Hi Prius chat folks! I just bought a CPO Winter Gray 2010 Prius IV with a solar roof today, so I wanted to introduce myself since I'm sure I'll be hanging around these forums quite a bit looking for tips and just to chat. Before my Prius, I owned an Audi A4 convertible, which was lovely for the open-air aspect but terrible for my wallet, so I'm hoping the Prius is a bit (okay, a lot) better in terms of gas and maintenance. So far, I kinda feel like I'm driving an iPad (in a good way!) and I keep forgetting to turn the headlights on and off. My Audi had auto headlights and my New Beetle before that would sound a tone if I turned the car off and opened the door without turning off the headlights. Is there any way to set up the car so it let's me know if I get home late and forget to turn the headlights off in a tired haze? Otherwise, I'm off to read the pinned threads here in the Newbie forum. Glad to be joining the club!
The 2010 will turn the headlights off after a set time if you leave them turned on. Check the manual for the instructions on how to set the interval. But, you might not want to run the lights full time since the bulbs are a bitch to replace.
Factory default is to turn off the outside lights after 30 seconds, that is why it doesn't have a reminder chime. It can be customized to switch off immediately, or go up to a minute longer. But the auto-off can be defeated by exiting through anything other than the driver door, or by changing the light switch position after the ignition is switched off. So if you absentmindedly turn the lights off during shutdown, leave then off. If you turn them back on, just setting up for a future drive, they will stay on and drain the 12V battery.
Thanks for the welcome bisco, jdk2, and El Dobro, and for the helpful advice, xpcman and fuzzy1! I will look into the auto off intervals or, better yet (it seems) just try to re-learn that I actually need to turn my lights off and on in this car! It will usually be just me in the car, though, so it's good to know they will automatically shut off after 30 seconds if I leave them on, since I don't usually have to worry about passenger exit messing it up. p.s. I quoted you all because it says I don't have permission to tag people. Do I need to hit a certain number of posts to do that?
You could just leave the lights on all the time, don't bother ever turning them off in normal circumstances. I did that on my last non-hybrid (1997) and my first Prius (2010). The 2010 doesn't have DRLs, so this is a reasonable daytime substitute that costs very little. It is not the passengers that could mess it up, only the driver. The auto-off is triggered by the opening and closing of the driver door. If the driver somehow exits through a different door or any window without opening/closing the driver door, then the 'auto-off' function doesn't get triggered. A very few drivers here had some reason (probably very tight parking) to get out on the passenger side, and the lights didn't shut off.
Welcome and enjoy your prius! I've got the same color with the solar roof too. It's a great feature Turn off signatures in Tapatalk Tapatalk
