Never had an automatic before, let a alone a hybrid. How best to stop at traffic lights? Foot, parking or handbrake? I am using handbrake on hills naturally and when parked on a hill.
If you have hill assist - press hard on the foot brake and you'll get two or three beeps and the traction control light will start flashing. Then you can ease up on the pressure on the foot brake. The brakes will stay engaged for 3 seconds (I think) after you take your foot all the way off the brake or until you press on the accelerator. That's for hills. Otherwise just the foot brake. Read up on regenerative braking. Lightly pressing on the brake pedal will turn the motors into generators and charge the main battery while slowing the car down, so the longer you start braking for a stop light with light brake pressure the better.
One dramatic advantage of the foot brake is that it lights Brake Lights, so you get rear ended less often. Park and the parking brake do not, leading to whiplash.
Welcome to the forum! Foot brake is SOP on all trucks and cars I ever heard of. Jimbo ^ mentioned a huge reason. Also, it modulates easier. The emergency brake not only doesn't engage the brake lights, you have to press it a second time to release. No control at all. And that's not to mention the regeneration you'd throw away not using the foot brake.
Thanks guys, so how do I know if it has hill assist? Thanks for the welcome, I will probably be making a few posts over the next few days while I learn more about the car!
Press hard on the brake after coming to a stop on a hill. If it beeps and a light lights up, you activated hill start assist and the vehicle has it. Check your manual to look for info on hill start assist and how it says to activate it if equipped. How I described it worked on gen 3 Prius and the Prius v. Read through the manual in general, great info in it concerning the car. Then, after reading, its best to ask any questions you may further have. The manual may answer most for you.
Foot (brake pedal). It's rare that the light is long enough that I'll shift into P or N and use the parking brake.
…wot he ^^^^^ (Tideland Prius) ^^^^^ said! Also, I try and drive so that I use the brakes as little as possible, zoom, glide, glide, zoom, glide, glide, zoom, glide, glide, gliiiiiiiiiide…
One unmentioned reason to use the foot brake at a light is it de-activates "automatic transmission creep simulation" thus not wasting the tiny amount of energy that system uses.
