'Elp! "....if fitted......"

[altocumulus]

How I 'hate' that short two word phrase ...."....if fitted...." It's dogged me for all the cars we've had over the years - and I had hoped not this one!!!!

It's not often we get an early morning trip out, but tomorrow one is due - so I thought an ideal opportunity to try out the "Departure" setup in the charging, to make

the most of night-time electricity to warm up the car.

But NO - I don't (seem) to have the "Climate Prep" setup in my listing :chinscratch:.

I thought, maybe it's because I haven't go it 'switched' on when travelling - so power up and switch on AC - power down.

Charging schedule - edit - no change.

Brochure clearly states "you can even set the car to pre-heat......"

Manual says ".....if fitted...." Grrr!

Is it really missing - as usual the Toyota manual is as clear as mud sometimes with its explanations.

'Elp!!!!!

Edited September 30, 2018 by altocumulus
Simple typo

[altocumulus]

Apologies, I've used the incorrect phrase - It should read "...if equipped..." 😆

[Catlover]

You probably aware that your car manual probably covers all the derivatives in the Prius plug in range, some lower spec'd Prius Pip probably don't have the pre warm facility, hence "if equipped". Maybe the pre warm was an optional extra even on your top of the range Excel model, but there again its only a maybe, I just guessing.

Sure would be handy though.

 

[altocumulus]

Oh indeed, yes the manuals are always written for every version of a model. There's nothing in the specs, not even as an option, for it to be fitted.

Surely in this technological age a garage ought to be able to provide a printout from the factory, using vin, to advise exactly what is fitted.

It is still a shock to discover it isn't there!

[Ten Ninety]

I have departure mode set every day. I don't have the Climate Prep option on the screen like in the manual either, but the car still seems to pre-heat as long as I remember to ensure the temperature is set high enough and the heating isn't in 'Off' mode before powering down the night before. 

[altocumulus]

49 minutes ago, Ten Ninety said:

I have departure mode set every day. I don't have the Climate Prep option on the screen like in the manual either, but the car still seems to pre-heat as long as I remember to ensure the temperature is set high enough and the heating isn't in 'Off' mode before powering down the night before. 

Oh - OK - I'll see what happens in the morning. Will just check the heating is on now.

If it does heat, then Toyota ought to update their manuals/brochures. The online brochure says the same as the paper one.

 

Thanks Jay - you've cheered me up a bit .

[altocumulus]

Schedule set to charge with a departure time of 07:15.

Charge yielded 29.5miles on the Battery.

Cabin as cold as outside!

[Ten Ninety]

OK, so... this is a bit embarrassing but I'm actually no longer sure that I am correct about this! My car is garaged and I don't usually have the interior temp set very high, so when I've got in and it's felt like the interior was warmer than the garage outside, I've assumed it was pre-heating. 

However, as an experiment, I set the temp to 26 degrees (much higher than normal) last night before powering down, to see if I could get a much warmer cabin and therefore run for longer with the heating completely off in the morning. I got in this morning, expecting it to be properly toasty and... it wasn't. At all.

I'm now genuinely confused. There have been a few chilly mornings when, at the time, I was certain that the cabin was warmer than outside. However, I'm now starting to question my own perception and wonder whether I've been deluding myself into feeling it was warmer because I believed and assumed that the pre-heating was working. It even felt chillier on the occasions when I realised I'd forgotten to put the heating on before powering down the night before! Yet this morning, there was no doubt that the cabin had not been pre-heated to the selected temperature at all.

I will continue to experiment, but I fear I've been posting duff information. Sorry!

[RichSH]

This may be a little simplistic but, in the morning,  I simply point the key fob towards the car through the window and hit the A/C button. 

. It's so quick to warm up that 5-7 mins later it's toasty warm and off I go. Who needs heated seats! 

[altocumulus]

11 hours ago, RichSH said:

This may be a little simplistic but, in the morning,  I simply point the key fob towards the car through the window and hit the A/C button. 

