forgetting car on and walking away!!!

[dusty]

I've had my new Prius for 3 weeks and love it. ALTHOUGH - very disturbing - TWICE I've managed to leave the car, go for dinner and come back to find it running and depleted of gas. I know I'm obviously an idiot, but I just met a woman walking down the street with a gas can, going to get gas for her Prius because she just did the exact same thing and said it has happened to her twice also!!!
Am I missing some sort of alarm or sound that should have alerted me to the fact that I was walking away with the car on?? I know that I pressed the button to lock the door...but obviously missed that subtle beep that tells you that the door didn't lock...? HELP!!!!! Gonna undo the beautiful gas savings pretty fast at this rate.

[lefat1]

yep, theres a beep if you leave it on and walk away

[carz89]

Even if the car is "on", you shouldn't run out of gas during a 2-hour dinner, even with the air conditioning on. Unless the tank was already just about empty. Using a very rough assumption that max AC uses about 10% of your car's energy, then the engine should run about 10% of the time to maintain the battery charged. That's about 12 minutes out of 120 minutes. If your engine ran continuously for 2 hours, there's something else wrong.

[spidey]

how does one accidently leave it on? I dont have the car yet but need to make sure what the procedure is

[carz89]

Originally Posted by spidey

how does one accidently leave it on? I dont have the car yet but need to make sure what the procedure is

Easy.

Stop. Put transmission in "Park" with one press of a button. Forget the second button to turn the car off. Walk out of the car with your keys in your pocket. The car will still be on. I actually do this intentionally on occasion, for just a minute or so with the car in plain view, eg - getting out of the car to mail something, or inflating the tires. This will save gas by preventing the start-up engine-warming sequence that sucks gas when it's really not needed.

After you shut the door, the car will beep a few times when it senses that the keyfob is outside of the car. BTW - it will also prevent you from locking the car electronically. With a little more effort, you could still lock it with the mechanical key.

However, like a typical fool, sometimes I'll intentionally leave the car on for a couple minutes while I step outside. When I get back, I forget I left the car on as I press the ON/OFF button, like my hand has a mind of it's own. Then I call myself a few choice bad names for being such an idiot. I just caused the very thing I wanted to avoid -- turning off the car, with the subsequent restart and engine warmup cycle.

[Tideland Prius]

we've all done that one time or another.... I'm also guilty as charged.

[steveholtam]

I have done that twice also. Both times during my first month of ownership. Both times for me where when I was transferring a phone call from Bluetooth to my phone. I must have been talking and didnt here the three beeps as I walked off.

It is funny as the car is unlocked and ready to go. That would make is REALLY easy for a thief to drive off. I guess as long as they never turned the car off, and kept it gassed up, it would go on like that for a long time.

[subarutoo]

Duh.
Push the start/stop button when you park. Forget about the Park button. Its automatic when you push "stop".

[dusty]

thanks all! bottom line is don't be a dolt....i get it.

[paprius4030]

I remeber a post from a guy years ago when the Prius first came out. Seems he left his Prius in the Long Term parking lot at the Philly airport. Seems it was easy to find his car when he came back. Since it snowed and he left it running with the heat on it was the only car not snow covered LOL. If I remeber correctly he left it running for about a week.