SHIFTER in the Gen 3

The worst that could happen would be going into neutral.

 

Don't worry most all the Gen I, II, & III it takes a few seconds of holding the shifter in it new position to make it shift out of D. So just accidently hitting the shifter should cause no problems.

 

As stated above, if you hit it to "R" it would go to "N" and beep at you. If you hit it to "B" it would go into that "gear" or "mode", and you can easily shift back to "D" (the cruise will cancel when it goes to "B"). If you press the "P" button, it will go to "N" and beep at you. If you hit it to "N" it will go into "N". You can then shift back to "D".
There is, also as stated above, a delay, of about 1/2 to 1 second before it will act on your "request". So a quick bump won't do anything.

None of the above will do any harm. The engine won't overrev. and no gears will end up on the road.
It's electronic, not mechanical. It's smarter than most drivers.

 

Though will it not try and engage R or P if you select them at about 5 mph?

If it does (and I haven't tried it) it could cause significant damage to the transmission, but then again, this would occur with most automatics on the market.

 

Around 5mph, shifting to R won't do any harm (I do it quite often, I kinda like the way it brakes for me). Now pressing P at 5mph might get ugly...

 

The Gen 2 and Gen 3 have essentially the same system, and I have tried all of the combinations in a Gen 2. As pointed out above, all that happens is shifting to N. The Prius won't let you hurt it.

At very low speeds you can drop it into park. Supposedly it won't hurt anything, but you will stop right now. I don't recommend it.

Shifting to R at low speed is fine. I do it all the time in the winter, when I need to rock it out of snow.

Tom

 

Oh, you're ordering a 2011. They have recalls on those! When you put it in "D" and release the brake they move! VERY DANGEROUS!!!

 

I could not find on the Owner's Manual beyond which speed will P not engage and go instead to N - any ideas? There must be some max speed that the mechanics can sustain to engage P beyond which, electronically, the Prius will simply shift to N to avoid any damage.

PS: in 14 months of driving the Prius I never managed to indadvertedly touch the shift lever, and, as mentioned, any change takes "some" time - it is not instantaneous.

 

It's around two to four mph. I don't know the exact speed. It's fast enough that you stop very abruptly, but not fast enough to hurt the parking pawl.

Tom

 

The Prius is very protective of itself.