What happens if you push the "park" button while the prius is in drive and in motion?

Hmmm. Around here, I'm pretty sure the only requirement to have a license is that you're not legally deceased

 

VROOOM CRUNCH!

I sincerely hope you tease him about it every chance you get

 

Automatics creep. Manuals don't. It's actually the most annoying thing about the Prius, that the creep is so aggressive. We've had UK users on the Prius-UK Yahoo group asking how to turn it off. Sorry, you can't.

I've never tried a hill start in a manual without the handbrake - presumably you bring the clutch to bite point, then release the regular brake and stamp on the gas?

If you have a foot-operated parking brake, do you have four pedals or does the clutch move elsewhere?

You would get the special 'automatic' licence which only permits you to drive automatic cars - you'd have to take another test to (legally) drive a manual on public roads. Still, I'm not sure they'd let you take the test in the Prius.

 

I went through a school crossing with lights flashing (25km/h speed limit) at 60km/h. I squealed the tyres going around a corner. I passed first try. I think the tester was impressed I could squeal the tyres on a Datsun 120Y!

 

That is the exact technique.

Yes, four pedals. The parking brake pedal looks like the one on the Prius. Some of them were push-push pedals like on the Prius, and some had a hand operated release lever.

Tom

 

They make no distinction in California. I don't know about other states, but as soon as I passed my test at 16, I was eligible to drive any 2 axle vehicle up to 18,000 lbs. I took my drivers test in a manual, but there was no requirement to do so.

Isn't that scary? :madgrin:

 

I hear that if you press the park button while moving in a 2010 Prius the Sat Nav kicks in with "Finding the nearest Parking Space" and guides you to it, the Park Assist then automatically kicks in and parks the car for you! Ideal for inner city parking!!

 

I thought if you didn't put your foot on the brake while pressing the power button it would go into ACC mode. I'm feeling too lazy right now to go out to the garage and test that theory. I'll let someone with more ambition try.

 

Of course you can get ACC mode by pressing the Power button once with your foot off the brake. But you cannot shift to N (or D or B or R) while in ACC mode.

If you go to IG-ON mode (press Power button twice with foot off brake) you can shift to P or N (but not to D or B or R)

There is a chart in the service manual that indicates when you can shift to the various states, P R N D or B. The chart shows that you can shift from N to P when in ACC mode, but doesn't tell you how to get into N in the first place. The way to get into N when in ACC mode is to power the car down while in motion.

 

I was told by my salesman to always press PARK then Power when I stop driving. And the manual says the same thing. But one day, I just stopped and pressed Power and I noticed the light on the PARK button came on green, before all Power went out. So does that do the same thing or am I actually leaving the car in neutral?

 

You're right John, just power down, the Prius looks after us lazy people and puts the car in park for us. Pretty cool huh?

 

My driving instructor used to place his cigarettes leaning against the rear of the rear wheel when teaching me to do hill starts. Doesn't matter how fast you are with your foot you would squash the cigarettes and that would be a fail on the driving test in teh UK.

Because of the engine management system on modern cars you can do hill starts without the handbrake as the fuel system compensates automatically for loss of revs, takes good clutch control but works for most "normal" hills.

Is the park button the technological equivalent of a wet paint sign, it certainly appears so?

 

Even with older cars (1960s and 1970s) I could hold the car indefinitely on a hill without using the brake and without rolling backward, but at the expense of the clutch.

It occurs to me that the main factor in this, other than technique, is the gearing and power of the car in question. Most American cars of that vintage had great big engines which could develop a lot of torque even at idle. That's why you could keep the car from rolling backward before your right foot got to the gas. Smaller engines would stall if you tried to do this.

My 1972 Jeep C-J5 could start from a dead stop in any gear. You could put it in the highest gear, let out on the clutch, and drive away. I did that by accident a few times, and I recall thinking it felt a bit more sluggish than normal. That's how over powered they were. It had a 304 cubic inch (5 liter) V8 in a tiny little car - way smaller than the original VW bug, although not lighter.

Tom

 

My son is learning in a 1300cc Corolla, have pity on him.
My first girlfriend was from England. Her dad said the testing officer would ask for your watch, put it in a matchbox then put the matchbox under the back of the rear tyre then get you to do a hill start.

 

Is he allowed to get out and push?

Tom

 

wow. that sounds risky to me. i'm thinking it runs OK right????

 

That's ok, 1.3L engine has torque too, just rev it higher....

I really like this exam-practice for a hill start, pretty slick!

 

Because I teach flying, I'm used to dual controls, knowing that in the event the pilot in the left seat is incapacitated, I have a nifty set of controls in front of me. Not so in my Prius, which led me to wonder what I would do in the event I was a passenger and the driver conked out for whatever reason.
I wondered about the park button, thinking that depressing it at highway speeds would probably render the car totally uncontrollable by destroying the transmission, unless it were self-deactivating.

Now that I know the park button isn't an option, what would you (all of, any of) do? One reason I don't like the underdash parking brake is that it is out of reach from the passenger side. My thought would be to try and steer to the shoulder, engage "B" mode to help decelerate, and hope to slow down.
Bob

 

Boy, does that sound like an urban legend!
I took my first driving test while a student in London, and none of these "gotcha" routines were around then. Now that was back in 1957, and it was in a manual-equipped car; things have changed since then I know, but I don't recall an up-hill start being required.
The simplest driving test I ever took was in New Jersey; off-road, on a special track around hay-bales. No street, highway or traffic maneuvers required. What a joke .... which is why the term "NJ driver" is (or was) a term of derision in the New York area!

 

Nothing happens if you hit the park button. I did it in error while trying to close off the vent. Same with the shift lever which you can put into neutral while on the move.