Possible to get 3-door Smart Key in Prius II?

I can't argue that in the end it's let the buyer beware, but I would hypothesize that Toyota purposely made it difficult to uncover their deceitful behavior. There's another cliche -- the customer is always right. I would like them to pay me for helping train their staff -- I would say 2 hours of my time training them and another two hours researching this, amounts to say, $250/HOUR as a consultant or $1000 -- fair enough. Who do I send the bill to? I don't think I wasted their time because a priori I didn't know for sure what they would come up with. They told me they could do it and who am I to think they were so ignorant. I want them to do something to make up for designing things to fool folks like me who had faith in Toyota, who loved our Prius, and who (obviously in our stupidity) couldn't conceive of them dumbing down the car. I simply will be less likely to buy a Toyota again. One person doesn't matter but I suspect there will be many more like me, even some posting here, and it's up to Toyota to decide if that matters to them -- I agree it probably doesn't but I feel I owe them the opportunity to make me happy with them without me paying thousands of $$ more. They didn't offer to simply take the car back, to return it I had to spend thousands more on a different model. Big deal. I should add that in their brochure they list smart key entry as standard on all 4 models, they don't separate out the difference on separate lines, as they do all the other differences. Are you going to tell me this wasn't a designed trap? Had they wanted to be honest they would have had two lines -- one showing what was standard on the 2 and 3, the other what was standard and/or optional only on the 4 and 5 -- just as they do with the other features. The fact that they didn't do this pretty much convinces me that this was trickery --- and yes I was stupid enough to fall for it. So how does this end up -- now instead of someone raving about Toyota and the Prius, I will have to tell the story of how i believe Toyota cheated me to anyone who asks me about my new Prius. will it matter, will it make anyone think twice about buying a Toyota -- will they think I'm just an idiot - who knows but I ain't happy. I should add if I wanted to buy a IV or V I certainly would have wanted to opportunity to find the best price, so maybe this was just a trick to get us to buy a model we didn't want without shopping around. sounds a bit too paranoid but who knows what these guys were up to ---

 

Still hoping we can find an aftermarket solution/mod...one of my favorite things about the Prius and I was disappointed to find out my II didnt have it. :-(

 

It's interesting that the April 2009 press release does a straightforward comparison of the various models.
Toyota Vehicles : Toyota Announces Prices for 2010 Prius / Toyota
There is a simple to read chart with the smart key feature right near the top.
Line 3 for the Prius II states "Smart Key (driver's door)"
Line 4 for the Prius IV additions states "Three door smart key system"

Perhaps someone will one day do a study of how this information got downplayed and hidden in subsequent literature that Toyota gave to potential buyers (and apparently to Toyota sales staff). Could it be that someone decided it would be better for sales to hide this information?

 

It's very sad to see that this trivial complaint I had about dumbing down the smart key is apparently just the tip of the iceberg in Toyota dumbing down lots of characteristics of their cars --- and unfortunately some of the errors and shortcuts are very dangerous.

 

Sigh... I'll say it again. They didn't dumb it down. SKS was NOT standard on ALL 2nd gen Priuses. My former coworker has one with NO smartkey system. I've been in 2nd gen Priuses used at work as company shuttles w/o it.

1 door SKS is standard on all 3rd gen Priuses available to the general public.

However, they did "force" you into a fairly expensive minimum model for you to get 3 door SKS which I'll agree sucks.

 

I would hypothesize that the same motivations and approach that led Toyota to dumb down the smart key and disguise the fact (admittedly a relatively trivial if annoying decision) has now shown up in much more serious, and dangerous deception on the part of Toyota. This last thing re the braking not working right -- and "fixing" it in the most recent models but not ours yet -- ugh For Shame Toyota.

 

Im a little confused....

I test drove a II and it did NOT have the smart key at all on any doors. There was no button on the handle, unless now there is no button.....
Im a little miffed about the III not having 3 door sks too.

Would be nice to open the door for my lady without digging in my pocket.

