Things I've learned to live with (or found workarounds)

Safety Connect.
My 2025 Camry came with a 10 year subscription, Who knows what the will charge after that.
Connected Services | Toyota Owners

 

See: Drive Connect
https://www.toyota.com/connected-services/vehicle/prius/2024

 

@Tideland Prius can do that in the thread title.Either him or I think @bisco has some magical powers.

 

You only get 1 remote start because the app is wonky in how it explains things.

You get 20 minutes of remote start total before you need to use the physical in car start/stop button. Based on what I've read online, some cars only do 10 minutes at a time. The Prius Prime just gives you all 20 with one remote start press. Rather than requiring you to do it twice for 10 minutes at a time.

The lock/unlock works fine for me, but I think since its based on cell network, whatever provider they use probably just has bad reception when it fails. It works reliably in most places I've tried with a few exceptions, and my phone reception is usually also bad at the same time with one or two bars of connection. There's one spot near where I work in downtown ottawa, where if I park there, the tall buildings must be creating a mini deadzone because my Rogers personal phone and Bell work phone both have 1 or 2 bars of reception in the parking lot. I checked because I had the same issue of communicating to my car and figured it was probably the network.

Honestly the biggest issue with remote connect app is the fact they broke the climate scheduler, which was a nice way to have the car warm before leaving the garage while it was plugged in last winter. I hope they fix it but its been months and the app doesn't seem to get any care whatsoever.

On the topic of safety connect, I think that's the emergency services thing, if you're in an accident the car will auto-SOS some call centre, and they'll check with you. If you don't respond to them, then they will automatically call emergency services to your car's GPS location. Allows you to use the SOS button to call 911 as well. That's 10 years by default.

In canada the remote connect trial is 3 years.

The service connect, which is the GPS system and the live toyota agent support over the phone is service-connect, I think. Not sure what the trial on that is in Canada, it wasn't included with the SE model of the prime, only the upper trims. Probably one year?

 

I noticed that on my 2025 Camry too. I try to remember to set the HVAC the way I will want it before shutting down & locking the vehicle if I expect to use remote start soon.

 

If it's plugged in, it will for sure warm up the battery which will help you with your EV range. But if you park outside, and you're in a colder/flatter/windier part of alberta, the heat is gonna be sucked out of your car through the glass and if its -20C the heatpump isn't gonna help warm up the interior at that point.

I have found that remote starting the car helps a little bit, but not a ton. When its below -12C the engine kicks on for heat for a reason, the efficiency of the heatpump goes down.

Personally, I have my heat set to 17 or 18C in winter here in Ottawa. I'm not trying to be toasty, and I don't take off my jacket while driving. 17 or 18 is warm enough when commuting. I find that remote start helps the car get much warmer than the below freezing temp I feel in the car when i get in and it also helps to avoid the car fogging up early in the drive from my breath or small amount of snow that's melting as I drive. I've found the remote start helps up to about -10C to make the inside bearable. Once it gets below -10, remote starting is only helpful for the de-icer and front de-fogger and if I've left the heated seats and steering switches in the on position before I get out.

The heatpump is pretty good at getting instant heat out though. Even if it's super cold out, you're at least getting warm-ish air from the vents within seconds, rather than having cold air blasting through the vents for a few minutes as the engine heats up, which is what driving in my old 03 is like, and what driving in other people's traditional ICE cars is like in the winter too.

Honestly though, within about 5 minutes of driving I find the car warms up enough as long as it hasn't been below -20. Once you get below -20, then you need the heat system on full blast with eco mode turned off to really get the cabin warmed up. But, once again, I'm not sure how warm you like your cabin. For me, I don't heat the cabin to 20C or higher in winter. Unless we're doing a long drive with the kids, we all keep our coats on but unzipped while in the car. So a lower temp is fine. If you like to take your coat off and drive with a 21C or warmer interior, then yeah I can see it taking a long time to warm up the car.

 

Block heater really helps. They’re currently under a recall cloud though. I’m using a recalled one, no issues, self-installed.

 

Why does the block heater recall only appear to be for Toyota Canada & not Toyota US? It seems strange to me.

 

Maybe coupled with the dirth of block heater availability through US dealerships? Which is puzzling, considering say Minnesota.