Stiff gas pedal / new '09

Stiff gas pedal: It's easy to prove that it's not the stability control - press the gas pedal with the car off and see how hard it is to press down. If it were mine, I'd get a flashlight and look at the pedal while a press down with my free hand. You might see something silly causing the pedal to stick.

Alignment: Make sure that the tires are properly inflated to the recommended pressure and in an empty parking lot, take your hands off the steering wheel driving at a moderate pace. If it pulls to one side, take it in to the dealer for an alignment. It's wouldn't be the first Prius to have an alignment problem.

(and welcome to PriusChat!)

 

Alignment issues on a new car are common. Nobody knows exactly why but Toyota is offering a free alignment to put it back in spec. When I bought mine, I test drove 3 - the first two pulled to the left. The third was fine and that is the one I purchased.

Regarding the pedal.. it is much stiffer than most cars. Likely your pedal is fine. I will tell you this: when I get in my wife's Mazda (zoom-zoom) I go zooooomm-zooooomm because her pedal is much softer and I'm not used to it.

Go talk to your dealer about the alignment.. you should get it fixed without cost or incident.

 

The alignment warranty on my 2007 is for 12 months/20,000 miles.

I think it's the same on the 2008 & 2009's as well. Check your Warranty Booklet. There should be a separate sentence stating the limits of the alignment warranty.

 

I'd bet a nickel that the floor mat has come free from the restraining hooks and is bunched up under the gas pedal.

 

With regards to alignment, all of the new vehicles (Nissan, Honda, Toyota's) I've owned in the past two decades would give a free alignment in the first year/12,000 miles if I requested it, and I have needed alignment on all of them within the first few weeks...except the Prius so far. (However, I will request alignment on the Prius before the time is up.)

Factory alignment appears to be approximate from all mainstream manufacturers, either that or it tends to get knocked out during loading, shipping, somebody's test drive, etc.

So, no, I don't believe this has anything to do with the Prius in particular. If the vehicle pulls or handles strangely when new, insist on the free alignment and make sure they give you the printout.

 

And also depends on the road you normally drive. For example, I notice my Prius pull to the Left more when I drive to work on a Hwy, according to the shop, it is because the road surface is curved so water can drain to center ditch. Which somewhat make senses.

But lately I notice the pull seems to be more, even I am driving on a somewhat flat surface. So I check my tire pressure, and as expected, the driver side pressure is lower than passenger side.. I just filled up, and will see how it goes for the next few days.

 

Glad you are getting used to your new car. Please note that the accelerator pedal assembly is spring-loaded. The level of tension you feel in the pedal will not change based upon driving conditions (this is not like a fancy video game that provides feedback to the controller.)

Yes, the Smart Entry/Smart Start feature is great.

 

We haven't driven your car so we can't say if it is noisier than other Prius. However I would agree that the Prius in general can be quite noisy under full acceleration; I think this is deliberate to encourage the driver to drive conservatively (and thus improve realized mpg.)