2006 Prius, but have noticed that when I power off, I can’t easily pull out the

Does the gas gauge transmission selector and the speedometer zero ever not turn on when you turn on the car or doesn't like to turn off when you turn off the car and you have to hold the button? Shouldn't make any difference to sell the car most people don't know probably what you're talking about. Does your remote have a silver logo on the back and you have a button under the steering wheel marked k e y?

 

I wouldn't put oil on my car key fob because I risk finding a stain in an interesting place when I put the key in my pocket.

 

It's not the fob If anything it's the little polycarbonate ears or plastic ears that pop out in the amplifier which is what the slot is If you read the back of the slot when you have it out that panel out it talks about being an amplifier blah blah blah so it amplifies what's on the board in your remote to the car to let the key turn yellow or start the car or something that sort of thing It will not unlock the door when you extend your hand to a locked door walking up to the car with the remote in your pocket You have to put your hand in your pocket and hit a button My car I can just walk up to it and everything magically opens and the car starts when I get in it and push the button without ever seeing or touching the remote It is in my pocket

 

The car has a mechanism to grab the key fob so that it doesn't fall out while the car is on. Clearly something is affecting that. I believe that mechanism sticks little prongs into the square holes on each side of the fob. Inspect the fob closely, is there anything in those holes that would cause an inserted prong to stick? Perhaps just take a Q-tip or the like and run it around in there to clean it thoroughly.

If it isn't gunk on the fob it could be gunk in the receiving unit (probably not the correct name, where it plugs in). Look into the slot with a flashlight. Is there anything loose in there? If you can see the prongs, does either look damaged?

If you have not yet found the problem it is either the receiver unit or something talking to it. Let's start with the latter.

Hold the power button for 3 seconds (foot off the brake). Does the car "fully" turn off and release the fob? If so this might be an early sign of a failing MFD. (The car isn't turning off properly.) There is a sticky about this issue at the top of the forum.

Check the 12V battery, is it low? A low 12V can do odd things, and causing the FOB to stick in the slot is one.

Can anyone help me...can't remove key from ignition? | PriusChat

If the battery is low, it is possible that if after turning off the car you just wait a couple of minutes, doing nothing, the 12V will recover enough voltage to release the fob. That is just a guess though.

The Gen 1 had a sort of emergency fob release:

Key stuck in ignition | PriusChat

I don't know if the Gen 2 has that though.

 

If you take your finger I can take my pinky and stick it in the slot there's a tray that slides back as you push the door all the way back If you leave your finger on the base of the slot while you're pushing back and then move your pinky or finger side to side you will feel the little dowels pop out to hold the key they're white If you look in the slot you can see them so I can't even duplicate that problem at all mine locks all four of them perfectly when the key is in the slot and the button is on and ready mode or an accessories mode with all the lights on the fob is not coming out of the slot The minute I push the power button even if I have my hand on the remote the power button immediately comes out The minute I touch the power button. But if you grab the remote too early while pushing the button to turn the car off the fob will stay locked you have to let it go and it will release the tabs and release the fob I see nothing in the holes on the side of any of my remotes they're all the same One whole on the side that the key is mounted on you can see the metal of the key right through the hole that the amplifier slot grabs on the other side it's just an indention in the plastic case halves the remote will go in either side up and lock