I was stuck in traffic tonight thinking the car needed washing and <br>wanting to go to the car wash. But fear of bad car wash drivers was <br>holding me back. I thought it would be great to have a "valet" mode <br>so the guy couldn't mess up thinking the car was off when it wasn't.<br><br>Then it occured to me the car comes with valet mode built in. Just <br>turn on the defroster prior to handing the car over. I considered <br>the Max Air button as well, but they could push it accidentally when <br>cleaning the dash.<br><br>Hope this is a help to all.

Being a newbie here, could you cxplain why turning on the defroster is helpful in a situation like this? Thanks.<br><br>

The engine is forced to run when the A/C compressor is called upon. Either setting MAX AC or using the defroster will do this.<br><br>There have been reports of valet's/car wash attendants/etc having a hard time:<br><br>1) understanding why the starter isn't cranking;<br>2) realizing that the car is under power, even when the engine is not running.<br><br>p

&gt;&gt;&gt; There have been reports of valet's/car wash attendants/etc having a hard time:<br><br>1) understanding why the starter isn't cranking;<br>2) realizing that the car is under power, even when the engine is not running. &lt;&lt;&lt;<br><br>The more serious attendant difficulty is:<br><br>3) not knowing where to look to see what mode ("gear") it's in.<br><br>The carwash attendant that removes the car is frequently not the one that brought the car in. He/she must QUICKLY determine how to drive the car out forward (backward is bad). I got to watch Pikachu almost smash into the car in back of him because of this.<br><br>Robert Snyder

I got to experience the "Prius valet/car wash" syndrome first-hand during our trip to San Diego last week. This episode had a happy ending.<br><br>Our variation was that the hand car wash attendant (understandably) couldn't figure out how to "start" the Prius (it was already in "Ready" mode), nor how to put it into gear (because it wasn't obvious to him where to look for the gear indicator.)<br><br>Luckily I was watching from the sidelines and was able to give him a quick Prius lesson via much Italian-American hand waving on my part. Though I don't speak Spanish and he didn't speak much English, he figured out that "electric car" meant the Prius was "OK/just different", right away.<br><br>(Next time I'll try using the air conditioner "Max" technique.)<br><br>By the time the Prius was all the way through the car wash and was being hand dried, the whole crew of car wash attendents had surrounded the car, checking it out. The car wash manager wanted to know everything about the car. They thought the Prius was _way_ cool.<br><br>So, it turned out to be yet another Prius evangelism opportunity. All's well that ends well.<br><br>- Peter<br>("Prius: Just wash it!")

Both the Max AC and Full Defrost setting cause the engine to stay on all the time, making the car seem normal.