Want recirc to stay on, or keep previous setting

What is great about the recirc versus fresh air mode is that the noxious exhaust from other cars, trucks, busses, etc. remain outside my Prius. Although I will use the fresh air mode when I am in the open road, as soon as I'm behind another car, especially if we're climbing a hill, I NEED recirc to keep the cabin air from becoming toxic. Therefore, most of the time I drive with recirc on, and as often as possible without the A/C running.

But when I turn off the car it always resets back to fresh air mode. I do a lot of short trips in a row and have to keep pressing my recirc button every time I restart the car. It is annoying. In all other cars I've ever driven this has been a more mechanical activator which remembers its previous setting. It should really remember the setting after the car is turned off. It does that with other controls, for example the windshield defroster/defogger ... if that is on when I turn off the car it is on when i turn it back on. So why not the recirc?

Is there a remedy? :blink:

 

The way I look at it, now that these cars have computers and interactive display screens, all the default user settings that are under computer control should be available to us, to set as we see fit. Just like on our personal computers. These machines are expensive enough items to allow for this kind of simple personalization. But at the very least, it should remember previous settings from one drive to the next.

I do agree, as far as cars go, the Prius is pretty cool, and I have few complaints. Just was hoping if someone knew if there was a way of changing the default for this one setting. Kinda like I was able to turn off the annoying back-up beep. I want my recirc on when I start my drive, that's all.

 

Well I tried it a bunch of times today and guess what? It works now for me too. Strange. Sorry to bother you all with this :huh: . I did try something though, I put the climate control on Auto, then Recirc, then turned off Auto. After that it seems to remember the Recirc setting after shutting off the car. There are definitely some quirks to the programming of this system, but all in all the Prius continues to prove that it is a wonderful car. Thanks for all the help.

BTW, we actually won this car! Our Prius is a Prize. I noticed that some folks pronounce it that way too.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(richard schumacher @ Nov 10 2006, 11:53 PM) [snapback]347337[/snapback]</div>

Thanks for pointing it out, that turning on the defroster will automatically switch the recirc to fresh. It's a bit of "over-programming" in action --- since fresh air defrosts faster than recirc'd air they decided to override the recirc setting. Not what I'm used to, but all cars have their quirks.

I've noticed another strange thing. Sometimes the steering wheel temp controls will cause the air-flow settings to change, from vent to dash to floor, etc. Anyone else see this? It only seems to happen when the display is showing the climate screen. Haven't been able to figure out what triggers this behavior, almost seems random.