OK to turn car off without shifting to Park?

It is fine.
If you tend to forget to turn the car off, then keeping the P step may avoid fender benders.

 

I did that all the time when I had my 2007 Prius (6 1/2 years) and continue to do that with the 2013 Prius V wagon

 

Barely press Park myself.

Just turn the car off and it engages it automatically.

 

Yep, I do it all the time

 

I am so behind schedule because I used up time punching both buttons. I can now improve my life by skipping the P.

 

Do that alot.

I highly recommend you do 2 things

One is always no matter where you park put the parking brake on. Looks like your a new owner and you'd be surprised how many people get out of there cars while its in drive in this car. Done it myself when I first bought it. Make it muscle memory. I trained the wife to do that and I do it too.

And lastly hopefully you bought the car with SKS. Always turn on the car alarm especially in the garage when you park it for the day. It will alert you that a door may be cracked and it will kill the 12 volt battery if left on all night.
One push of the button saves a tow to the dealer.

One last thing. I would check the health of the 12 volt battery. You would not believe how many people on here lost there 12 volt after just buying the car. Leaving them stranded with an expensive tow to the dealer. Who usually make it much worse than it really is.The reasoning for the 12 failure is simple. It sat on a car lot for a while and the 12 volt battery went dead. They jumped it to sell it to you and now your driving around with a timebomb in the boot.

Do this. Report number 2 the under load number:

Weird stuff happening? MPGs dropping? Test The Battery | PriusChat

 

I usually go straight to "OFF" (hit POWER instead of PARK) myself but be forewarned: No matter how carefully I press the POWER button, it occasionally simply ignores me and is still ON and still in DRIVE. If you aren't going to press PARK, then make certain you watch the display. See the first paragraph of the previous post.

 

Yep thats why I always put the parking brake on. Have opened the door to get out when I first bought it after putting it in park and thank god for the door alarm on the mfd and the alert.

 

It is amazing how many are simply pushing the power button today and nothing else. It is not rocket science. Before push button start and all the great technology of today, one had to either shift to reverse with a standard transmission plus set the parking brake or shift to park with a automatic transmission plus set the parking brake. Then after all of that you still had to turn the key "off" and pull the key out of the ignition.

It only takes a couple of seconds to push the P button and confirm the transaxle is in park. As written above, sometimes the power button doesn't work right and the Prius might take off without you.

Slow down a little bit and be safe out there. Two seconds might save someone's life or property, maybe even both.

 

When the car is shut down, it will engage the "P" automatically.
No worry. No need to do duplicate step.

 

The above is true, but there have been instances where pushing the power button did not shut down the Prius.

 

I've had this happen to me too. I finally figured out that when I come to a stop and immediately hit the Power button, the speedometer has not fully dropped to Zero (it's digital, so it's a rolling average of your speed). Since the car thinks you're still moving (although sloooooowly), it won't shut off. Make sure the display reads Zero before pressing the button and it will work.

If you press Park before Power, then the speedometer has time to drop to Zero and it will always turn off.

 

Yep, sometimes a quick "stab" at the button mightn't work. This is one case where having a non sks Prius can help. After powering off I have to remove the FOB from the slot (no sks), and if the power is not off then the FOB remains locked in the slot. This has happened to me one or twice, and then I've noticed that my quick stab at the power button hasn't worked.

Be careful about hitting the power button before the (actual) speed has dropped to zero though. There is a minimum speed under which it will engage "P" (about 3 to 5 MPH), even if you are moving. The impulse is hell on the park mechanism and transmission.