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For those who wear spectacles and experience glare from car lights at night or in poor light conditions, it may be worth looking at the different types of lenses available. For example Zeiss have their DriveSafe lenses, of which one of the benefits is reduced glare from street lights and car lights. My wife has these and found them to be better for her. https://www.zeiss.co.uk/vision-care/en_gb/products-services/spectacle-lenses/drivesafe-lenses.html Obviously there may be alternatives on offer.

Brake lights don't blind anyone, unless that individual is so visually-impaired they shouldn't be driving at night in the first place. The glare may be mildly uncomfortable to look at, and it is perfectly reasonably for you to wish to minimise others' discomfort, but let's not make out that it's some kind of an unforgiveable sin to not be overly bothered about this. I would respectfully suggest your old driving instructor could perhaps have laid off with the threats of GBH and instead promoted the zen-like art of finding something other than the brake lights of the car in front to stare at whilst in traffic. It's definitely better for the blood pressure! Regarding safety, I prefer prevention to mitigating impact. So whilst coming off the brake in a collision is certainly a valid downside to keeping your foot on the pedal, it's worth bearing in mind that you are far less likely to be hit in the first place if your brake lights are actually illuminated. It's also far quicker to take evasive action if you see someone approaching rapidly in the mirror than it is if you have to release the handbrake, get into gear or shift out of park. Pete has already described his approach of waiting until a car appears behind before taking his foot off the brake, which seems like a sensible approach to both these issues. However, at that point, you have an entire car's worth of shock absorption behind you, which means far less need to be concerned about a serious impact anyway. I'm not posting the above in any attempt to change anyone's views - just to explain why I adopt the foot-on-brake approach. None of us are going to change what we've done for years just because of what some other random dude on the internet says, but it's always interesting to get an insight into the thinking behind others' driving behaviour. This thread also reminds me of why I still come back to this forum to post now and again: because people on here can have an argument without descending into the aggression or name-calling that characterises some other motoring websites!

I have a Gen 4 Prius Excel and over recent months the external door handles on both front doors have stopped returning to their shut positions. They now have to be pushed the last 6mm or so to click shut. The fault has got progressively worse as when it first started, the inertia of shutting a door made the handle finally click into place. This no longer works. I thought a bit of grease or WD40 would cure the problem but as the car is only 18 months old, I decided to let my Toyota dealer do this. However, after examining the handles, the Service Dept. said the problem is more complex and they need to take the handles apart. This may involve stripping parts of the doors. On PriusChat an owner from Ireland recently reported the same problem but no one has offered an explanation. Has anyone else come across this on a Gen 4 Prius?

Before looking to replace an expensive ECU register and spend a few quid to access Toyota's technical repair manuals at www.toyota-tech.eu as all the checks for P0808 look at the clutch stroke sensor and only if it and the wiring connections check out does the MMT ECU become the culpritt

@kithmo - IT's a valid question seeing as literally 99% of road users DON'T use handbrake-neutral!! But no, it's not just my opinion; This is what the highway code explicitly says, and was virtually hammered into me by my driving instructor! ;) You can and will quickly rack up minors until they become an insta-fail major fault for not doing handbrake+neutral in a manual car when stationary during a driving test! @Ten Ninety - During the day they're fine, but it's dusk and night that is the problem - Maybe many people have fairly poor nightvision, but as someone who has quite good eyesight and nightvision, I can say brake lights *are* blinding at night, especially these new super-bright LED arrays that you get on e.g. newer Audis and Priuses! Just a second at night is enough to leave a bunch of blobs in my vision which could easily lead to me missing one of the Dressed-In-Black suicidal pedestrians that tend to randomly run across the road in the places I drive. Some years ago I started just closing my eyes while waiting in traffic at night because I can see the glow of the brakelights *through my eyelids*! And clearly enough to see when they go out and know it's time to move! @Dancing Badger - I play that game too! XD Usually I am the only person doing neutral+handbrake sadly, and it's so rare to see another person do it that when I do I get disproportionately excited... >_> It warms my heart to read so many of you don't stand on the footbrake for ages - It's so rare to see it in The Real World, and it makes me feel a bit better to know I'm not the only person who actually paid attention to the highway code! ^___^

OK, so in context: most of the time, people leaving their brake lights on don't bother me at all, especially in daylight or at night on a well lit area of road. occasionally, they are mildly to significantly annoying, more so at night in poorly lit areas, even worse when it's wet on very rare occasions, when it's dark and possibly wet as well, and the vehicle in front has particularly bright brake lights, it causes such discomfort that I place the sun visor in their way and/or squint, trying to maintain some night vision for when the traffic moves and the brake lights extinguish. Now, it is very likely the drivers of cars in category three have no idea they are causing such discomfort, and the offending vehicles often (but not always) tend to be either large, recent SUV types or ones that appear to have had modified light clusters fitted (and may well be illegal under the Construction and Use regulations). Equally, I have no idea what, if any, effect my brake lights have on others, bearing in mind we will all have different levels of sensitivity, without necessarily being in a category that should refrain from night driving (to date, I don't recall having been behind a Gen 4 Prius at night with it's brake lights on). Therefore, I do my best not to be showing brake lights for longer than is necessary, once at least one or two vehicles have stopped behind me, just in case they cause problems for following occupants. As an aside, while stopped with nothing behind me, I pay a lot of attention to my mirrors and show brake lights once something approaches until I'm happy it is probably going to stop. If it's approaching at speed, I may also briefly release and reapply the brake pedal to increase the awareness of approaching traffic. I may at this stage use hazard lights too.

Haven't VAG heard of chains? That was one less thing to worry about on the T25.

UPDATE 18 Jan 2018 I now recommend fitting one of these cost £69.00 FAP DPF Emulator for TOYOTA D4D, DCAT *** CAN BUS version eBay item number 122289701127 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FAP-DPF-Emulator-for-TOYOTA-D4D-DCAT-CAN-BUS-version/122289701127?hash=item1c7908c107:g:Th0AAOSwRLZUEVaf II have listed their claims below note units do take around two weeks to arrive, I confirm that we have fitted five to date and not had one issue plus I’m delighted to say that NONE of our fourteen Avensis currently smoke therefore I have no hesitation in recommending these units though I have not actually noticed any better fuel consumption but to be honest I not have I done any before and after checks of consumptions. Their notes copied from eBay GUARANTEE: no more dpf diesel particulate filter problems better fuel consumption no white smoke no warning light (regarding DPF FAP filter) no more regeneration Lifetime warranty Technical support and installation instructions sent by email. This device have a waterproof design - can be mounted under the engine bonnet. We recommend to make installation of this device for qualified specialist only. Back to Me Fitting his unit cured smoking problem including the ones that were fixed using the other methods I have listed on the forums that had started smoking again. Point to note is that THREE lots of wiring diagrams are included with kit make sure whoever fits kit picks the right one for the age / model of your Avensis. If you go down this route NOTE you do not have to block or Blank off the fifth injector in fact the supplier recommends that you leave it in place some wires to the ECU and fifth injector have to be cut bypassing various measurements making this a job not for the none confident so I would suggest fitting is best left to a competent auto electrician. NOTE THIS WILL NOT fix faulty injectors so if that’s your issue you will still need to sort that. If you try this PLEASE Re Post and let us all know how you get on as I have not had one fail to cure problem yet. Best regards, Mel. Hope this helps anyone still having problems. BUT PLEASE DO NOT contact me if the advice on the Forums or this document do not fix your problem as to date I have nothing more I can add Best Regards, Mel. 17 Jan 2018 z99Smoking Avensis 02 Sep 2015 -17 Jan 2018.docx