Automatic Start

It's not a dealer option. You may be able to add it yourself...?

 

and the point being what?

 

You know... draining your battery, or burning extra gas. Both of which are useful and productive things to do. Seriously though, the only reason I see people using remote start for is either "it's cool!" or "to warm up the car before I get in."

They're both pretty selfish reasons, and I for one am happy to just keep my coat and gloves on while I drive rather than burn gas just to avoid being a little chilly.

One of the higher-ups where I work has a Suburban (although he has 6 kids so I really don't judge him for owning it), and he uses the remote start and leaves that thing idling in the lot for like 15 minutes at a time... I could probably drive 100 miles on what he wastes just warming that thing up!

 

He probably burns about 1-1.5 litres in 15 min of idling. That's only 20 mi or so for a Prius.

You're probably in a warmer climate, but here in Edmonton (currently a nice crisp -20C or about 0F) a remote start will only get the coolant up to 40C. The climate system fan won't even run! You have to drive to warm up the car. The Prius burns about 1 litre per hour idling. My previous vehicle, the anti-Prius (2001 Nissan Pathfinder 4WD) burned about 3.5 l/hr in winter temps.

The remote start -can- be done for the Prius, but you loose the vehicle immobilizer function. Not very smart.

 

This topic seems to come up every time the weather starts to get cold or hot.

The short answer is that there are no easy to install remote start systems for the Prius. If anyone knows of one, please speak up!

There are two major problems in adapting the available remote start systems to the Prius.

The first is the intermittent usage of the engine. A remote start system runs the starter, and expects a RPM signal back when the engine starts. The Prius doesn't have a traditional starter, and the engine may not start just because the ignition has been turned "ON" (Ready mode). These problems can be solved, but it requires a lot of extra logic.

The next problem is the push button start. The push button does not have a "ON" or "OFF" state - it is just a request to transition to the next state. The transponder in the keyfob seems to be different than the older ones that remote start systems have been developed to support. Maybe this one has been solved by now, but I've wasted a lot of effort so far trying to meet the immobilizer requirement of an extra key.

Running the engine when you're not in the car seems to violate an ethic of saving gas that comes with buying a Prius. A remote start not only is not available for the Prius, it shouldn't be. Prius owners are tough enough to scrape ice off the windshield or get into a 120 degree car without pansy accessories that avoid these issues.

Harrumph! I like a car to be comfortable when I get into it. The electric air conditioning is particularly nice to have in the summer, since it costs so little to run while you're at the shopping mall. Adding a remote start to my car would actually reduce my gas usage since I wouldn't have to leave the air conditioning on the entire time I was at the mall. I could just start it up a few minutes before returning to the car. For cold weather situations, no engine block heater that I've heard of does anything to clear the windows...

 

I never figured out the point of remote starts.

So the car can be ready when you are.

probably it's the "hey look, I can start my car from here!"

I haven't noticed that anyone around here considers it anything more than a common and usefull feature. Trying to drive while the windows fog/frost back over can be an expensive hobby.

2. You have emissions inside the garage so hopefully you've parked your car outside (which is worse since it'll cool much faster than if it was in the garage)

You seem to be assuming a garage.

3. You burn almost the same amount of fuel idling or driving with a light foot. Why not go somewhere on that same amount of fuel?

There is a very slight problem in that I scare the neighbors when I try to drive by feel. The car is riddled with blind spots even when the windows are clear. All of my Toyotas have tended towards foggy windows. Any fog or ice on the windows will light up and turn opaque as soon as I get into sunlight. This means I creep along at a safe five miles an hour while I hunch down to look through that little clear spot at the bottom center of the windshield, which seems to annoy the cars in back of me, or I pull over and sit somewhere untill the various windows clear, which the car could have done perfectly well without me if it had a remote starter.

4. A heated garage is also probably better than a remote start.

Agreed, but I don't seem to have one.