccessible

Time of Day only in 12h format - no AM or PM indication

Speedometer reads 10% high whilst odometer is spot on

Turning circle way too wide

Poor visibility for parking manoeuvres

Cannot have rear foglights on without front foglights being on first

Info screen can’t be turned off with one single operation

Mick.

[Dancing Badger]

8 hours ago, Mick F said:

Off topic really, but what are the improvements?

 

I'm not the best person to answer this in any detail, it's just a superficial impression based on brief experience of loan cars, and I'm always comparing with my Prius. I certainly haven't experienced the issues on your list. However, when I had the previous model I was conscious that it felt a bit noisy and sluggish compared with mine. I particularly noticed that it seemed to rev quite high, and that the engine seemed to run a lot more than mine does in the Prius. The new one seems to spend more time on electric (I always leave them on normal or eco, I don't use EV or power mode and I don't try to force it) and when the engine does run it doesn't seem to rev as high - it makes a big difference to the feel of the car. It seems very responsive as well, which wasn't how the old one felt to me. I can't really give you any more detail than that because I haven't spent long enough behind the wheel of either to do more than gain an impression - but if you were thinking of replacing yours at some stage it's certainly worth a look and an extended test drive to see if they've done anything about the issues you've identified on your current car.

[Dancing Badger]

And I welcome you to season 1, episode 3 of the saga of my catloc!

I got a call today from the Aftersales Manager at the dealer. She told me that she's been fully briefed on what has been going on with my car (should have referred her to this forum!) Apparently they've removed the catloc and ordered a new fitting kit as when they fitted it first time it wasn't "guided in correctly" (this sounds like made up technobabble for they didn't fit it properly and wondered what all those leftover bits were for). She was very grateful for my patience, she is personally overseeing the job now and the workshop foreman is personally supervising the work and can she leave me with in the courtesy car until tomorrow. To be honest I'm fine with that, we're in lockdown, I'm working from home and there's nowhere I can go - the car hasn't moved since I got home on Friday. And I'd rather they took it off and started afresh with new fittings rather than try and bodge it. So I've not been grumpy with them - I have the loaner if I need it and their communication at least has been good (a lot better than their quality control) - I'm just surprised that it has turned into such a saga.

I'm hoping that we can have the series finale tomorrow and I'll get my car back - but who knows? It's all been excitingly unpredictable so far.

[Dancing Badger]

Season 1, episode 4

It's not ready. The parts haven't come. They're going to fill my petrol tank up by way of apology (it had about a quarter of a tank) and hopefully it will be ready tomorrow. I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever see that car again....

[TonyHSD]

Lol, Toyota Original Series Season 1 Episode 5 , new episode ever day🤭 Sorry I am just entertained by the way your have presented your saga., otherwise I feel sorry for you. If not ready by tomorrow you can suggest to them a new 2021 plug in hybrid in the same colour can do it and they can keep your one, no need to worry about refuelling it as you can charge at home🚗👍

[Dancing Badger]

Season 1, Episode 5 - at last, the season finale! 😀👏

The call came this afternoon - "your car is ready!" I've been to collect it, they've filled it with petrol and cleaned it inside and out, and it is now sporting a little led inside, a plate underneath and a couple of new window labels announcing it has a catloc to hopefully deter any tealeaves. Apparently the new alarm is very loud, but I hope never to hear it.And I've registered the new catloc - it's not an insurance scheme, but they've security marked the cat so I have registered that.  I enjoyed my drive home and I'm glad to have my own car back. I'm just looking forward, as I'm sure we all are, to being able to take it out for a drive for pleasure. 👍

[TonyHSD]

1 hour ago, Dancing Badger said:

Season 1, Episode 5 - at last, the season finale! 😀👏

The call came this afternoon - "your car is ready!" I've been to collect it, they've filled it with petrol and cleaned it inside and out, and it is now sporting a little led inside, a plate underneath and a couple of new window labels announcing it has a catloc to hopefully deter any tealeaves. Apparently the new alarm is very loud, but I hope never to hear it.And I've registered the new catloc - it's not an insurance scheme, but they've security marked the cat so I have registered that.  I enjoyed my drive home and I'm glad to have my own car back. I'm just looking forward, as I'm sure we all are, to being able to take it out for a drive for pleasure. 👍

Glad you got it sorted, back to Netflix then. 😊👍🚘

[Catlover]

Just read that 2 cat thieves in the Warrington, Cheshire area have been sentenced to 30 months and 32 months in the Nick. Suppose they be out in half the time, but some justice.

[mpm235]

I hope they have a really "nice" 😉 time in the showers....

