I have a 2012 Prius Three. I am going to buy a new Prius v as a second car. Can I have them program the Prius v so that it will work with the Prius Three fob? I would rather not have to carry 2 Fobs on my key chain. Is the fob matched to a single car or can a fob be matched to 2 different cars.
welcome to priuschat! i'm gonna go out on a limb here and say no, but to be honest, i have no clue. all the best!
Nope. Each fob has that 'key' inside it. If your fob battery dies and you use the v's fob on the liftback, then you're stuck since the physical key won't be able to start the car. Can't you just buy a labelmaker?
I think the potential issues involve what happens when both cars - or both fobs if you have 2 - are in close proximity. I'd expect the dealer to dream up some half-baked reason why they can't do this, but I'd be careful to consider all the possible problems myself. Either way - one fob or two - has potential issues.
As I understand it, it's the car that has the unique ID and the fobs are coded to match. To use a single fob the two cars would have to have the same ID, which I don't believe is possible.
I believe this is possible though I was unsuccessful when buying two 2010 Prius vehicles within 2 weeks from the same dealer. As well, I know first hand that dealers will give you every reason why they cannot do this (liability) or why it is not technically possible (their ignorance about the issue). What I have determined since then is that you need to start with new smart keys and these need to be programmed with both cars, one right after the other. As I recall, the new smart key must be programmed within a certain number of button presses (e.g., 12), after that the code it transmits changes and it may not be possible for the receiver in the car to programmed to the new smart key. I think there is another factor in programming the car's receiver / computer to accept brand new smart keys versus used ones that have caused many problems in adding or replacing additional smart keys with their cars. I've been dealing with Prius smart keys since 2007 (Gen II) and I am severely disappointed at how little the service departments know about these (e.g., keeping up with the changes from generation/year to generation/year or between one Toyota model and another. we also have a 2012 Camry XLE Hybrid w/ smartkey) or how little work they (are willing to) put into researching the issue with the toyota bulletins that are available to them.
