Turn Prius off

Yes, and no.
Yes, you use the Power button to turn the car on and off. But you don't NEED to push Park as pushing the Power button will put the transmission in park before it shuts down.

I leave my foot on the brake, push in the parking brake then push Power. All done. I used the Park button this morning when I stopped at the P.O. since I was just dropping a letter in the outside box. No reason to turn the car off for 10 seconds.

 

Just be certain that when using this method (power off without pressing park first) that your foot is on the brake when you power off, or else the car will complain. When I first got my car, I was putting on the parking brake and then powering off without pressing park first. One time, I parked and was playing with the Nav, and since I was completely stopped (the parking brake was on but the car was not in park) I pressed Power without thinking, but my foot wasn't on the brake. The car beeped at me when I opened the door, and I didn't know what was going on. I ended up cycling through ACC-IgOn to make sure that the Park button was lit up and it was fine. But I don't think it's a good thing to do to the car on a regular basis.

 

well if you dont have your foot on the brake, then you will most likely be moving if in Drive or Reverse. if you are moving then you will not be able to power down in the normal fashion (momentary push of the power button) you will instead go to neutral.

you must be at a complete stop to power down or shift into reverse or drive. this can be acomplished by having foot on brake in any gear or in park or in neutral without the brake if on flat surface.

in cases of emergencies, pressing power button for a 2 second duration will power the car off even while in motion. this is not advised as in most emergencies, a 2 second delay is not desirable. also keep in mind that powering down the vehicle while the vehicle is moving , the driver will lose power steering, brakes and other power assisted functions.

unlike other cars where the ignition is turned off there is no steering wheel lock function so the car can still be steered manually.

 

I have not seen this. A couple of times I did take my foot off the brake after engaging the parking brake, then pushed Power. The car didn't beep, but it did jerk a little. Not something I would do on purpose.

Perhaps you were unbuckled and ready to leave and opened the door before the shutdown had occurred? Since I usually get out when I arrive, I hit the Power button then undo the seat belt so it is always powered off by the time I open the door.

When I stopped at the PO yesterday, I pressed Park and got out. The car DID beep at me once then. I guess it just wanted to make sure I knew it was still powered up. Either that, or maybe it does that if the SKS fob goes out of range while the car is still powered up?

 

Bruce,
I'm not really sure what I did wrong. It was the day after I picked up the car, and we were driving from Nashville to Austin, so I naturally assumed that when the car did the long beep at me when I opened the door, I did something wrong. I *thought* I read somewhere that the car would complain at you if you shut it down improperly (without your foot on the brake when you powered down or without putting the car into park first), but I can't quote a page in the manual off the top of my head. As Dave pointed out, it's a relatively difficult/stupid thing to be able to do (power down the car without your foot on the brake) since you'd be in motion, but somehow I managed it . Actually, the parking brake is much better than in my old car, so since we were level and the parking brake was on, the car wasn't moving, and it seemed like it was in park though it actually in drive.

betsy