Keyfob Question

No such option on a Persona. Those fobs with available A/C botton come with solar roof option.

 

Not that I know of. You can download Owner's Manual in PDF format and check.

That's turning on a small ventilation fan, powered by the solar roof right?

Toyota tends to call any sort of air movement through the cabin Air Conditioning.

 

pip has it, but not the standard hybrid afaik

 

 Solar Roof Package (available in Prius Three) –
o Power tilt/slide moonroof with Solar Powered Ventilation System and Remote Air Conditioning System with sliding sunshade

Solar roof package has what you mentioned, small fan to bring cooler fresh air into the cabin, and also, remote A/C system that once turned on, will run the A/C system for a few minutes or until hybrid battery gets low.

Perhaps @Grit or anyone who has the solar roof has more info to add?

 

My memory, and lazily that's all I'm going off...
Is that the solar roof "option" was purely ventilation. It never really activated actual AC. It was designed primarily to just let air be circulated.

Could the OP be thinking of "Remote Start"?
Which IS an option that I think would let you start the vehicle and either warm or cool the interior before entering.

 

Yeah language is part of the confusion I think: Toyota calls any kinda air movement "air conditioning".

 

I'm still wondering if the OP isn't thinking of the remote start option. Which I believe depending on how you leave the vehicle configured can be used to pre-warm or pre-cool your vehicle before entering, AND it is a separate button.

 

The AC button on the key fob is only available for vehicles with the solar roof option (optional on model three or four) or a plug-in hybrid (Advanced model?).

I have the 2010 IV with solar roof option and I can count with one hand how many times I’ve used this feature since I bought it 6 years ago. The AC compressor does turn on and blows cold air. Problem is the key fob range is abysmal (within 25 feet) so there’s no point in using that function because by the time the system initiates and starts running, you will be standing by the door getting ready to get in the car. As a comparison, my wife’s 2017 CR-V remote start works in my office on the third floor around 150 ft away!

If you still wants it turned on, it only lasts as long as your hybrid battery will allow it to last, which is around 5 minutes then the system will turn off. The engine will not start to supplement.

And the most annoying thing about this system is when the remote AC is running and you touch the exterior door handle to unlock the door and open it, the system will automatically cancel out and turns off. It may be a theft deterrent thing but highly annoying. So as I’ve said before about the abysmal remote range, there’s no point in using this function to effectively cool down the vehicle.

That’s my $0.02 about this feature. I do have the say the other part of the solar system I leave on all the time is the ventilation feature. It does keep the car about the same temperature as the outside temp in the summer. It is an excellent feature. There’s is a button to activate that feature left of the steering wheel next to the instrument panel dimming switch.

 

Information all correct sir, even provided actual manual information. I'll echo your message, Personas don't have solar panels, only available in trim 3 and 4.

Personally when I was on the hunt for a prius, the trim 4s and personas were similar in price but the trim 4s had better upgrade options. Persona has the additional badge and minor upgrades which artificially inflated their selling price, it's a trim between a 3 and 4 w/o solar.

 

Thatwould be like programming a universal remote control to a television and believing all the buttons on the univesal remote control will work. If there's a record button on the universal remote, and the tv doesn't have recording capabilities, you will not be able to record any TV channels.

 

My apologies then.
I did own a standard Prius II of the same year.. And I did a lot of research before I purchased it, and I hang around Prius Chat way too much.
But if I ever knew Prius's came with a remote AC option, I evidently forgot it.

But glad you're getting it sorted out. And now I know....it's an option that does exist.

 

What he said.

 

To save time, trim 3 and 4 have a special or different wiring that allows this ac feature to turn of w/engine off. Without the wiring, the ac button on the fob when paired to a non-solar trim is only eye candy.