Is there a key for the Prius?

So, if I am in my Prius ... waiting on a client in front of a home, sometimes for twenty minutes or so, or in a long drive through line at a fast food place, or in a crawling traffic jam, is it wise to go into PARK versus staying in drive? Im a Newbie and looking to learn as much as possible. If you have some "keywords" to search and read up on situations like this, Id be happy to research via that manner if its to much to explain.

Thank you in advance.... Erin

 

It's the same, the only difference is holding your foot on the brake vs not holding your foot on the brake. If I was waiting for someone for 20 min, I'd go into park. If I'm in stop and go keep it in drive and just press on the brake as needed. Same for the drive through etc.

 

If you are waiting 20 minutes, please turn the car off. You will run your battery from Green through Blue to Purple. This doesn't endanger your battery, but it does mean that when you start moving again you will be using the ICE more than necessary just to get the charge up on the battery.

I know there are some reasons why you may need to have power during those 20 minutes, but you likely do not need to have the car in "Ready" mode -- unless you must have heat or air going in order to keep things in order. Yes, it is much better than a normal car where the ICE would be running the whole time, but there still is no need to keep the car on that long when you won't be driving it.

 

Although I do not have SKS on my Prius (we currently don't get it on UK versions, but we do get some other cool toys you ex-colonials don't ) another reason for turning off would be when you want to do something that would not be friendly to the electronic part of the key (scuba diving for instance).

 

It is water tight sealed. People reported that it survived in the laundry machine. I don't know how deep it can go in scuba diving though.

 

If anyone want's their key pressure tested drop me a line and I will tell you where to send it to and I'll take it on my next dive and then send it back. We can build up a view of at what depth the keys fail.

Volunteers?