Most Obscure Gen III Facts (way out there)

$370 US according to my current hail damage estimate sheet.

 

The lower rear window don't get much solar heat, it is well sheltered. The window specs do show that it is already heavily tinted tho not as much as the sun roof.

 

Cost me $500 to replace my windshield
It was not OEM windshield either

 

Well, that light is still pretty useful, as I lay my phone up there, over by the hazard flasher button.

And, yeah, it is pretty cool.

 

I've only replaced one other and that was on a six month old 1984 Mercury Cougar. It was around $200 back then. I'm sorry I don't have a good feel for other windshield type costs.

The $370 USD quoted by my insurance was for a OEM Toyota windshield "with lane keeping". My Prius II does not have the lane keeping feature but the adjuster was nice in quoting it in the price.

PS, they're also replacing the front hood since it's aluminum and the hail dents can't be easily repaired and it's cost including paint is $219.41 USD.

 

For the parking assist, Once you've initially set the position you can still manipulate the position after it started reversing and you got a better view of the parking space.

For lane keep assist, when it's activated and tracking lanes, and the DRCC is set above 50MPH when the road curves, the LKA will keep the steering wheel the same position it requires to make the curve much like an out of alignment car. This will work as long as you hold the steering wheel. It will cancel out after a few seconds after you let go of the steering wheel as there's no driver input.

Many of the so called obscure facts are not obscure at all and a lot of the them are just Toyota specific. Like cruise set at 25, my Tacoma and my parents's 2 Sieannas do this.
Here's another one specifically for Toyotas. roll the window down first before you try this to avoid accidentally locking keys inside the car.
1 - close all the door with you sitting on the driver seat. If you're trying this with the prius, or any Toyota with SKS put the keys outside of the vehicle.
2 - open the driver door and lock all the doors with the electric door lock switch
3 - close the door
4 - the electric door unlock switch is now none-operable. The lock function still works.
5 - unlock the driver door manually. Some Toyotas will work with front passenger door as well.
6 - The electric door unlock switch is now reactivated. You can now unlock all the doors using the electric door unlock switch.

There's a wire on the actual locking mechanism that sense whether the door is locked or unlocked. This system was referred to as Child Safety Lock. To this day I still have no idea why Toyota did this. This represented problems for alarm installers when Toyota first introduced this back in the early 90's. We would install the alarm and test it out. It would function as long as you don't arm the alarm when the door is open. When customers went home, they would arm the alarm while the door is still open then close the door effectively disabling the unlock function. When they disarm the alarm, the doors remain locked. We had to diode and isolate the mechanical lock sensor wire and the unlock wire for the alarm to bypass the child safety lock. PITA. The newer system in the 2000's are even worse to bypass.

Another Toyota specific. It works on none SKS cars.
roll the window down before trying this.
1 put the key in the ignition. You don't need to turn it on
2 open the driver door and manually lock the door. It will automatically unlock the door. The lock sense wire detects the door's been locked with the key in the ignition. This will repeat.
3 push and hold the lock using force so it stays in the lock position The car will try to unlock the door once. When it's in the lock position you can let go of the lock.
4 as soon as you closed the door, the power door lock will unlock all the doors to prevent accidentally locking keys in the ignition.

 

slightly completely off topic of way out there.....

This is typical of windshield costs. Had it done recently on 2 cars(not 1984 geeeze). Depends on the car, type of windshield, year of the car, company installing, insurance or not, tint strip or not, antenna or not. The worst is the dealer for price. Too many mobile places do it in your driveway and do it better (thats all they do) than the dealer. No leaks. My 2 cars were completely different prices. I asked about the prius. Depends on the tint strip or not, insurance or not, year of the car. $365 for my 2007, cash.

now for way out there.
Uhaul will not rent you a car dolly or car carrier for the prius (prius is on the car dolly being towed). It's too low to the ground to get up the ramps.

 

nice points... but while trying it in the city, i was in the slow lane and there was another car turning left in the faster lane. because the road was turning right, my car detected the turning car and applied the brakes and loud beeping in cabin. scared the shit out of me! and i got a real nasty gram from the wife! but basically, based on that experience, i don't think that the radar is adjusted when you're going in a curve. it still looks only ahead... which could result in looking in traffic that do not apply to you.

 

Are you referring to the Radar Cruise Control or the Pre-Accident Avoidance feature? I don't think they recommend using the Cruise Control in the City, and I thought the Pre-Accident Avoidance was only activated is an accident was imminent!

 

well, i was using cruise control, and to my understanding, the PCS (pre-collision system) is automatic. so i would ASSUME that the sudden braking was due to the PCS, but might have been caused because of the cruise control radar system. how else would it have sensed an "accident" coming when the car was in the other lane? that was the only plausible explanation i found.

 

Oh - I didn't realize the Gen-3 had that feature. My wife recently switched from a 2010 Honda Insight to a 2008 Prius and that was one feature she missed from the Insight. So that is good to know that Toyota added that on the new version.

 

Try other manufacturers and see. I don't recall if other manufacturers do or not. All of our cars are Toyotas so I cant comment on other brands.

 

But the power button (and key slot in non-SKS) illuminates anyway in the Gen II when you unlock the door.

 

On the UK model the second press of the remote, or touch of the handle, dead locks the doors, preventing a thief who has broken the window from opening the door with the inside locks or handles. Meaning he/she has to climb through the broken window to get into (or out of) the car.