Problems with 2007 Toyota Prius SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC

I have a 2007 prius. the car was involved in an accident on august 30, 2013 because "no brake". it was in a stop and go situation traveling at about 20 miles per hour. the car in front stopped, i slammed on the brake and total brake failure. my 16 years old son sitting in the car observed the "no brake" scenario. there was a 25 pound of rice in the truck did not even move. no skip mark... nothing. took my car to longo toyota and found nothing with the brake system, other than the front pad was thin, tires were marginal etc. none of the findings explained the no brake scenario. for some reason i cannot make this no brake to appear again. i want people to aware of this and gather information. it appears to me the prius cannot response to a quick stop at slow speed. somehow, the car takes more than a second for the braking to kick in - the reaction does not appear to be instantaneous. and if you are too close, that extra one second wait will cause a collision.

I was driving in the right lane of a 4-lane boulevard. the vehicle ahead in the lane to my left slowed for a car in front waiting to make a left turn, then suddenly veered into my lane. i hit the brakes as hard as i could, but for the first 2-3 seconds, my car didn't slow down. it also didn't make any sounds i would have expected from urgent braking - no screeching tires, etc. i continued to push the brake pedal hard. after 2-3 seconds, the brakes finally grabbed and my car pulled to the right. i considered myself lucky that i had enough room to avoid hitting the vehicle in front of me.

Tl*the contact owns a 2007 toyota prius. while driving approximately 40 mph, the vehicle failed to stop as the contact approached a traffic light. the contact crashed into the rear of another vehicle. the police were called to the scene. there were no injuries reported. the vehicle was declared a total loss. the failure mileage was 25,432. updated 02/17/11*lj updated 05/02/11

Dashboard red lights when vehicle starts with: brake failure , abs warning and stability warning. first time it was immediately taken to dealer who could find no problem and reset codes. four days later same warning lights came on and was taken to dealer again. were told hydraulic brake system was ok but brake actuator needed replacement at $2600. could be driven but without abs and stability capability. have not corrected this due to high price. shopping around at salvage yards. *tr

Tl* the contact owns a 2007 toyota prius. while driving approximately 45 mph, the vehicle began abnormally sliding toward the left. the contact attempted to steer the vehicle toward the right but the vehicle would not change direction. the contact then attempted to brake but the vehicle would not stop. the contact was unable to maintain control of the vehicle which resulted in a single vehicle rollover crash. the air bags did not deploy. the police appeared on the scene and speculated that the front passenger side tire blew prior to the crash. a police report was available. an ambulance also appeared on the scene as the contact sustained minor injuries. the vehicle was destroyed and towed to an insurance company lot. the vehicle was not examined for the cause of failure. the failure and current mileage was 43,000.

When i apply the brakes they seem to start to brake and then the car actually goes faster for a couple seconds and then it brakes again. it has always done this and has been disconcerting to me. it just feels like the brakes are failing but then they kick back in. i guess as i understand it, its when the abs kicks in, but it seems like an unnecessarily long time from any other car i have driven. *tr

When car goes over a bump in the process of braking, the brakes momentarily disengage. this has been an ongoing problem since the car was purchased. the date stated below simply is that of its latest manifestation. *tr

When going over a speed bump or a bumpy road, the brakes seem to fail momentarily, or the brakes fail to respond. *tr

2007 prius seems to lose braking momentarily going over bumps. *tr

2008 prius-brakes release when rolling over rough surfaces. this has happened dozens of times. i have learned to start the braking early if i see rough pavement, but this could be very dangerous at night. *tr

While driving my 2007 prius in a congested area, the brakes did not respond when depressed quickly contributing or causing a low-speed collision with the vehicle in front of me. i found this article on cnet reviews that accurately matches my issue. "toyota redesigned the braking systems for the 2010 prius. that appears to be toyota's response to the fact that the u.s. generation 2 prius (2004-2009) has had low-speed brake failures reported to the national highway traffic safety administration (nhtsa) at 31 times the rate of such failures reported for the 2004-2009 corolla, which of course has traditional brakes. many of the prius low speed brake failures were in low-speed city traffic, resulting in rear-end collisions without injury. it appears that the several computers that control the complex braking systems were too busy calculating the most efficient way to apply the brakes, and did not get around to actually applying them, until it was too late." *tr

Anti lock brakes take a second or two to grab when traveling on bumpy, uneven, bad road surfaces. this has occurred since day one that i received the car and i have allowed extra space to stop because of it. i did ask my dealership 2 years ago about this problem and they could find nothing wrong with the brakes. the most recent incident happened on 4/29/2010 and i slid through a red light. thank god no one was ahead of me. *tr

My 2007 prius has the same braking safety issues involving momentary loss of braking power described for the 2010 prius. it is especially troublesome when going over a bump or a slick spot in the road. *tr

2007 prius, on approximately four occasions when coming to a stop it felt like the brakes slipped or disengaged momentarily. *tr

On monday, april 12, 2010, in the morning, on a rainy day in sacramento, california, i was driving about 15 mph when the traffic in front of me slowed. i was driving over railroad tracks with steel plates between the tracks in my 2007 toyota prius. i braked but the car did not stop. i had time to actually look down at my feet to confirm that it was definitely the brakes that i was applying major pressure to. i also noticed that the light was on indicating that the car did not have traction. i hit the car in front of me. the first words out of my mouth were, "i had no brakes, i'm so sorry, but i had no brakes." the initial estimate for my car is over $6,000, i have not heard what the estimate is for the other car. i did everything i could have done, the car failed me. *tr