Transaxle is failing after 100k miles of normal driving and maintenance. spoke with both a toyota dealer and transmission shop who said the cvt failure on this model year and the following several is an extremely common occurrence. this is a $5000+ repair fairly early in the life of the vehicle. the transmission shop said this was due to poor initial design.
From date of purchase, vehicle performed unpredictably. transitioning from electric to motor was rough and noticeable. at 600 miles, a significant impact was felt during transition. dealer found nothing. brake pedal traveled to the floor and vehicle went through stop sign at low speed. route 44 toyota insisted i needed to get used to electronic brakes. toyota insisted brakes worked as prescribed. recently, a aaa driver discovered the ground wire on the battery was loose. the battery was replaced and the vehicle now functions as described, the hill hold functions as described. nhtsa did an inspection in response to a defect petition - vehicle did not perform as described in the federal register. brake pedal is now high, as it was initially. this vehicle was sent from the factory with a loose battery ground and it was covered up by everyone from toyota, dealerships to nhtsa when the correction was simple. toyota does not stand behind their product.