 

There are no visible black buttons on the 3rd gen (unlike the 2nd gen). They're indentations now and you'd only find it on the driver's door on a 1-door SKS car. Skip to 1:20 of

.

 

Helpful! Thanks!

 

And I'll say again that this seems to be a small example of a general dumbing down of the Prius and other Toyota products as a result of complacency and greed on the part of Toyota. Check out the history (little did I know):
Toyota woes follow years of slipping quality - Autos- msnbc.com

 

With the one-door SKS, Toyota didn't "dumb down" the system, they "smarted up" the base models. With the Gen II, you only got SKS on the higher packages. The lower priced packages came with a dumb key fob and no SKS for any door. With the Gen III, you get SKS even on the lower packages, which is a nice thing, although it is only on the driver's door.

I do agree with the assessment that the Gen III Prius cuts costs in many areas, such as dropping the MFD for units without Nav. Part of this is also an attempt to capture mainstream buyers by making the Prius controls more "normal" - separate conventional audio and climate controls. It makes some sense, but personally I prefer the Gen II approach with the "rolling video game" setup.

Tom

 

I own a 2004 Prius which is one level above base, and for $450 it came with 3-door SKS. There is now no option to get just this without paying thousands for other features.

I just bought a 2010 II and was surprised to find 1-door SKS instead. The manual says you can set it to unlock all doors when you touch the driver's door, but I'll believe it when I see it. I haven't taken it in for those optional adjustments yet (another thing that Toyota tries to hide).

 

I agree that Toyota does some odd things with option packaging. They certainly don't allow for a Chinese menu approach. You end up paying for features that you would otherwise not buy.

Tom

 

You can program this yourself. For some reason, page 48 of the manual stick in my mind. If not, it's in there, I tread it, did it, and it's great.

Although, I would be happier to have all the doors has SKS.

 

This discussion has the tone of Toyota going cheap with the 2010. What they've done is chosen to distribute the expenses differently. Yes, 3 door SKS is nice, but it costs more than a 1 door SKS system.

Instead, all 2010 have a larger powertrain (134 HP instead of the Gen2's 110 HP). Despite the bigger engine, the car gets even better mileage. The driver's seat is height adjustable. The only way to get that on a Gen2 is to modify the car (or buy one outside of US/Canada). And the 2010 has disc brakes on the rear.

Sounds to me like some tradeoffs that most people want.

Maybe the aftermarket can develop a package to upgrade 1 door SKS to 3 door?

 

I'd love an aftermarket solution...really hope someone dreams that up...

 

I was at the dealer test driving a Prius II. When I rec'd their price quote I asked if they could throw in a 3rd Smart key and they agreed. I believe its just a matter of programming another key.

 

That's a different issue. The OP wants to know about getting a Prius II with SKS transponders in all three locations: driver's door, passenger's door, and hatch. The OP wasn't asking about three key fobs.

Tom

 

Pretty new around here and didn't know the difference?
Does that mean the remote key works on 3 not 2 or 1 different places on the Prius?

 

Yes. The SKS system on the Gen II Prius allows you to open the driver's door, the front passenger door, or the hatch by pulling on the handle. You never need to remove the key fob from your pocket. If you don't have SKS, you use a standard dumb fob to unlock the car, just like you do with most cars. In other words, you pull it out and press the unlock button.

With the Gen III, Toyota decided to equip all Prius with SKS. To keep costs down, the lower level packages come with a single door version, which means only the driver's door works with the smart fob. You can still pull the fob out and press the unlock button, but smart unlocking only works with the driver's door.

Higher level Gen III Prius have three door SKS, which is essentially the same as the Gen II SKS. There are some minor changes to buttons and such, but in general the system is the same.

Just to make this clear, let me give you an example: With my three door SKS, I can walk up to my locked Prius with an armload of groceries, grab the hatch, and pop it open, all with the fob in my pocket. With a single door SKS I can't do that. If I grabbed the hatch, it wouldn't open. I would either have to walk around and grab the driver's door handle (the SKS door), or pull the fob from my pocket and press unlock.

Tom