[Mikw]

8 hours ago, Dancing Badger said:

Season 1, Episode 5 - at last, the season finale! 😀👏

The call came this afternoon - "your car is ready!" I've been to collect it, they've filled it with petrol and cleaned it inside and out, and it is now sporting a little led inside, a plate underneath and a couple of new window labels announcing it has a catloc to hopefully deter any tealeaves. Apparently the new alarm is very loud, but I hope never to hear it.And I've registered the new catloc - it's not an insurance scheme, but they've security marked the cat so I have registered that.  I enjoyed my drive home and I'm glad to have my own car back. I'm just looking forward, as I'm sure we all are, to being able to take it out for a drive for pleasure. 👍

Thanks for the latest update! Quite a saga, but sounds like a good job in the end

[AndrewX]

On 2/5/2021 at 1:31 PM, Dancing Badger said:

To continue the story of my Gen 4 and its catloc and tilt sensor - this is turning into a saga, so if you don't feel like reading War and Peace here's the short version - I went to pick the car up and they'd made a hash of fitting the catloc.

For those of you who have half an hour to spare, here's the full story - there's a bonus car review at the end! I phoned the dealer today to see how they were getting on. "It's just being washed, Mr Badger," they said, "it'll be ready shortly."  So I made my way back to pick it up and asked what the problem had been. The explanation was as follows - this is the first catloc or tilt sensor they've fitted to a Gen 4 Prius - they've done several Aurises and they are easy, but apparently this wasn't. Their initial issue was feeding the wiring through the bulkhead - it has to go through the existing rubber sleeve which contains the main loom, and there isn't really room for the several wires that have to be fed through; and the difficulty of this is compounded by the fact that you can't really see what you're doing because of where it is. In attempting to do this they managed to damage one of the existing wires and had to replace it - they've assured me that it's all been sorted and there are no faults found. 

The chap then went on to explain that they then struggled with actually wiring it - he reiterated that they haven't done one before and added that the instructions which they downloaded from Toyota were not at all clear. I've seen the instructions for the Auris (I think somebody here linked it, or it could have been PriusChat) and they did indeed look pretty vague - diagrams which don't make it at all obvious what goes where. I think somebody described it as being like the ones from Ikea, although I'd argue that Ikea ones are clearer. I've built flatpack, and I've fitted alarms, so I feel qualified to comment! 😉  Given that the work is taking place up in the dark recesses under the dash I do have some sympathy with this. When I was 18 I bought a second hand kit car, a Rochdale Olympic (I'm not making this up, Google it). It had a panel in the middle of the dash with seventeen switches on it which said interesting things like "heater" and "rear fan" (I never found out where the rear fan was or what it was supposed to do) that didn't do anything when I switched them on. I removed the panel to discover that the bloke who'd built the car had clearly bought a catering size pack of yellow wire - every single wire was yellow. And because the car was fibreglass, every circuit was earthed back to the fusebox rather than the body. Or the Battery. Or another circuit. Or not at all, which was an issue.  So that was fun. Look, I was 18, I was naïve, but I learnt a lot about automotive electrics from that car. Anyway, I digress. 

"Next time we do one," he said, "it'll go much faster." Not sure that was very comforting, having been the guinea pig, but I expect he's right. He said Toyota allow 1.6 hours for the job so it's obviously not meant to be such a challenge.

Ok then, so that's all sorted then, he's explained what went wrong, but it's all done now, job's a good 'un, I'll be on my way. Err, that'd be a no.😒  He led me out to the car, explained how to turn the sensor off for when it's being legitimately worked on and also how to reset it if it goes off, explained I need to register the catloc as they can't due to data protection laws - this evidently provides insurance, I didn't know that. But I don't know the details, I didn't read the leaflet which is still in the car which (spoiler alert) is still at the dealer's. He apologised again for the job taking so long and we said goodbye. And I started the car, the ICE came on as the traction Battery was down to 2 bars - and what a racket! There was a loud vibration that I could feel through the floor. So I trudged back in and told him. Back into the workshop it went, and I sat in the waiting area where I couldn't have a brew because of Covid and entertained myself playing a game on my phone.

Quarter of an hour later, my guy was back. He gave me a not very clear explanation of how the catloc is fitted, and said that there are two plates which should be flush together but there was a tiny gap so they were going to drill it, bolt the plates together tightly and shear the bolt head off (this sounds slightly alarming if I'm honest, it's presumably not designed like that) and everything would be hunky dory, trust me, I know a technician. 

I resumed my game.

