How do you open the hatch from inside?

it's actually much easier, you just press the button

 

View the hatch or the wagon back as just another door.
You wouldn't want a car's door to fly open - you just unlock the doors and it unlocks too.

 

Thanks, Dianne. I don't know why this is such an issue.

Tom

 

and...

I think they want it to fly up or power up like a Lexus SUV - but no one's stoppin to think that it's got to be simple!
ONE CAN'T WEIGH THE CAR DOWN WITH LOTS OF MOTORS... or the fuel economy will be even worse. It opens like a hatchback or regular wagon. Lock and unlock using the key fob or the door switch. Or, the hatch opener itself with the smart entry on ya.

 

I'm wondering if you are talking past each other?

The general question in the Gen II/III Prius on how to open the hatch from the inside is because the 12V battery is dead and the hatch won't open from the outside.

All I see in this thread so far is discussion of how to open it in day to day use. What about if the 12V battery dies? Or are all these comments about the button/locks/doors saying there is a handle on the inside of the hatch that works just like the handle on the inside of the other car doors?

If so that is a change from the regular Prius where you have to know how to open the hatch from the inside as it isn't obvious.

 

I'd like to know how to open the hatch from the inside also. If it was obvious, I'd have figured it out by now, still watching this thread for an answer.

 

While I am unsure why it would need to be opened from the interior, since there's no seats back there ... and where there are seats, there are doors and such, but IF the remote dies, there's a spot under the hood to jump the car and make the lock-unlock button function to open said hatch.

 

I slept in my car last weekend in lieu of using a tent. Would have been nice to be able to pop the hatch open from the inside. I can think of lots of other examples, such as dropping off recyclables at my local recycle center (it has people who unload) or signalling to a grocery carrier that the hatch is open. It doesn't have to fly or be powered up, it just has to release the latch in an unmistakable manner.

 

I had a 2003 Matrix XR where the glass hatch could open with the door itself still closed.

I loved that feature. I used to fold the back seat behind the driver down and open the glass hatch. I would then put in three or four surfboards and bungee cord them down. Then I'd head to the beach with a few friends with the surfboards hanging out the hatch.

As far as I can tell, that is not possible in my Prius v Three. Is that correct?

 

Well, you SUTHERN boys can always kick out the back window with your boots on...........

 

check out page 77 of the owner's manual. It shows you having to remove a cover in the door and using a screwdriver to trip the mechanism.

Aloha,

John

 

I have a 2005. It has had lots of battery problems. At least in my model, what you have to do is lower both of the back seats, then take out the spare tire boxy cover. Then you will see a small rectangular cavity on the hatch, below the level of the floor.(This is why you have to remove the tire cover to find it) You reach in there and you will eventually find this infintesimally tiny manual lever which you have to pull towards you, i.e towards the front of the car ,while you push on the hatch from inside like a charging bull. I am not making this up.

 

So the OP was

and the answer is

at least that's what I'm seeing as the result of this thread.

 

Let me plead with you to get a new battery. For $140 (Toyota) to $200 (Optima) you can protect your Inverter. ($4500)

If you ever mix up the jumper cables, you can ruin the inverter, perhaps the second most expensive part in your car. (You protect the MOST expensive part by changing your transaxle fluid every 60,000 miles, right?)

Toyota Prius 12 Volt Auxiliary Battery with install kit for 2004 - 11

 

I agree zenMachine.

There is one very obvious situation where you'd want to open the rear hatch from the inside. Say your 12 volt battery goes dead. You have to replace it. You can't open the back door because the battery is dead. You really don't want to do this job (or remove interior body panels) while hunched down in the cargo bay.

Wouldn't it be nice to have an easy way of opening the rear hatch from inside? Like a button to push or a tab to pull. I hope Toyota is listening.

 

Is the hatch a normal path of egress on the Prius v?

Tom