Most Obscure Gen III Facts (way out there)

Me gots no lock button back there.

 

a III won't have the lock button in back... only a IV and a V will - they have the 3-door smart entry.

 

No, a IV and V have it.
It's a little round rubber "bump" to the right of the rubber oblong hatch opener.

 

Yes, it actually is. It's how they tie down the cars on the ship and keep them safe, and from banging into one another. That's one good reason it takes SO long to unload cars from the ships...

 

Nope. Either the back up cam or the SR replaces it. I'll adjust to an alternate method but I do miss it. Us Prius owners are like little kids sometimes, we want our cake and to eat it too!

 

The camera is on the left.
The rubber round button is to the right.

 

The Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) has an 8lbs. threshold that when the tire pressure drops below, it triggers the Low Pressure Warning light.

That 8lbs. threshold, however, is movable! For exammple, Tire Pressure for the Model V with 17" tires, is factory recommended at 33lbs. Front and 32lbs. Rear. If you wanted to increase tire pressure for better mileage, lets say to 41lbs. Front and 40lbs. Rear, that 8lbs. threshold is still set to trigger the light at 25lbs. and 24lbs. respectively, for the original pressure settings of 33lbs. and 32lbs. respectively. This old threshold (which still applies to the new tire pressure values) will continue to alert you to Low Tire Pressures of 25/24lbs, which is 16lbs. below your new tire pressure values.

Your NEW tire pressure values can be set by "Initializing" the NEW Tire Pressures, by doing the following:
1. Inflate/Deflate your cold tires to their NEW desired pressures.
2. Turn the Hybrid System OFF.
3. Turn the Hybrid System ON.
4. Press and HOLD the "Initialize" button until the TPMS Warning Light blinks Slowly (the "Initialize" button is located under the dash on the drivers side, in-line with the steering column).
5. Turn the Hybrid System OFF.
The TPMS will now recognize the NEW Tire Pressures, and their WARNING values are changed to reflect the NEW pressure settings. The WARNING will now occur 8lbs. BELOW the current set value!

David (aka Blind Guy)

 

Yes, that picture from stream shows them waiting to be loaded, with the hooks in the front.

 

OK, this is cool!

So if I wanted to have my tire pressure set to 40/41 psi and I wanted to be warned at say, 4 psi below 40/41, I would just inflate to 44/45 follow this initializing procedure and then deflate them to the desired pressure. Awesome, thanks David!

 

Nice picture stream. Does anyone know what rims those are on the silver Prius with solar panel roof? The picture on stream's post in previous page.

 

Those are the 15" wheels without the plastic covers.

 

The radio ASL setting is something I haven't seen before (of course I'm no audiophile but have Lo-Mid-High settings to adjust the radio level to driving noise seems a useful one.

My only question is, this car is supposed to be quiet, why would I need to increase the radio level?

Robbin (I've only had the car for a half-day and have not had the opportunity to test this feature yet )

 

Yes, and despite me trying all three settings I'm not sure I could tell any difference so I just canceled it... maybe I need to play with it some more.

 

This isn't really a general gen III fact, but it is kind of out there. My dealer's name contains my initials. I took off the name.com sticky letters and "engraved" the hatch with my initials instead

 

I have discovered a feature i never knew i have. I have yet to take the car apart to make sure i'm correct but i belive i am. there is a huge magnet in the rear hatch. It pulls the cars behind me closer so the bigger the vehicle behind me the closer it gets to me. This must be because of more metal for the magnet to pull. So i notice this feature increases the odds of having some jerkoff tailgatting me, and it seems to only pull in big trucks, and huge suv's.

 

It's to take into account road noise--the cabin of the Prius isn't exactly quiet on the highway, for example.

I've had this feature on other cars, and I agree with the other poster that I'm not sure it does anything in my Prius.

 

This is probably a standard Toyota Cruise Control feature but I've never owned a Toyota and I've never seen this on other cruise controls I have owned. When the cruise control is set, it can be adjusted slightly by tapping the control arm up or down. If you hold the arm up or down for a couple seconds the set speed jumps in 5 kph increments. This is very cool when the radar is controlling your speed. You can set the exact speed you want to travel at once that idiot gets out of your way.

 

Still much quieter than my old Jeep - I had to turn the radio up REALLY loud to overcome that. I really noticed it on the last ride I took after I took the radio out before taking it for c4c trade-in.

I didn't play with that feature this morning on my first commute, too busy watching the road and the eco monitor climb and climb and climb:clap2:

I did figure out that the panel dimming switch only works when the lights are on

 

My 2008 Yaris had this same feature. Weird...