An Open Letter to Toyota from a devoted Prius fan

Dear Toyota,

I have so much to say thank you for in this note, and one very real issue to bring up.

I purchased my 2006 Toyota Prius used in ’07. For the past 13+ years, we have been zipping around together all through SF and beyond. It has survived scrapes and scratches, a battery replacement, and even new headlights (a bigger process than I expected), and with well over 150K miles, is sailing along like a gem.

Thank you for designing a car that is smart (and still smart, 1.5 decades later), fuel-efficient, and a true joy to drive. It has been a reliable companion through dozens of Northern-Southern CA drives. And, my pup Bella also loved any opportunity to climb into the back seat for a road trip.

However, my Prius’ catalytic converter has been stolen twice in the past 6 months. It seems that my model, 2nd generation, is more susceptible to this theft.

I have spent hours on Youtube, Reddit, and reading blogs and articles about this. All of them confirm that this is a major issue, as did each of the SF Bay Area police officers who made a report for the vandalism incidents. These repairs can be costly, in the range of $3,000 out-of-pocket (without insurance), and even dangerous to the owner. (both times I came back to my car in a known place and in daylight. But, what if this happened in an unknown area at night?)

One thing noticeably missing to me has been Toyota’s voice of leadership and innovation to design and scale a viable solution. I would love to see a creative and forward-looking solution by the ingenious teams that designed and built this car to share and make accessible an ideal fix to this exploited design feature. I didn't find anything on Toyota.com acknowledging this growing issue and/or offering a company solution.

When the day comes to think about my next car, I thought hands-down I would look again to Prius and Toyota. But, the quiet from Toyota for this urgent and solvable issue has been surprising and unsettling.

As a Prius fan and self-proclaimed ambassador, I ask and personally invite you to design a solution to protect us, as drivers, deter thieves, alert passerbys, and solve this design issue of the vulnerable, exposed catalytic converter.

I am experienced in facilitating hackathon type events to empower problemsolving through collaboration, ideation, and design-thinking. I am happy to help think through an event or approach to invite forward-looking innovation.

The Prius is too amazing of a car to let this solvable issue take it off the road.

Sincerely,
Neetal