I bought a 2005 Prius on Monday evening. I am becoming paranoid about making sure I park it correctly so as to not drain the battery. The owners manual says to make sure the lever is in Park before shutting off. I can't move the lever to the Park sign on the display. The dealer said to put it in Neutral, then hit the "P" button, and then hit the Power button to turn off car. Is that right? It seems like my battery icon on the Energy screen is lower than yesterday, and I was worried I was draining the battery somehow.
Hello and welcome to PriusChat! When the manual says "shift to P", it means press the Park button. You don't need to shift to neutral or what not. Just press P. Alternatively, you can just press the POWER button and it'll automatically put itself into Park.
If you turn the car off, you cannot drain the traction battery overnight (in fact, probably not even if you leave it on...). The car's software takes care of keeping the battery optimally charged, and you should not worry about it. The car will tell you if something's wrong. The state-of-charge by itself is not an indication of anything wrong. If something serious is wrong, the dashboard will light up like a Christmas tree. No abnormal dash lights = everything's OK. Kim
