Was driving through a parking lot at around 10MPH today, when the car shut itself off. Zero power to the wheels, steering lost all power, and the electronic screens went blank momentarily. While the car was coasting to a stop, a message appeared in the center "information display" that read something to the effect of "Place your car in N and hit the start button to restart your car." While I was still coasting to a stop I did, and the car fired back up.

Not gonna lie... Kinda pissed me off. Just over 8 months and 9K miles on the car, and I'm hoping it's an anomaly. For the next 10 miles, I was just wating for the damn thing to power off at 65MPH on the freeway with my daughter in the car with me.

I did a forum search but nothing came up about the car powering itself off while driving. Any ideas on what might cause it? I have my 10K service sometime this month, and I'll ask the dealer to run some tests, but I sure as hell don't want to get stranded somewhere.

 

My buddies 3 series did that but he was going 80 on the highway when it happened. He was able to make it on the shoulder without incident. It happened again on the city street so he had the car towed back to the dealership. They couldn't find anything wrong with it so he got a lawyer and had it lemoned. It's fine if they find something and fix it but have 0 confidence if the dealer can't find anything with it. I especially wouldn't want the car back if I had kids. Let's hope it was just a fluke.

 

Sounds like Toyota's Smart Stop Technology kicked in (perhaps incorrectly since I was under the impression it simply reduced engine power instead of shutting it off completely). Any chance that you could have had both the brake pedal and accelerator depressed at the same time?

 

It stalled I guess. Stalling on automatics sounds like a big problem at least back then. I don't know about now but at least you got it to start right away which is a good sign.

 

oMG.... Sorry to hear about your car troubles! Glad you're ok without incident. I haven't experienced that with my car which is the 3IS 250, but the thought frightens me.

Give us an update after the dealer services your car.

 

I don't believe so.