Toyota Aygo Features & Quirks

Our Toyota Aygo X Hybrid comes with the latest bells and whistles Toyota has to offer. A huge multimedia screen with various features and a digital dashboard with even more features. However, the features are not always clearly explained in the manual. I’ll also add a few tips & tricks.

Multimedia Screen

The Aygo X Hybrid comes with one of 2 possible multimedia units:

Ours has the Toyota Smart Connect MM21 unit, so these things might only apply to this model.

Service menu

Make sure to put any nearby phone to airplane mode and disable Bluetooth so no device is connected to the multimedia unit. Then go to Settings → Display and turn it off.

Tap the screen once to wake it, then swipe 5 times from left to right (→) followed by 5 times right to left (←). It takes a bit of practice. If done correctly, you should be greeted with this:

Failure Diagnosis – haven’t tried this one.
Function Check/Setting – lets you test various switches and sensors
Service Information – version information and update options
Product Information – info about VIN, multimedia unit, DCM IMEI, DCM ICCID, etc.

There’s no option to “leave” the service menu. The only way is to reboot into normal mode by pressing and holding the volume button for about 5 seconds until the screen goes blank. Once the unit reboots, it’ll ask you to confirm leaving diagnostics mode.

Efficient ventilation mode

Found in the Settings → Vehicle customise → Climate menu on the multimedia screen. According to the PriusChat forum (which references the Prius Repair Manual), it makes the A/C turn on recirculation mode to support faster cooling of the cabin if needed, e.g. after your car sat in the sun for a while.

It also might disable recirculation mode automatically when the car is parked with it still turned on.

The “Vehicle customise” menu only appears when the car is in READY mode.

ACC customise

Also found under Settings → Vehicle customise → Utility . I haven’t verified it yet, but this Reddit post explains it like this:

ACC customise ON – when parking the car and turning off the ignition via the Start/Stop button, the multimedia system will turn off as well
ACC customise OFF – when parking the car and turning off the ignition, the multimedia system will stay on (ACCessory mode) until you leave the car

The PriusChat forum has a more detailed explanation:

The ACC customise option removes the separate ACC mode, so you only have OFF, POWER ON and READY.

And it makes it so that the radio/navigation system stays on when you go to OFF, until you open the door […] and I think it also makes it start to initialise when you approach/unlock so it starts up faster.

Vehicle suggestions

Located directly under the ACC customise setting. Haven’t verified what it does, yet. However, a quick Google search says it might have to do with these various popup messages like when you enable Dynamic Cruise Control where it reminds you to keep your hands on the wheel, etc.

Overtake Prevention

This one is found in the dashboard/MID menu under Settings → Vehicle Settings → DRCC/Speed Limiter.

This should be labelled “Undertake Prevention” as it keeps you from undertaking. While driving using Dynamic Radar Cruise Control (DRCC), if the car detects another car on the outer lane that goes slower than you, it’ll slow you down as well so you don’t “undertake”. This will be accompanied by a pop-up message “Overtake Prevention” on the dashboard screen. You can dismiss the action by tapping the accelerator pedal once. This will make you accelerate to the set speed (or that of the leading car) again.

Low petrol warning

According to the manual, the Aygo’s tank capacity is 30 litres and the warning light is supposed to come on when there are only 4.5 litres left.

Screenshot from the Toyota Aygo owner's manual: "Fuel tank capacity: 30.0 litres (7.9 gal, 6.6 Imp. gal.)"

Another excerpt from the car's owner's manual: "Low fuel level warning light. Shows a pictogram of the petrol pump icon. Indicates that remaining fuel is approximately 4.5 litres (1.2 gal., 1.0 Imp. gal.) or less."

The “Low fuel level warning light” usually turns on when the range indicator shows something around 30 miles. I’ve recently refilled with the remaining range indicator down to only 5 miles. Still, I was only able to put 24.5 litres into the tank. This means there should’ve been about 5.5 litres of petrol left.

I suspect the 4.5 litres remaining is when the range indicator reaches 0. At an average consumption of 70+ Imp. MPG (< 4.0 l/100km) this would still give you well over 100 km or 60 miles emergency range. Weird.

Although, it’s probably more likely that the 30 litres capacity also means all the air pockets and areas not used for petrol storage. The actual liquid capacity is probably more like 26-28 litres, then.