We have had situations presented that turning the key to off is the solution, will hitting the start button turn the car off in all situations? Do not want to try it on wifey new car, you guys know?
Posting an image in post re site problems
works for me
If you need to stop the engine while driving the start - stop button has to be held for 3 to five seconds. Some models may be a little different but just bumping the button will not shut things off.
The problem is a serious one, and there have been incidents reported of people not knowing how to shut their engines off. To any owner of a car with these things, Iâd recommend reading carefully what the ownerâs manual say on the subject.
That is good advice, wifey is still working through the equal size manual for the stereo bluetooth whatever, maybe later the car manual, I perused the manual but may have to read more thoroughly as I must have missed the directions if they were in there., Edit found the directions
52U_(U)
8-1. Essential information
605
RAV4_OM_OM42752U_(U)
8-1. Essential information
8When trouble arises
If your vehicle has to be stopped in an
emergency
Steadily step on the brake pedal with both feet and firmly depress it.
Do not pump the brake pedal repeatedly as this will increase the effort
required to slow the vehicle.
Shift the shift lever to N.
ï” If the shift lever is shifted to N
After slowing down, stop the vehicle in a safe place by the road.
Stop the engine.
ï” If the shift lever cannot be shifted to N
Keep depressing the brake pedal with both feet to reduce vehicle
speed as much as possible.
Vehicles without smart key system:
Stop the engine by turning the
engine switch to the âACCâ
position.
Vehicles with smart key system:
To stop the engine, press and
hold the engine switch for 2
consecutive seconds or more,
or press it briefly 3 times or
more in succession.
Stop the vehicle in a safe place by the road.
Anyone can explain in real talk? What the hell is an engine switch? Start button? OOH OOH, I wanted the 6 cyl but ended up with a 4, switch now?
I think the Acura manual said pushing it for 5 seconds would shut the car off but I may be wrong. The jist was just donât push it momentarily but push it and hold it in. The didnât cover that in Acura class though, I had to read it myself.
The engine switch is the ignition switch. Pushing the button 3 times can be done faster than holding it in. Shifting to neutral is the proper response to unintended acceleration, unfortunately people in a panic think it is not working because they feel no deceleration and the engine is roaring.
Absolutely!
A couple of days ago, I was in the dealershipâs service department while the service writer patiently tried to explain to someone (over the phone) how to turn on his/her windshield wipers. The amount of time that it took him to give this guidance over the phone was nothing short of incredible, because the caller just didnât seem to âget itâ.
If I was the service writer, after a couple of minutes I would have politely told the person to read the appropriate section of his/her Ownerâs Manual while sitting in the driverâs seat, and to call back if things were still unclear.
To be fair, as we learned years ago, people learn in different ways. Some learn by reading, some by watching, some by doing. Expecting someone that learns by doing to read a 400 page owners manual just may not get the job done. When we bought both the Acura and the Pontiac, the sales rep spent at least a half hour in the car explaining how everything worked. Then in addition Acura had a new owners class going over more items. In the old days to turn the wiper on, you turned the switch that was printed in English âwiperâ. Now you get the multi-function switch with little symbols like a windshield or lit headlight on it.
Maybe we need a new standard that says the stalk should go up or down to turn the wipers on but not up in some cars and down in others. Kinda like if you turned the radio knob counter-clockwise to turn it on instead of off.
Thatâs the hell of it, because the salespeople at that dealership spend a lot of time with customers going over the details of the controls, gauges, maintenance schedule, etc when the customer takes delivery. Apparently, this particular customer absorbed little or nothing from the salesmanâs orientation, and it didnât seem to be going particularly well with the service writerâs instructions over the phone.
When the service writer referred to the âstalk on the right side of the steering columnâ, that verbiage seemed to mean nothing to the caller, and terminology such as âintermittent wiper functionâ was apparently not fully comprehended either.
Is it possible the customerâs primary language wasnât english?
Iâm asking because when somebody says âstalk on the right side of the steering columnâ . . . itâs pretty clear to me
But the first thing would be to understand the concept of âsteering columnâ . . . if that means nothing to you, then talking about a âstalkâ may be an exercise in futility
At which point it might be prudent to suggest . . . in a polite manner . . . to read the ownerâs manual. I have found there are times when the ownerâs manual is far more helpful than a guy on the phone
Thatâs the first time Iâve seen an ignition switch referred to as an âengine switchâ. I see unusual wording like that though in some sections of the factory service manual for my Corolla. Iâm guessing those sections were written in a different language and translated to English, probably assisted by a computerized language translator.
