Toyota Suspends Sales of Eight Models - NOT Prius

[DeadPhish]

Originally Posted by jendbbay

Oh my... I thought I understood this, now I clearly don't. To get the car into neutral you can use the shifter and put it into neutral. Right or wrong? I have read above a comment that this might not work? Say what? Then, I have read that if it doesn't work, you can push on the power button and wait for 3 seconds and the car will go into neutral. Now I read that it only takes a second to go into neutral and 3 seconds to turn the car off? Say what?

Shifting the vehicle to Neutral always works no matter what anyone else might think or say. I've never heard of the shifter failing. It doesn't take 2 sec and my impression is that it's less then 1 sec. Shifting to Neutral is the most direct thing you can do on the shifter. You have to 'go through Neutral' to get to Drive or Reverse. It's immediately to the left of the default position. One poster herein always goes to Neutral at every stop he makes. I don't but I could if I got into the habit of doing it.

Why would I want to turn the car off while in this runaway situation? Wouldn't that be the wrong thing to do? Wouldn't that risk locking up the steering wheel, making the brakes less responsive etc?

I have actually seen the video where the woman puts the car into neutral by pressing and holding the power button. Did she actually turn the car off in that video?

I just keep getting more and more confused!

I agree, I wouldn't power off the vehicle at anytime unless I wanted to get out. Shifting to Neutral then putting it into Park when stopped is all that I'd do.

[jendbbay]

Originally Posted by qbee42

Right. You can simply shift to N. Go out and try it. People should practice these things.

The confusion is that there is a 1/2 second delay in shifting to N. Push the lever over to N and hold it for 1/2 of a second or more, and the Prius shifts into N. You can also move the lever to R and the Prius will shift into N, unless you are going very, very slowly.

If the shifter doesn't work (a really, really bad day), you can press and hold the Power button for 3 seconds. Obviously, shifting to N should be your first choice.

Tom

Okay, got this. Actually, I thought I understood before, but then people started saying that pressing the power button for only 1 second puts the car into neutral. I had thought it was 3 seconds. So I still have that question, just because we want to know, just because.

It is a good idea to use the N position of the gear shifter. That's what I would do, if I were ever to be able to drive my husband's prius, which is NEVER here. I have practiced shifting to N in my corolla and have no difficulty whatsoever. I just can't imagine why people think this is difficult.

Anyway thank you all.

Jen