Automatic Door Lock

[bravo67]

I am a new member eagerly awaiting delivery of new gen111 T-spirit in March. This forum has been very informative and useful, over the months, in helping to confirm my choice of car.

Firstly I must say that there was a stark contrast between the dealers in my area when I was looking to place an order. The 3 nearest to me exhibited no interest in my potential custom. There was no enthusiasm to demonstrate the car's attributes or to attract me as a customer. Having printed off a good discounted offer available on the internet ( nearly £3,000 savings ) and having visited the local dealer again, I was simply told that they would make a loss if they matched the internet offer and there was no attempt to negotiate a price with me. What a contrast then when I put the same offer to Toyota World in Birmingham. There was immediate enthusiasm to attract me as a customer and to demonstrate the car. They did comment that the internet offer would hardly cover their registration costs but, with no haggling required, said that they would match the internet offer. Needless to say they got my custom.

The main reason for this post is to raise the question of door locking, or to be more precise, the question of unlocking. Having read the American handbook on the Prius, I understand that you can programme the car to automatically lock the doors as you start off. What then is the procedure if you stop to pick up a passenger on the way ? Can you unlock the doors without having to manually open them ? My current car, a Peugot 407, has a specific button to facilitate this but the Prius does not appear to have one.

[Jan&tone]

I am a new member eagerly awaiting delivery of new gen111 T-spirit in March. This forum has been very informative and useful, over the months, in helping to confirm my choice of car.

Firstly I must say that there was a stark contrast between the dealers in my area when I was looking to place an order. The 3 nearest to me exhibited no interest in my potential custom. There was no enthusiasm to demonstrate the car's attributes or to attract me as a customer. Having printed off a good discounted offer available on the internet ( nearly £3,000 savings ) and having visited the local dealer again, I was simply told that they would make a loss if they matched the internet offer and there was no attempt to negotiate a price with me. What a contrast then when I put the same offer to Toyota World in Birmingham. There was immediate enthusiasm to attract me as a customer and to demonstrate the car. They did comment that the internet offer would hardly cover their registration costs but, with no haggling required, said that they would match the internet offer. Needless to say they got my custom.

The main reason for this post is to raise the question of door locking, or to be more precise, the question of unlocking. Having read the American handbook on the Prius, I understand that you can programme the car to automatically lock the doors as you start off. What then is the procedure if you stop to pick up a passenger on the way ? Can you unlock the doors without having to manually open them ? My current car, a Peugot 407, has a specific button to facilitate this but the Prius does not appear to have one.

Hi there, glad you have bought a nice car and welcome to TOC

As far as door locking is concerned, i'm not sure about the option to auto lock the doors, but there is certainly a button on the inside drivers door panel to lock/unlock the doors from inside.

Please bear in mind that there are a number of differences between the us version of the Prius and the UK ones, the grades are numbered differently for a start!

I believe that pretty much the only option is that you can change the way the reverse beep works, but that is a matter of preference, personally i left it as standard, i don't even notice it now and after all, how long do you spend in reverse!!!

[Doesn'tExist]

As Jan&Tone said, I made the dealer show me their programming tools and there just isn't an option for the auto lock doors, you have to press the button yourself.

[Parts-King]

My Verso is programmed to lock the doors above about 20 MPH, it can be programmed on/off at your dealer. Personally I'm not a fan of it, but each to their own eh?

When you stop you have to use the lock/unlock button on the door, which is the bit I find a pain, otherwise everybody is locked in/out

Kingo

[Doesn'tExist]

My Verso is programmed to lock the doors above about 20 MPH, it can be programmed on/off at your dealer. Personally I'm not a fan of it, but each to their own eh?

When you stop you have to use the lock/unlock button on the door, which is the bit I find a pain, otherwise everybody is locked in/out

Kingo

I programmed it myself on my BMW's and Audi's and like the feature, but also any door from the inside just opens with the door handle like normal. Are you saying the Toyota doesn't do that? That seems silly.

Having been subjected to two car jack attempts I always drive with the doors locked. Saved my life and my childrens, that and my reaction on my right foot to drive off and knock them down.

[Parts-King]

On the Verso, any passenger has to flick the lever (next to the door lever) to open the door, if you just pull the handle it doesnt open

I can see it has its uses, in fact, whilst driving through a bit of a dodgy area recently, I was quite glad I had it, BUT at night I find it a pain and any passengers who dont know about it think the child locks are on until you remember to let them out Not good if you are taking someone to the pub and theirs is the first round

Kingo

[Jan&tone]

My Verso is programmed to lock the doors above about 20 MPH, it can be programmed on/off at your dealer. Personally I'm not a fan of it, but each to their own eh?

When you stop you have to use the lock/unlock button on the door, which is the bit I find a pain, otherwise everybody is locked in/out

Kingo

I programmed it myself on my BMW's and Audi's and like the feature, but also any door from the inside just opens with the door handle like normal. Are you saying the Toyota doesn't do that? That seems silly.

Having been subjected to two car jack attempts I always drive with the doors locked. Saved my life and my childrens, that and my reaction on my right foot to drive off and knock them down.

Lol, My Dad told me a very funny story about that once. A guy in a reasonably posh car was in a not very nice area of a town and at a set of traffic ligjts he was surrounded by a group of yobs. He was quite frightened and so when the lights changed he put his finger on the hooter and his foot on the gas... He drove to the local police station (in those days they were all open 24/7) and a constable came over to see what the problem was.

You see, the PC knew there was a problem, by the hand sticking out of the radiator grill that didn't have a body attached to it....

[Doesn'tExist]

LOL Luckily I didn't have body parts stuck on it, may have heard someone but didn't stop to look.

[r04drunner1]

I believe that pretty much the only option is that you can change the way the reverse beep works

That is correct. When I ordered my car, I thoroughly confused the dealer by requesting all sorts of dealer configuration about auto-locks etc. It turned out I was working from the US manual and those options were simply not applicable to the UK spec car. The only thing I could get them to change on my car - and I did - was removal of the reversing beep.

I had autolock on my Jaguar and I found it a reassuring security feature, but it did get rather tiresome when stopping to pick up passengers! I had to keep remembering to release the locks.

If you do ever drive your Prius through a dodgy area and you want to achieve a similar effect, you can activate the central locking via a button on the driver's door just beside the electric window controls. Conversely, there is a button beside that one to de-activate the central locking. Simples.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

The US version will auto lock the doors when setting off but the Jap and Euro versions do not. There is no dealer option available to adjust this for the Euro version.

We get the HeadUp Display but they don't.

Just one of the weird querks.