Does it matter if you turn the car off before going into park? What are the pros of pressing park before the power off button? Is the any benefit to only pressing the power off? Are there any detriments to only pushing the power off button?
No pros or cons. When you power off directly, the Prius automatically applies park first. Some people like to manually hit park first as a matter of discipline, others do it because that's what it says in the manual, but there isn't any technical reason that it is necessary. Tom
Concur.... Adding that there's an almost zero percent chance of you forgetting to turn the car after you park it, if you just hit the power button instead. I usually only use the park button if I'm pausing (to lock/unlock a gate, for example) without wanting to power off the car. If I'm finished with the car for a while, I usually just hit the Power button when I leave the car. That's just how I roll. There's really no benefit or determent to doing it either way. YMMV.....
Actually, I feel the power button is the best way to "park" the car at the end of a drive. Hitting park, getting distracted and leaving the car in a closed garage while on and in park, could have detrimental (CO2) effects. If you get in the habit of hitting power (OFF) to park the car, it's one movement and since the car will roll if you forget, not likely to be forgotten. I just feel it's safer. I rarely use the park button now.
This is unprecedented. By now we usually have at least one fervent post stating categorically that the world will end and that you hate cute little kittens if you don't first press Park. Tom
For Tom: I categorically state that the world will end and that you hate cute little kittens if you don't first press park! (Even though I've done it more times than I can count and kittens are pretty flipping cute.)
I typically just press the power off button. HOWEVER, I've was in a hurry once and pressed the power off button very quickly and got out of the car. If you shut down the car by pushing the power button, press it long enough to ensure that the car really did shut down. Otherwise, your car just might take itself on a little adventure. The two-step process of PARK then OFF might make this process a bit safer.
