After driving my Prius fifty miles, I left the engine on while shopping. When I came back to the car, about 15 minutes later, it refused to shift from "park" and warning lights were on. I called the Toyota emergency number and was told that they do only two things, jump start or tow to the nearest Toyota dealer. In my case, it meant a tow of about 150 miles.<br>I am waiting to hear what the Toyota mechanic will find. The tow man opened the hood and found that rodents had chewed on wires, a common problem in the desert. I am hoping that if this is the problem, I wont be stuck with the towing bill.<br>I now have 21,000 miles on the car and at this rate I shall use up the 36,000 mile warranty in about a year. After that, even a simple problem that a trained Prius mechanic can fix in minutes could result in a bill of hundreds of dollars for towing.<br>The "Car Talk" experts say that while the Prius is a great car, we are still hybrid pioneers.

And you "left it on" because?

In response to ekw30776, I left the engine on because my dog was in the car and needed the air conditioning. Arizona is still hot.

When I lived in Scottsdale for 8 years, it was known that leaving the engine running during the heat of the summer was not advisable as the exteme heat produced by the car standing still with the compressor running could actually cause the car to blow up. Perhaps times have changed.<br>Hope your dog is O.K.

In Scottsdale, as in all of the Phoenix area and Tucson, one can be stalled in traffic for longer than I was parked and at much higher temperatures. Any car that would "blow up" under these conditions would be worthless in much of the west. Do you know the song about the day that the freeway froze in Los Angeles?

"Do you know the song about the day that the freeway froze in Los Angeles?"<br><br>Was that the day they had the big earthquake and LA fell in a hole that went to the North Pole? :)

For the record, my Toyota dealer diagnosed and fixed my problem. A pack rat cut a wire which caused an "inverter cooling system malfunction". Because this was not covered by the warranty, it ended up costing me about %600 in towing and repair charges. The interesting thing is that while the car was moving, there was cooling from the motion. That was why I was able to drive 50 miles and then the car died when I left the engine running while parked.

Not being from your part of the country, I'm not familiar with the local fauna. Are you talking about pack rat the animal? Is this auto wire chewing common behavior, and is it a common issue in other cars?<br><br>Burns

I am refering to the pack rat animal. In rural Arizona, this is a common problem with all kinds of cars. In the eleven years that I had my old car, a Toyota disguised as a Chevrolet, the only mechanical problems that I ever had were due to pack rats. The difference is that with the Prius, only an expert could diagnose the problem. This meant a 150 mile tow to my nearest Toyota dealer. With my old car, any shade tree mechanic could fix the problem and the car was never brought to a total standstill.