bump of shift knob can damage transmission

Not that it happened, but I did read the warning in the manual - the transmission can be heavily damaged if the shifter is bumped into any other gear or neutral while in Drive or vice versa. This is a tad scary considering the shift knob is quite close to the audio volume knob.

You would think they have electronic safety built in to not shift the transmission to an opposite gear while moving, but apparently not.

Just curious about this. I'm really careful and pretty much babying the car.

You can "shift" to any selection you want while in motion and the Prius will just beep at you. You might cause damage below 7mph and hitting the park button but other than that You should be fine if you bump the shifter.

Any of our techinical members know if this is true or just one of those legal disclaimers. I agree with the OP. If it's all fly/shift by wire I find it difficult to believe they wouldn't lock out any moves that could damage the car. Although perhaps drive to reverse? Not good, especially if abused, but sometimes used to rock a car out of the snow? :noidea:

Thanks for the feedback.

It's a really nice car. Better than I expected in comfort and economy.

One thing you don't wanna do is find out how fast you can go in N. At some point one of the motors will destroy itself.

I have tried those things too. Trying reverse while moving gets you a beep, hitting "P" while moving puts you in "N", and you have to hold the "power" button down for several seconds before anything happens; the car goes into a dead-stick glide and requires a complete dead stop before you can power back up. I've only tried the last one once in the middle of nowhere and will not do so again. I let my son drive my car today and as he was going back into "D" after a glide in "N", he accidentally pushed up on the lever a bit too far and got the beep. On a side note, he got a 129 mpg 7.7 mile segment and a 112 mpg 17.9 mile segment. Looks like I have taught him well.:biggrin1:

I was thinking of the pathological case of shifting into N at the top of a very long downgrade, and leaving it there as the road speed exceeds 60, 70, 80 MPH... The car's computers should to refuse to shift to N if the roadspeed were already too high, but I don't expect that it would shift itself *from* N to D to protect itself. I'm not going to perform the experiment :_>

while driving any prius will not shift into another "gear".. aka.. reverse.. ever..

the only way to damage it is:

drop it into P while below 4mpg potentially harming it... over.. and over.. and over...

drop into N or switching out of N while above 43mpg... the real number is a tad higher... but it's basically one of the electric motors over revving while trying to keep up with a simulated N

the car is smart, it wont let you shift into reverse, you have to be allowed to shift into neutral due to safety.

the 01-03 prius you could shift into park, and reverse, when you shifted into reverse the reverse lights came on and the car entered neutral, never tried park though, dont plan on it.

Well pressing "P" at 43 mph does nothing but put you into neutral..
I had to press the brake pedal to shift back into "D" to continue...
The missus screamed at me, so I won't be doing it again!

Learn by destroying is not a valid concept where my Prius is concerned!

So for the northern members. Can you shift back & forth between D, N & R quick enough to rock it out of the snow or not?

I have touched 70 in "warp neutral" without the engine spinning.
My butt-dyno tells me this actually creates more frictional
resistance than running warp-stealth, because of windage/viscosity
around MG1 as it's screaming away. But it's unlikely that chunks
of rotor are going to come flying through the firewall into your lap.
.
I know that the protection against shifting to the direction other
than what you're moving in, or to Park, kicks in at 2 MPH because
I tried it on an icy parking lot where it wouldn't matter if the
front wheels locked up. You get beeps and land in Neutral instead.
TWO miles per hour, that's the threshold. It's still possible to
go to Park by mistake while rolling at less than that and get a
pretty hard lurch out of the car, and it doesn't come recommended.
.
Yes, you can rock out of snow but with the '04 and up, one needs
to get a feel for the slight delay between going from D to R and
back again, so where you're shifting tends to lead what the car
actually does in the cycle. You also need to keep the foot pressure
light, so the tires pull gently but firmly without trying to spin
which causes the whole system to back off torque for a longer time.
.
It seems there are many owners of a year or more's duration that
live in northern areas and are *still* asking these questions. The
answers have been posted many times, and it takes all of an hour
or two of going out to play in the snow to make it all clear. All
this oughta be in a FAQ somewhere, right along with "do I ever have
to replace the hybrid battery" and "what's that funny whirring noise
under the hood" and the like.
.
_H*

Thanks Hobbit! Good post!

No you didn't. You can freely switch between D, N, R and B without touching the brake pedal. You only need your foot on the brake to shift out of P.

Erm.. yes I did... It wouldn't go into drive with the "D"... as I was coasting I pressed the brake to pull over and was holding in "D" position it went into drive. Trying "D" on it's own gave me the double beep error.

Are you absolutely certain you pulling up slightly when trying to go to "D"? If you actually weren't, then they have made some drastic changes from '07 to '08. My son drove my car this past weekend and got the double beep when trying to go into "D" until he realized he had accidentally went up slightly before pulling down to go into "D". As stated in an earlier post, I can go from "N" to any of the other positions other than "P". You do have to be in "D" though before you go into "B".

I switch between B,D, and N frequently on my commute home. You don't need to press the brake to switch into D.