Quarter of an hour later, my guy was back. Actually it wasn't just the two plates, the catloc plate was touching the exhaust (or the cat itself, he wasn't clear). So they'd have to take it back off, and either adjust the exhaust or adjust the plate. I didn't like the sound of that at all. "Hang on," I said, "don't go adjusting the car to fit the catloc - adjust the catloc to fit the car!" He agreed with that (I wasn't asking). He said they've got a couple of guys in tomorrow morning or maybe they'd leave it till Monday and get the workshop supervisor to do it. I said I'd wait till Monday. And before picking it up I shall be asking them to thoroughly road test it to make sure nothing fouls as they clearly didn't test it today - as soon as the ICE started it was obviously not right.

Oh and they didn't do the recall that they were going to (something to do with a seat belt) as they didn't have the parts. But they have (I think, I didn't actually check this, but surely...) successfully replaced the rear wiper blade. "We've not done very well with this one, have we?" he said to me as I left. He was very apologetic. I've used this dealer for years and they've generally been pretty good, but they dropped the ball this time. I'd have been very frustrated if I'd had anywhere to go, but although I haven't really been inconvenienced that much I'm not feeling very confident in this job which I had thought was pretty straightforward.

A post script some of you may find interesting - instead of giving me the Aygo back, he loaned me a Yaris hybrid, one of the new models. I liked it a lot on my brief drive home, although the Yaris is a bit small for me. The engine barely runs around town and when it does it's nice and quiet - apparently it's a 1.5l three pot version of the 2.0l Corolla engine so it has a bit of a beat to it, but it sounds quite nice. I found the old model seemed to rev a lot compared to my Prius, I didn't feel that way about this one.  It feels quite lively to drive. Rides fairly smoothly, and I liked the styling inside and out - the interior is a bit dark but quite funky - a digital display in front of the driver and a big central screen. It was showing 50.5 mpg on the display but it's only done 217 miles and I've only done 5 of them. Still, for those of you who might consider a Yaris it's definitely worth a look - it felt, looked and drove better than the previous model which I drove last year. 

Hopefully I'll be able to check back in here on Monday afternoon to announce that everything is tickety boo with my Prius but I'm not counting my chickens until they've hatched, grown up, been killed and plucked, coated in breadcrumbs and the Colonel's 11 secret herbs and spices, deep fried and served in a cardboard bucket with fries and a side of gravy and a refreshing lemon-scented towelette.

Phew, that was a long post. I don't post often (stop cheering!) but when I do I make up for lost time.

Holy cannoli.   You have convinced me not to attempt to install a cat plate on my gen 4.   
 

Also, you’re a pretty good writer.  Keep it up.  Humorous.   

[Catlover]

25 minutes ago, AndrewX said:

Holy cannoli.   You have convinced me not to attempt to install a cat plate on my gen 4.   
 

Also, you’re a pretty good writer.  Keep it up.  Humorous.   

Majority of the problems were about the tilt alarm. I bought a cat protection plate off eBay for about £40 and local garage fitted that easy. The one he got for the wife’s Auris initially was touching something and vibrating, so my garage did a bit of bending of the plate and been ok since, 8 months on.

[Cyker]

Hahaha! Just noticed this thread - That was a good yarn @Dancing Badger   Thanks for the write up and letting us join you on the saga! 

 

  

On 2/7/2021 at 10:28 AM, Mick F said:

Toyota Yaris Hybrid Excel 2014

Headlights inadequate on full beam - The LED headlamps are a very bright pure white; I'd hesitantly say they might be too bright! I accidentally looked at them once and couldn't see anything for a good 10 seconds!

Poor internal storage - It's still nowhere near as good as the Mk1 and Mk2 Yaris, but there are 2 closeable storage bins (Glovebox and small phone-sized compartment under the armrest), 2 small storage depressions on the top and a cubby behind the gearstick. Also 2 cupholders under arm rest, one blocked by the arm rest, and door bins have a smaller opening than they are deep??

TPS switch almost inaccessible - I haven't even found that yet on mine! 

Time of Day only in 12h format - no AM or PM indication - 24 hours!

Speedometer reads 10% high whilst odometer is spot on - Pass...! (How do you even measure this??)

Turning circle way too wide - I'd say it's as tight as the Mk2, and that's on 17" rims!

Poor visibility for parking manoeuvres - Even worse! Thankfully a reversing camera is as standard, but I wish they'd give the all-around parking sensors an option for all grades and not just the two most expensive grades! They are a godsend!

Cannot have rear foglights on without front foglights being on first - Unchanged, but it's been like that since the Mk1 Yaris...

Info screen can’t be turned off with one single operation - No idea... not even sure it can be turned off??

Mick.