The service writer had the call on speaker phone, and I can confidently state that that customerâs primary language was definitely English. Based on the voice that I heard, I think it is fair to say that the caller was an elderly person. This is just speculation, but perhaps that personâs last car was an older American road barge with its controls spaced along the expanse of the dashboard, rather than being grouped on the steering column. Thatâs just my best guess, of course.
When my father drove my '71 Chargerâwhose controls were slightly different than those on his '63 Plymouthâmy father seemed to be flummoxed. If he tried to transition from that '63 Plymouth to a modern vehicle, I can imagine that he would have been totally confused.
I hear you, but I can read about stuff till the world turns blue, but having someone show me once, I have it dialed in. Haveing similar issues with âI HATE DATABASESâ the internet shows 17 different answers, and it seems basics that should be part of the process, are not included, as one should know them already, is it from a dos prompt, a shell prompt, a psql prompt, or maybe it is a json, perl or java script, perhaps c++, sorry to cavetch, but I have a lot to learn, even about driving a stupid car!
Remembering keys cut only on one side, GM, cut side was down, chrysler, cut side was up, the window cranks were one way for gm, the other for chrysler, change brand, relearn, even to this day with electric windows, the controls are different,
Ha ha ha. Just when you were speaking English, you go off on some foreign language. The Senior Center now is starting a program to match high school kids with âseniorsâ to help them with new technology. Patience patience but afterward they said it is helpful to provide written instructions on what they just went over because they forget so fast. Things like how to transfer photos from phones. I should sign up-but wait, I would need a phone that can burp up its pictures first.
I have come to the conclusion that the only manual opened less than the vehicle operator manual is the state driver manual.
We seniors were not brought up in a world of computers, with sublevel menus leading to more sublevel menus, and where two buttons can do a million things if pushed in the right order, and there exists not a shred of logic. Our minds evolved to understand things that make sense, where the logic us up-front and visible. Perhaps itâs the young people who need written instructions on how old people think. Or perhaps thereâs no need for two buttons, each of which goes through a lengthy menu when pushed over and over, each menu leading to countless submenus. Perhaps in many areas such as automobiles it makes more sense to go back to basics.
I realize this is only a simple example, but Iâm kind of sick of having to take my eyes off the road and watch an LCD display while I push a sequential button over and over until I get to the vent configuration I want. The old rotary switch was far, far better. I could do it all by feel, without ever taking my eyes off the road.
Friends donât let friends use DOS. Actually DOS was a huge improvement over the first OS I had to learn for work. ENABLE. It came with a flip chart for determining which âFâ key to use for a prompt.
I first learned computers, in college, writing on Fortran and keypunching into 80-column IBM cards. That was before GUIs, mouses, and all the good stuff that interacting with the harddrive through a GUI possible.
I eventually learned DOS and kept building knowledge as the years went by. Then came the internet. Sometimes I feel like Iâm going backwards now. 
Yes, I am going backwards in the name of going forwards also, I also started with keypunch cards in fortran, was writing scripts and menues when windows first came out, who needs it I thought, got spoiled by point and click GUI, now am regressing to terminal windows, sql commands, I like a key to turn on and off my car, windows was the land of smoke and mirrors, cars are the new land of smoke and mirrors, me I like knowing a circuit, screwdriver and a wrench you can fix a car, no longer the case, much like windows took over the computer world computers has taken over the automotive world. Just got to keep moving on, toss the dwell meter and deal with it.
Itâs a mixed bag. There are a lot of things like backup assist, rear view cameras, and the new automatic stopping features (for pedestrians etc.) that I think are great features, but there are also a lot of things that I donât believe contribute to safety or convenience. Controlling everything with a touch screen and menus is, I believe, much less safe and demand more attention from the driver. All the satellite and internet connectivity are also distracting from the job of driving.
I just read Automobileâs review of the new VW EV bus. They tested that and an old âType 2â microbus around the Bay Area. Interestingly, the reviewerâs comments, while generally good, were that the old microbus seats were more comfortable than the molded foam seats on the new bus. Thatâs a subject that weâve discussed before. Manufacturers have forgotten how to make comfortable seats.
Overall, I was intrigued by the new bus. I really liked a lot of its features. Done reliably, it has the potential to change the minibus world as much as the original did all those decades ago.