Turning Off the Prius to Place it in Park

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Apr 23 2007, 07:15 PM) [snapback]428775[/snapback]</div>

Whichever way you do it, it won't hurt the car.

 

I'm one of the kooks who likes to hit "park" and then "power." On more than one occasion I've hit "power" and then gotten out and tried to lock the door, only to get the 3 beeps, "power is still on" warning.

It's easy to not push power all the way in, and after a few hundred times you'll stop looking at the pretty lighted buttons and just get out of the car quickly. Then one time you'll have the bad luck of forgetting the parking brake, missing the power button, and having your car run itself into a wall, or into traffic. It's happened to people here!

Not that I'm trying to be alarmist or anything. You really can get away with just pushing "power." I just like to train myself to never get out until I hit brake-park-power. It is a fairly expensive and somewhat dangerous machine, after all, so it's worth a little extra caution, and that caution costs all of 0.5 seconds.

 

Doesn't everyone hit park so they can take their foot off the brake while they write down their fuel consumption stats for the day before powering off?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(douglas001001 @ Apr 23 2007, 09:32 PM) [snapback]428790[/snapback]</div>

And cycle thru all the trip data on your new Scangage II.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ichabod @ Apr 23 2007, 06:24 PM) [snapback]428785[/snapback]</div>

I always hit the park button first myself. I've gotten out a number of times to hear the beeps and have to open the door to complete the power down.

OTOH, my wife just pushes the power button.

Dave M.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(prius1969 @ Apr 23 2007, 09:00 PM) [snapback]428762[/snapback]</div>

I vote for bad habit. Improper shut down procedure will bite you in the butt sooner or later. That said, leaving the car in gear and hitting the power button will not damage anything. The car will automatically shift to PARK. The problem will come when you THINK you hit the power button.

 

I just hit "Power", unless I'm listening to the last bit of a report on All Things Considered sitting in my driveway; then I hit Park, wait for the report to finish, then hit Power.

 

I always hit the park button AND engage the foot parking brake...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(douglas001001 @ Apr 23 2007, 07:32 PM) [snapback]428790[/snapback]</div>

I agree it's a better habit to get into to use the Park button. But I never do, unless I'm stopping the car for a while but want to leave it on. And I always look at the dash for the lights to go out before I leave the car.

 

Actually, I like to use the power button to shut it off with out taking it out of gear. That way, when I drive another car I forget to take the car out of drive and just sit there going why can't I turn the key off. Makes other cars seem even more lame.

 

I always park before turning it off. In a conventional automatic car, don't we always put the gear to "P" before turning off the car? It probably doesn't really matter, but like someone said, it only takes half a second to do it.

 

I almost always put it in park first, but have forgotten a couple of times. It's good to know that I'm not damaging anything by being a dip.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(prius1969 @ Apr 23 2007, 10:00 PM) [snapback]428762[/snapback]</div>

I believe the manual tells you to always hit PARK and Power when shutting down. I believe that you can run down the 12Volt battery if you don't.

 

Either way it's ok as long as you make sure that the power is actually off before getting out of the car. I think the method that you use depends on how well you know yourself. If you know that you can get distracted or are prone to be forgetful, then hit the park button first so that you will have an extra help to keep you from disaster. If you are 100% certain that you will make sure that the car is off each and every single time that you get out of it then just hit the power.

I only use the power button. If you always have the radio on, then you can use that as an audio cue that the car did turn off. I always check the dashboard lights.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bb513 @ Apr 25 2007, 09:41 AM) [snapback]429684[/snapback]</div>

The manual does suggest that you hit "Park," as do I, but there's really nothing wrong with not hitting "park" because it's automatically engaged when you hit "power." There's no "in gear" state for the Prius because there's only a single fixed gear ratio, and no transmission. "Park" is only slightly different than the other electronic drive modes in that a mechanical parking pawl engages to stop the wheels from moving.

Always use the parking brake though, even if you don't hit "park."

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ichabod @ Apr 25 2007, 10:18 AM) [snapback]429699[/snapback]</div>

Even on flat terrain? Why?

Knowing me, I'd forget to disengage the parking brake half the time before starting again and wear it out.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Highly ImPriused @ Apr 25 2007, 09:02 AM) [snapback]429817[/snapback]</div>

Well, in some parts of the country, the ground may start moving. The car will tend to stay put if the parking brake is on.

I try to make certain there are no red lights on the dash before I drive off. With some cars it is less apparent that the parking brake is still on.