Darell's first Prius journey and...

Neither have I, but I understand it does something like dropping into neutral, not a sudden stop.

 

*cough*manual*cough*

At speed, just pressing Power does nothing, its ignored. When held for 3 seconds, it shuts down the HDS, flips into IG-On (or was it ACC), and drops the car into neutral (not park). You loose power steering, and are left with non-power friction breaking. I don't believe the car can be restarted until you have come to a complete stop.

At low rollings speeds (a few mph), it may be a jarring stop, just like pressing P at a few mph is. But at any speed that would hurt the transmission, it just slips into neutral.

-Ken

 

And before someone asks....

If you shift from Drive to Reverse, or Reverse to drive at >10MPH, it just drops into neutral.

If you do it at less than 10mph, now it's just neat. Because of the motors and the CVT, it's a 100% smooth transition. While rolling backwards, if you slip the car into drive and press the pedal, your forward acceleration gently reduces your reverse speed, until you cross 0mph, and then accelerates you forward. Same for the opposite direction.

Considering the amount of work required to intentionally lock your keys in the car, did you really believe they'd let you drop the transmission into Park at 80mph?

-Ken

 

im sure it did disappoint a few people... think of being able to squeal rubber without the telltale engine revs...

definitely worth seeing an unsuspecting pedestrians face.

 

ya, i saw Dr. Franks video with the EV chevy surbuban...pretty awesome

 

Yeah, my question.

I did read the manual, start to finish, but there's a lot of stuff in there that's repetitive (how many times do they mention the phrase 'death or serious injury' in the 2006 owner's manual for the same action?), and I was looking mostly for neat features I didn't know about.

I'm terribly impressed with the Prius so far, and I could not conceive of the car doing something bad with a press on the power button, but I figured someone had actually tried it.

I remember when I was about 9, driving with my dad in our automatic transmission 1976 Chevy Nova. I was bored in the passenger's seat and wondered what the lever with the big button on it did, so I pushed in the button and shifted the car into park.. while we were travelling at about 15 mph.

My dad told me that if I had pushed it a bit farther, into reverse, the engine would have leapt out of the hood. :lol:

Anyway, I'll be sure not to press and hold the power button long enough to see what happens when the car goes into neutral at speed.

 

I've noticed the same thing about the Prius tail lights. A while back I was driving at night and came up on a car that I noticed had really dim tail lights, sure enough it was a 04+ Prius, I was kind of surprised actually.

 

Couple of qs for you. You said "EV mode...
1. I LOVE this, and am glad I installed it before the car was 12 hours old. " What is it you installed? I looked through the manual and the Toyota web site and could not find anything about "installing" and EV mode?

The plastic rims on the wheels - what interference do they cause? What value is there in removing them?

 

Well, the EV mode is something that isn't available in the US or Canada, but is in Japan and Europe (which is why it isn't in the manual). The EV mode will, under the right conditions, make the Prius run on battery power alone for about a mile or so. Handy to move the car in a parking lot or to show off. Used right you can save a bit of gas, but remember the ICE will have to run to charge the battery back up. There are several ways to activate it (the software is in the car, but the button isn't) from the OEM switch to using an existing control (such as the headlight flash or cruise control). A search on EV MODE will answer some questions (and bring up others).

As for the rims I haven't removed them yet, but it does change the appearance.

 

They pop on and off real easy... no tools necessary.. just reach up and grab the other ring from the center out and pull... I like mine better on....

 

Yes, I followed a Prius tonight and you are right, next to the other cars, the Prius taillights were noticeably dimmer. Can the bulb cap be removed or scraped off?

PS: What did you do to show your GreenHybrid mpg? When I tried in my sig, all I get is the URL.