I've noticed a quirk that I can find in the Prius Manual and have not found in the archives. Forgive me if it is there and I just can't find it.

I often unlock my Prius from the passanger door with the smartkey, as a courtsey to my passengers. When I unlock the vehicle in this manner I am unable to get get the Prius out of Park. Moving the shift lever to either D or R does nothing. The only way I have found to make the vehicle work is to get out of the driver seat, lock the door, and unlock the door again from the driver's side.

I sat in the car for five minutes one day trying to get the car to go - very frustrating. This happend several times before I realized what was causing the my Prius to be stubburn! Has anyone notice this before?

 

Never had that happen to me. Did you turn the car off then on? If all else fails, try sticking the key in its slot.

 

I turned it on and off several times. Never thought of putting the key in the slot as the key usually resides in my pocket. I'll give it a try next time. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

It happened again this morning on a quick run to the grocery store. I opened the passenger door to put groceries on the front seat (back seats = car seats, Hatch = Foldable Bike).

I entered through the already unlocked drivers door and, powered with my foot on the brake, parking brake off, and could not get out of park again. Ready light was showing on dash. This time I inserted the key in the slot and BINGO..I was able to get out of park.

I have no idea if this is by design or not. Thinking back to the firstime the dealer showed me a Prius on the lot, the same thing happened to the salesman and he was very perplexed, so much so he switched to a different Prius to show me.

 

Maybe something's wrong with the smart start system. Is it enabled? My 04 has a button under the steering wheel to enable/disable smart start.

 

Yes, the Smart Key system is enabled. I guess I could try turning it off and turning it on again. Incidently, I reprogrammed the unlock option on the key fob to enable all doors to unlock at the same time, as per the instruction manual, and the change did not fix the problem.

It's really only a small anoyance, but I will mention it to the service personnel at the car's next checkup.

 

I unlock my Prius ('06) on the passenger side most of the time, and have never had a problem putting it in gear. I don't usually put it in "Park" when I stop, just turn it off (I use the e-brake, just an old habit), so the other night I tried putting it in "Park", turning it off, then doing what you describe - opening the passenger door (which opens all doors), getting in, starting it up (all with the key in my pocket), and putting it in gear. Again, no problem. I think yours is "differently-abled" .