. It's so quick to warm up that 5-7 mins later it's toasty warm and off I go. Who needs heated seats! 

Ah - but that's a different process in action (and one the garage pointed me towards). But the brochure clearly suggests that there is a facility to add a heating/cooling section to the charging process that uses the supply from the charger rather than the Battery. For me it was another plus point towards the car. It was only when I looked at one instance when I knew the morning would be chilly and I knew were were leaving on an early start. I could not find the extra setting to switch on the climate - no matter which manual I looked at or which setting.

Following Jay's earlier suggestion I checked the cabin was previously heating at 27C and in the morning found it the same temperature as inside my garage; 8C. So clearly there wasn't an automatic assumption made during the charge-up. However the Battery range was as low as 29.5 miles!

 

Why oh why can we not see a tick sheet to accompany the car to say exactly what it is and isn't equipped with. The VIN should be a single reference. There's no separate option in the brochure listing to give this heat/cool as an extra or standard - so why the 'promise' it happens only to snatch it away? I've asked the garage and also Toyota - but I doubt there'll be an explanation other than "specifications subject to change" - If this, the online brochure should be altered - paper ones in due course with each salesman pointing this anomaly out.

Edited October 2, 2018 by altocumulus
typo as usual :D

[QuantumFireball]

6 hours ago, altocumulus said:

Why oh why can we not see a tick sheet to accompany the car to say exactly what it is and isn't equipped with. The VIN should be a single reference.

PSA have a website that does exactly this (Service Box) - after registering as a fake company I was able to see all the particular factory options for my Peugeot 406 (just by sticking in the VIN), and even see all the parts diagrams (just like what they look at in the parts shop at dealers). Of course it's only for their cars. The French can do some things right 🙂

[altocumulus]

Is it me, or does any one else notice how Toyota don't like responding to questions they don't like answering 😄

 

I guess they will fall back on the small print at the back of the brochure - We may change specifications! (and yet not keep our on-line documentation up to date!)

[altocumulus]

Response from Toyota ...

 

I can confirm that this vehicle is present on your vehicle, accessible by the tft set up. The vehicle will pre heat or cool the vehicle, depending on the temperature setting it has been left at. For example in the summer leave it on a low setting with the air con on before leaving the car. 

 

It seems more experiments needed! How much easier it would have been to leave that on/off setting on the Charge, rather than expect the car to remember its previously used heat setting!!!!!

[Ten Ninety]

I've used the remote control a couple of times now just to see what happens, and that works very well. It confirms my suspicion that I was wrong about my car pre-heating automatically before, as when I've used the remote it's much more noticeable when I get in the car even having left it on a fairly cool setting. 

On 10/4/2018 at 10:47 AM, altocumulus said:

It seems more experiments needed! How much easier it would have been to leave that on/off setting on the Charge, rather than expect the car to remember its previously used heat setting!!!!!

If Toyota are confirming that the Climate Prep is indeed present as a feature, I think some more rooting around in the settings screen may be required to work out how to activate it!

[altocumulus]

12 hours ago, Ten Ninety said:

I've used the remote control a couple of times now just to see what happens, and that works very well. It confirms my suspicion that I was wrong about my car pre-heating automatically before, as when I've used the remote it's much more noticeable when I get in the car even having left it on a fairly cool setting. 

If Toyota are confirming that the Climate Prep is indeed present as a feature, I think some more rooting around in the settings screen may be required to work out how to activate it!

I've rooted, I've even read the manual (!) both the paper copy and the electronic version, trying to understand the poor syntax. There's nothing on pre-heat other than the mention of switching it (Climate) on/off as the third menu option in the setting schedule. There's no mention of the method hinted by Toyota that it automatically assumes you last heat/cooling setting when you use Departure time to charge. It's 'funny' the Battery range was as low as 29.5miles that morning.