Key Observations

A couple of "key" observations ...referring to the Prime's door key.

Since my 2020 Prime is the first car I have owned with a "fob" rather than a physical key, I thought I would post a couple of key misunderstandings that I received from the dealer, reading the manual and the Prius' console messages since buying the car six months ago.

I decided to run some tests which showed that the original information I received and and my conclusions were wrong.

If you press the "start button" when the keyfob is not in or near the car, the console message assumes that the fob battery is dead and directs you to "Touch the Power Switch with the Key" I had assumed that "key" referred to the physical key that you would have extracted from the fob in this scenario and that the physical key contained the embedded "chip" ...wrong.

Those messages that the dealer and the manual are referring to, is the keyfob, with, or without the physical key inserted into the fob.

Turns out that the physical key's only function is to unlock and lock the driver's door (and open or close the windows when outside of the car)

This dictates a couple of things, the first being, don't loose the fob even if you keep the physical key on your key ring to be able to close the windows from outside as I do.

Assuming that your locksmith can cut the physical key's format, since the key doesn't have a chip and no programming is required to activate a physical key, they should be far less expensive to have a couple of spares.

You should then be able to hide an extra key or have it on your key ring to be able to access the car in cases where you don't have the keyfob.

Having a key (rather than the entire fob) on a key ring makes using the outside window controls much easier... an important detail here in Texas during our 100 degree plus summers. (Hot Tip, the front and rear windows close at different speeds, so, release the key when the rear window is closed as far as you want. Since the front windows start first, you can then turn the key again to "bump" the front windows to the same size opening)

While the Prius does a pretty good job of preventing you from locking you keyfob in the car, it is possible, so, keeping the physical key on a separate key ring might be a day saver on one of those bad days.

With this info, I'm also going to stash a spare fob battery (CR2032) in the car somewhere for this eventuality. Good short description on changing the fob battery at

Finally, another observation. If the car battery dies with one or more doors unlocked, there is no apparent way to lock the doors to leave the car locked in that event. Any thoughts or info?

Hope this info is other value to others.
Beverly Howard

 

>> You can't manually rotate the locks on the doors? <<

DOH! Color me clueless. I guess I'm so old I was just looking for the old push/pull pegs.

Thanks,
Beverly Howard