Car Wash Blues

[brian albert]

I live close to a great car wash. However it is the type where the attendant drives the car up to the opening, puts the car in neutral, and tuns the engine off. The car goes unattended thru the wash and an attendant on the other end then drives the car out to towel dry it and clean the interior.

Does anyone have experiences with such car washes and the Prius? What would be the proper procedure for taking a Prius to such a wash? Are the attendants smart enough to realize this vehicle is different ?

Thanks,
Brian

[efusco]

Depends...
You can either try to educate them on how to get the car into neutral and make sure you're at the far end to educate that guy too....that can get a little old, but it's also kinda fun seeing these guys pass on thier knowledge to their fellow workers as they 'get it'.

The other option is to see if they'll just let you go through with the car when you explain how complicated it is.

The place I go to seems to pick up pretty quickly and has no trouble after a 30 second explaination.

[bshef]

Yikes!........I'm totally against an auto-wash!
Way too many opportunities for scratches and mis-haps to the vehicles surface!
I've been using Zaino for 5 years now and love it. Easy application and great protection with truly wonderful results.
Web Page Name

[Bill60546]

Earlier this week I took my Prius to the local full service car wash, only to escape complete and total disaster due to the quick efforts of one of the attendants.

After the car was vacuumed, the attendant drives the car to the wash entry area, puts it in neutral and the car rolls through the wash. At the end of the wash an attendent enters the car and drives it to a drying area where it is picked up by the customer.

Well, thats what is suppose to happen. It turns out that ICE cars are actually put in neutral and the engines turned off as they go through the wash. The cars are restarted after the wash. With the Prius in neutral, my car, somehow, went into drive, or was never put into neutral completely, and was literally rolling straight down the wash lane and ready to plow into the rear of a Honda Civic. After the attendant jumped in my car, which was halfway through the first wash station, did they gain control of my Prius. The entire carwash came to a grinding halt, was restarted and the attendent rode inside my car the entire way. Under no circumstances would I want any fellow Prius owner feeling the complete and absolute helplessness of seeing your car almost jump the guide tracks, heading for another car without any driver.

I spoke to the carwash owner, a nice fellow, and explained the situation. He, ofcourse, immediately took no responsibility. I showed him the valet card, which I inserted into the MFD (yes, they did wipe it down and the owner did admit they knew not to) prior to the wash and reviewed with him pages from the owners manual. He didnt want to make copies but did accept faxed copies of the valet card (English and Spanish) and pages of the owners manual regarding the shifter process.

Long story short, wash a Prius yourself.

(Toyota: If you're listening, send a copy of a "how to drive hybrids" memo to the carwash association's public relations department for distribution to their membership.)

[brian albert]

Bill,

Thanks for the heads up. Looks like I will be washing it myself.

Brian

[KMO]

Bill, I very much hope that the error was simply not actually putting the car in Neutral to start with.

There should be no way that the car can magically get from Neutral to Drive - it at least needs someone with their foot on the brake to do the shift.

I would guess that your near-catastrophe might have been someone pushing the selector to N, but not long enough for it to respond, so it remained in D. They must have not checked the display, and the car may have been on enough of a ramp for it not to be apparent (yet) that the car was still trying to creep forward. So they got out, thinking it was in N. And of course, the lack of engine noise will have added to their confusion.

Possible design improvement: shouldn't pushing the selector to N, then releasing without moving to D or R, select neutral?

[LisaMurray]

It turns out that ICE cars are actually put in neutral and the engines turned off as they go through the wash. The cars are restarted after the wash.

How could this happen with the Prius? My brief (one week) experience has been that when you turn the engine off, the car goes into Park automatically. Am I wrong?

[DanP]

How could this happen with the Prius? My brief (one week) experience has been that when you turn the engine off, the car goes into Park automatically. Am I wrong?

You're right: when turned off the car goes into Park. The car wash attendant must have left the HSD system running.

[brian albert]

Are you guys saying you can't put the car in neutral and turn the power off ? What if the car needs to be towed or pushed for some reason ?

Thanks,
Brian

[DanP]

Are you guys saying you can't put the car in neutral and turn the power off ? What if the car needs to be towed or pushed for some reason ?

Thanks,
Brian

There is a button that one can push to put the transmisson into neutral without starting the engine. However, I don't know exactly where that button is because I have mislaid my owner's manual.