Jerk At Work Harassing Me Over Prius

[KandyRedCoi]

Originally Posted by Yak18

Ok, this is the guy who indicated I was stupid for buying a Prius back in April. Today he quotes Clark Howard about the payback period of a Prius. He says I should have bought a Yaris (or Civic like he did).

What should I tell this idiot?

BTW: I have to carpool with said idiot.

also getting some heat at the LotusTalk forum

they said that buying a corolla, yaris, mini, mazda3 is better because it will take about 5yrs to pay the cost difference back and not have to worry bout the "stupid" battery / electrical issues that may arise?!?

how to handle this situation???

[pdhenry]

The "time to pay off the cost differential" argument ignores the higher resale value of a used Prius.

[dwdean]

Originally Posted by Earthling

A third person said, "What car gets 54 miles per gallon?" She honestly didn't think that was possible, and apparently had never heard of a Prius.

To within reason, I've learned to not talk too much about the FE that I get. When people who don't know me hear about what I'm getting, I've noticed that I get some pretty dirty looks. Besides doing this routine is getting a little old:

Them: You can't be serious.
Me: Yes, I am.
Them: But that's not possible.
Me: Yes, it is, wanna see the log?
Them: Holy @#$( !!!!

This has gotten sort of like doing "Who's on first?"

It's also invariably followed by one, or more of the following:

1. It's not cost effective to own.
2. You know the battery costs like $80 bizillion to replace.
3. There's no advantage to driving that on the freeway.
4. It's a gutless wonder.
5. So where do you plug that in at work?

The only one of these I still like is #5 because I really do want the ability to plug it in...

The rest are just short of automatic at this point. I bet many of you could actually script these conversations without having heard a single word that either party actually said.

However, not everyone I've done this routine with is ready for the conclusion. The ones that "can't" or "won't" see the point can't be budged. There's really nothing that can be said to them that will sway their opinions. The best resolution to these conversations is the simply "agree to disagree" and drop the topic permanently.

If you allow the discussion to be tabled for resumption later, you're just likely to get really annoyed. Remember, our opinions are likely as entrenched as the other person's. Yes, there are degrees and concessions, but I doubt that any of us are going to be swayed into selling our Prius and buying a Yaris or a Matrix or even thinking that those might the right cars for us.

[donee]

Originally Posted by tnthub

Lets say, in general, the difference is 10mpg between the two vehicles and you travel 10,000 miles per year.

Except, I am doing 20 mpg better than a Yaris a friend at Work has (65.9 versus 45 mpg over the same period). And this is like 37.9 mpg better than my old SL2. The Prius is so much easier to do mild hypermiling in traffic with.

That is $273.5 a 10000 mile year savings in fuel over the Yaris, and $813.2 than the SL2 (which is better than a Ion in mileage rating).

I think the issue comes down to cash/versus loan purchase, and people's eyesight. The cash purchase has less cost of money. But there is cost of money either way, of course. And the smaller car is more likely to be run into by poor drivers. At least that was my experience with my similar sized SL2.

For guys like us that can and do do our own brakes/alternators/starters, the cost advantage is probably to the Yaris. But for the general public, the two cars are pretty close in total cost of ownership, assuming you want an automatic transmission and anti-lock brakes/traction control in the car one purchases. Being in the northern teir states, I just cannot think of buying a car without traction control, myself. Oh, except if one lives in a state that has a car property tax (like CT).

[timwalsh300]

Originally Posted by KandyRedCoi

also getting some heat at the LotusTalk forum

they said that buying a corolla, yaris, mini, mazda3 is better because it will take about 5yrs to pay the cost difference back and not have to worry bout the "stupid" battery / electrical issues that may arise?!?

how to handle this situation???

The irony here is that probably none of those people drive any of the cars mentioned.

MSRP on a Lotus Elise is $46,270 - over $25,000 more than I paid for my Prius. Ask them how many years it will take their car to pay back that premium at an EPA combined 23 mpg.

Ask them why their choice of car was a smarter purchase than a Corolla or a Yaris.

Tim

[FL_Prius_Driver]

Yak18 - Don't overlook the obvious. He is constantly talking about it because it is constantly on his mind! Use this to your advantage. He is like a fly in a spiderweb, complaining that the spiderweb is flimsy.

[Zythryn]

Originally Posted by Bill Merchant

Where do all these trolls come from? Begone! whistle blown

Ex Ford and Ex GM workers?

[McShemp]

To the OP: Is you carpool situation one where you each share driving your own cars and paying your own expenses? Do you alternate driving days or weeks? I only ask because that's been my experience. However, I've known people to equate ride sharing - where on person pays another to share their ride - with carpooling. In that case you'd be doing all the driving and your co-worker would be paying you to ride along (or not).

[tnthub]

Originally Posted by donee

Except, I am doing 20 mpg better than a Yaris a friend at Work has (65.9 versus 45 mpg over the same period). And this is like 37.9 mpg better than my old SL2. The Prius is so much easier to do mild hypermiling in traffic with.

That is $273.5 a 10000 mile year savings in fuel over the Yaris, and $813.2 than the SL2 (which is better than a Ion in mileage rating).

I think the issue comes down to cash/versus loan purchase, and people's eyesight. The cash purchase has less cost of money. But there is cost of money either way, of course. And the smaller car is more likely to be run into by poor drivers. At least that was my experience with my similar sized SL2.

For guys like us that can and do do our own brakes/alternators/starters, the cost advantage is probably to the Yaris. But for the general public, the two cars are pretty close in total cost of ownership, assuming you want an automatic transmission and anti-lock brakes/traction control in the car one purchases. Being in the northern teir states, I just cannot think of buying a car without traction control, myself. Oh, except if one lives in a state that has a car property tax (like CT).

I agree with you. The Prius is a "real" car, with good safety features, very low emissions, great gas mileage, that seats more people and carries more stuff than a Yaris econobox. Although i do not know if the Yaris follows the example of the Geo metro, (I formerly owned a Geo Metro), on the Geo I recall replacement brakes/rotor assembly cost almost 1/2 the resale value of the car after a few years...

I do not know how something like a Yaris can even be cosidered comparable to the Prius.

What I do know is that an extremely low buy in point for whatever vehicle can potentially lower the cost of ownership. One of my vehicles is a 1998 Mercury Sable wagon... I paid less than $800.00 for it, with 56,000 garage kept miles on the ticker, and it came with new tires and brakes... never been in an accident and it was owned by the father of a 70 year old secretary who formerly worked for my Uncle. When I received the I got 24 miles per gallon out of it. my last fill up I had achieved 30.2 miles per gallon.

What is most appalling to me is that somehow we have very few decent sized new vehicles that can achieve even 40 miles per gallon, regardless of the technology implemented. If I can get 30 miles per gallon out of a 4000 pound six cylinder wagon that is ten years old it seems alomst impossible that modern day vehicles cannot do significantly better as they come from the factory.

[KandyRedCoi]

Originally Posted by timwalsh300

The irony here is that probably none of those people drive any of the cars mentioned.

MSRP on a Lotus Elise is $46,270 - over $25,000 more than I paid for my Prius. Ask them how many years it will take their car to pay back that premium at an EPA combined 23 mpg.

Ask them why their choice of car was a smarter purchase than a Corolla or a Yaris.

Tim

90+% of the lotus guys only use their cars for recreation and some of them do drive said cars such as mini's corollas, and yaris etc.

i think they are missing the point that other than gas mileage the prius is still a much more superior car hence the price difference


but as some PC members have mentioned, there is no convincing people that are very "closed" minded