forgetting car on and walking away!!!

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

^^^^
aw, that sounds like an urban legend...esp in philly !!!!!! lol

One solution -- always lock your Prius. If it is turned off then it locks without a problem. If it is still on it will not lock.

I tried to walk away with the car running for the first time last week. When I pressed the black button to lock, Fiona "yelled" at me instead of her demure little "I'm locked" beep. Thinking I had perhaps not shut the door completely, I opened the door & shut it again. Again the black button & again the long "beeeeeep!" So I got back in & looked around & realized the dashboard display was still lit. Dope-slapped my forehead, pushed the power button, got out & pushed the black button again. Fiona replied with her demure little beep. Yet again - she's sometimes smarter than I am & I admit it.

Tomorrow morning we're off to Hybridfest!

Well, at least I can console myself with the fact that I'm not the only one who has done this. On more than one occasion. :frusty:

What I've found is the problem, upon reflection, is if I "park" someplace with a lot of ambient noise -- ICE cars around you starting up, heavy traffic, someone's car stereo blasting -- I not only get distracted, but I can't hear Totoro's warning beep. Don't know what the solution is, other than a Cone of Silence, but the vast, right-wing blind conspiracy will never let us get our hands on *that* now will they?

I left mine on and walked away when I first got it. It beeped at me, but at that time I didn't know what it was trying to tell me. It was at a bank and I was inside getting paid for and getting the title motorized for my HCH that I was selling about a week after I got the Prius.

When I got back to the car I was surprised to see that it was still in the ready mode. I felt stupid and also relieved that no one had driven it off. I have never done that again unless I intended to do it on purpose.

I'm off to Hybridfest tomorrow too.

OK. Me, too!

I haven't done it for a long time, because I am always listening for the confirming beep as confirmation of a good thing and three nasty beeps to let me know I've forgotten to do it right.

I don't think the Philly airport one could be right if the owner left the heat on. If the car was left in "Ready" with no auxilliaries on, then it could go a long time. I would believe an entire week if the tank was full. How do I know?

I left my car on in my garage overnight. I did not have the heat on or the radio. It was on for about 11 hours, and I believe the rough calculation of lost gas was about one-half of a gallon. If this were to hold true, then one week would cost fewer than 8 gallons of gas!

I was curious last weekend when I took the family to the drive in. Because I have a subwoofer and Amp I leave the car in Ready the entire time and this past weekend left the A/C on at auto 75. We watched Wall-E and Journey to the center of the earth. First movie started at 9:30 and the second one ended at about 1:30. Prius running the entire time with A/C and driving a 600 W amp. I filled up on the way and reset the consumption screen, I pull into the drive in with a 65 MPG average, leave the drive in with a 35 MPG avg and pulled into the driveway with a 42 MPG avg (with 38 Miles driven). My estimates was that the 4 hour idle cost me about 1/3 of a gallon being that I only got about 2/3 of my normal mileage from that first gallon.

i've done that!.. hehe.. several times. always at home. it takes 12 hours to 24 hours to burn through a gas of fuel. if the A/C was on, i would say more like 12 per gallon. that gives you a week to figure it out. haha.

Got distracted the other day with two other things going on and walked to the teller machine to get some cash. It then, hit me, andyprius was beeping. Since I was now at the teller and the car seemed all right I ignored it! To my amazement, when I got back the car was still in drive! Fortunately the parking brake was set. Possibly I hit PARK, instead of POWER> Anyway alls well.

It isn't a Prius thing so much as a smart-key thing. Get a base model Prius and it warns you the fob is in the slot with a tone when you open the door. See, smart key isn't so smart.