I drove my wife over to the grocery yesterday (about 4 blocks) to do some last minute shopping in my '06 Prius. We went in, did our shopping, got back in the car, and it was locked somewhere between on and off. When I went to turn it on, all the red lights came on, but that was it. When I tried to turn it off, it wouldn't turn off all the way. I called the AAA for service, and sent my wife home in a cab. The AAA got there with one of those flatbed trucks. I noticed that by this time, the 12V battery was dead, so the first thing we tried was a jump. No luck. The car was still locked somewhere in no-no land. The next thing was to try to get the damn car onto the flatbed. If he's had a normal wrecker, he could have picked up the front wheels and been off and gone in 20 minutes, but nooooo, he had to get the car onto the flatbed. It took him nearly an hour of backing and filling to pull the car, front wheels locked, up onto the bed. Off the car went to the dealer, too late to see the service department until Monday, and I took a cab home, too (I couldn't climb up into the truck to save my soul, I'm too old and weak.
I'm going to sell the damn Prius and get a car that I can get into neutral if I need it, at the very least. Maybe a Ford Fusion (NOT the hybrid).
-- Regards, Pete snipped-for-privacy@cox.net