I live in NYC and drive my new '06 Prius, purchased in Feb, about every other weekend. Loving it so far. But a strange thing happened on Sunday.

I was filling up, with the car off. When I got back in the car after pumping the gas, I had the key fob in my pocket, as usual. My wife was in the passenger seat, with her key fob in her purse. But when I pushed power, nothing happened. I was very confused for a minute or two, and kept pushing it.

Eventually I put the key fob in the "ignition" spot, and that did the trick. But since then (last 5 days) I have only been able to use it like a regular key. I have to push lock or unlock, rather than just putting my hand on the handle, and the car won't start without the fob in the ignition slot.

Anyone else have this problem? I'm going in for service next week, but perhaps there's some quick fix?

Thanks,
CB

cb1916,

Did you got to ExxonMobil Gas Station to pump gas? According to Toyota, it may interefere with smart key fob. It came with your manual.Did you try to change out the battery of the key fob?

CB,

There is a switch that turns the "smart key" function on and off. It is at the bottom of your dash near your knee. You could have bumped it,

JeffD

See the section under:

I left the fob in the dashboard slot overnight, and now Smart Entry / Smart Start doesn’t work. located here:

http://www.vfaq.net/FAQ-SSE_Sec_Key.html

Apparently it can auto-disable itself, but pushing the 'SMART' button under the dashboard twice will reset it.