FYI - Another way to Neutral while driving

don't do it under 10 mph.
don't ask me how I know it.

 

Hitting Park is the emergency runaway car fixer upper.

Pressing and holding the Power button is another way but Park is faster.

 

Why would you want to get into neutral in the Prius?

 

why wouldn't you just shift into neutral instead of pressing park?

 

It takes approx. 2 seconds for neutral to engage. Pressing park is nearly instantaneous.

 

Attempting to shift to Reverse also achieves the same thing -- instant Neutral, with a double beep warning, and without the 1-2 second delay.

As Spidey mentioned, this is an emergency path to disabling propulsion in case of a runaway car. We had plenty of discussion about this during the Runaway Toyota fiasco two years ago, which was found to be a few entrapped floor mats, a few sticky pedals, a larger number of operator errors, and a huge amount of hysteria.

 

Thank you guys for finding those out. I was always afraid of accidentally hitting the P or knocking the lever to R.

 

This reminds me of a news report during the whole Toyota fiasco. Some man driving on the freeway somewhere in San Diego called 911 because his accelerator wouldn't let loose and he was afraid he was gonna hit someone.

Didn't think of neutral?:noidea:

 

I am actually typing from the dealership that examined this said vehicle and found nothing wrong with it and they couldn't duplicate the problem.


Michel and other Toyota officials said that Sikes' Prius was subjected to extensive testing at a Toyota dealership in El Cajon, Calif., which included inspection of individual parts and vehicle systems, diagnostic testing of the car's on-board computers and data recorder and so on. The front brakes on the car were found to be ground down, or "metal-to-metal," according to Toyota product quality vice president Bob Waltz, so the Prius was outfitted with new brakes and test-driven several times. Toyota and NHTSA officials were not able to duplicate the runaway acceleration Sikes described.

 

Here is a link to the CHP / Sikes report

http://www.10news.com/download/2010/0317/22870209.pdf

 

Another fact is during all this inspection there was some faulty parts that were found. One of those being manufactured in another country, and the good one manufactured in USA/Japan. The only thing I have to watch is sliding the shifter into D too fast to where it pops out and up to R. and since I have the one Beep, I move very slowly.

 

It's obvious that he fabricated the whole thing, just as OJ did murder his wife. The problem is nobody would actually say it.

This doesn't apply to the Prius.

 

It probably succeeded in going into Park, with a very hard jolt.

 

He ate steering wheel. lol

 

I asked the salesman what would happen if my ex wife was a passenger and she threw it into reverse on the highway, or hit the Park button, this thread answers all my questions.

 

The owner's manual says something about pressing the Power button several times quickly to completely shut down the car. I don't know what that does for your steering though...

 

Nothing really. Once you are traveling faster than 10mph steering is easy enough even in a car with broken power steering. I drove for 3 years with the power steering disconnected in my raced out 5.0 Mustang.

 

Where in the manual did you see this? I thought this misconception was a contributor to the death of the CHP officer and his family in a runaway Lexus in San Diego.

To shut down in an emergency while moving, press and HOLD the power button for at least 3 seconds.

Try it while parked, shut down, and the key fob far away. It is still steerable, though with some muscle, just like the old days before power steering. While moving above parking lot speed, I'd be surprised if it becomes difficult at all.