The manual says when parking the car, with the shift level still in the position other than P, u apply the parking brake first, then shift the lever to P. This is oposite to the conventional car. And I found that a bit weird... What do you guys do?

i actually never use the parking brake, since the front wheels are locked in P anyway.

If you park on a steep hill, you want the parking brake holding the load of the car, not the parking pawl in the transmission. Following the order suggested in the owner's manual (apply parking brake, then shift to P) will insure this. If you do it the other way (out of habit, ...) just make sure you don't release the main brake before the parking brake is set. This advice applies to all automatic transmission cars, not just the Prius.<br><br>If you're not on a hill, the order doesn't really matter. Though not strictly necessary, using the parking brake is still a good idea even on level ground since it helps avoid damaging the transmission if someone runs into you.<br><br>Robert Snyder<br>NJ-PIKACHU

I don't know. I might park then set the parking brake, or I might set the parking brake and then park. I don't think about it. &lt;shrug&gt;<br><br>I guess I overlooked that in the manual. I'm not too worried. (My biggest problem is remembering to unset the parking brake before backing out of my parking space...)

hm, after reading Robert's post, that reminded me... I have the habit of keeping my foot on the brake pedal when I park, pretty much right until I'm about to get out of the car. So, the usual brakes are still applied whenever I do set the parking brake. (My current home parking lot is on a slight incline.)

The reason I am asking you guys about your parking habit is that I found this a bit weird: I have been parking the conventional cars by pressing the car-brake, setting shift lever to P, then applying hand-brake. But then with the Prius, following the oposite way (still pressing the car-brake, applying the parking brake, then setting the shift-lever to P). So following this procedure, what happened was that sometimes, the Prius moved forward a bit as I move the shift-lever to P, which is not quite right (I think)...

That's interesting. I know you can't get it out of P without pressing the main brake pedal, so I'd always assumed you couldn't put it into P without pressing the main brake pedal. It's probably moving because you have to go past R to get to P and that tells the motor to move you backward.<br><br>Robert Snyder<br>NJ-PIKACHU

I always use that order, and have on all of my wife's cars (my cars have all been standard before the Prius). I don't think it is special to the Prius, though I don't know if other cars talk about it in the manual.<br><br>The thing is that park has a fairly small little gizmo (called a Park paul, no offense to anyone named that; it is sort of a bar that fits into a notch on a gear) to hold the car. This is not very big and has been known to break. You want the parking brake doing the actual holding, especially when you are on a hill.<br><br>BTW, this may be old knowledge and may not be a problem any more, but hey...I still don't like when the car rolls a bit if you put it in park on a hill.<br><br>Burns

If you are saying that you hold the foot brake, put in Park, push the parking brake, and then release the footbrake, that may be the order I actually do it. The point is that I don't allow Park to take the load. I do notice that after the parking brake is pushed the car moves a couple inches and seems to ride up a bit, as though it were starting up over a bump. Seems to be related to parking vs foot brake, not Park, though. Odd; I had not thought about it.<br><br>Burns

Ok, I get it now, you're talking about the fact that on a hill, the car's weight transfers from the front wheels to the back wheels when you release the main brake with the parking brake engaged. Happens on all cars that use the back brakes for parking brakes. And pretty much any car that has front disks and back drums uses the back brakes for parking brakes because it's mechanically much easier to do.<br><br>Robert Snyder<br>NJ-PIKACHU

The car-brake is applied so as to hold the car while I shift the lever to P; then the car must not be moving anymore. Next, the parking brake is applied. I've found that this technique results in a smooth parking, unlike the oposite way, which results in car creeping forward or backward.

Hi all:<br><br>As reported by my local Honda dealer, the 2003 Civic HYBRID as promised by March 2002 will NOT be available at your local dealer's showroom for another 2-3 months. FYI.<br><br>-Michael<br>CA "01 Prius"