Eat my voltage.

[fo0bar]

When I bought my 2002 Prius, I was lucky enough to be one of the few people to get a Prius with a factory-installed "eat my voltage" sticker:



After getting my 2007 Prius, I found myself missing the pretentious sticker. So I decided to recreate it:



FYI, the font I used was Century Gothic bold, a Futura derivative. It's not identical to the to the original sticker's font, but it's close enough.

It looked OK, but the black color didn't work well. In my old Prius, the interior was light-colored, so the sticker showed up decently. In the new Prius, it's a dark interior. Inkjet printers assume they will be printing on a white/light background, so even printing a "lighter" color like green produces too dark a color. Too bad nobody sells consumer inkjet printers with "white" cartridges.

I then talked to a coworker, who mentioned he got custom vinyl lettering done for his (non-Prius) car. I found buildasign.com and placed an order for a ~20" by 2.5" vinyl application sticker. About $19 shipped. Here it is installed:



Forgive the noon sun, the decal actually stands out a lot more than that.



Still waiting on the vanity plates...

[Rae Vynn]

Hehehe! I like it

[bobdavisnpf]

Not sure I've ever seen a Prius that actually had that sticker on it. I chucked mine in pretty short order. Not just because it's, well, a little offensive, but also because it doesn't seem to make any sense to me.

"Eat my dust" I can understand - if I'm driving by on a dirt road or just driving in a polluted city, I'll trail a cloud of kicked-up particles (you don't usually see it in the city, so it's harder for the average bystander to grasp). I don't really expect you to *eat* my dust per se, but if you breathe in, I do expect you to take my dust in... so it's not too much of a stretch.

But when I am driving a Prius past you, the electricity I "feed" you the bystander cannot be readily perceived at any time. When I drive past a bystander I may induce some positive or negative charge on them if my Prius happens to have an imbalance on its outer surface, but this is just a rearrangement of existing electrons. I suppose if the bystander were to ground my Prius - or get close enough to receive a static shock - then this transfer of electrons could be considered a "feeding" of sorts. Still, unless the bystander were somehow advised by the sticker to use their tongue or lips as the contact medium, few would consider this actual "eating" of my voltage in any real sense.

[hobbit]

Y'know, the first thing I think of when looking at that is something
VW might have done. Didn't the bugs or jettas have some slogan in
about that same font in certain packages?
.
_H*

[fo0bar]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hobbit @ Jul 3 2007, 04:12 PM) [snapback]472576[/snapback]</div>

Y'know, the first thing I think of when looking at that is something
VW might have done. Didn't the bugs or jettas have some slogan in
about that same font in certain packages?
[/b]

I think VW uses another similar Futura derivative font for its advertising.

[fo0bar]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bobdavisnpf @ Jul 3 2007, 04:09 PM) [snapback]472572[/snapback]</div>

Not sure I've ever seen a Prius that actually had that sticker on it. I chucked mine in pretty short order. Not just because it's, well, a little offensive, but also because it doesn't seem to make any sense to me.
[/b]

I'll let you know, I seriously weighed all available options, and "eat my voltage" narrowly edged out Calvin peeing on a Hummer.

[qbee42]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(fo0bar @ Jul 3 2007, 09:17 PM) [snapback]472660[/snapback]</div>

I'll let you know, I seriously weighed all available options, and "eat my voltage" narrowly edged out Calvin peeing on a Hummer.
[/b]

You don't want to pee on a Prius because of the voltage.

Tom

[daniel]

In this day and age, I'm not sure it's wise to carry hostile slogans.

[burritos]

On the one hand I like it and that verbalizes how I feel. On the other hand, does it not perpetuate the hybrid smugness image?

[Stev0]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ Jul 4 2007, 12:35 PM) [snapback]472949[/snapback]</div>

On the one hand I like it and that verbalizes how I feel. On the other hand, does it not perpetuate the hybrid smugness image?
[/b]

After I got my Prius, one of the first things I did was search Cafepress for a Prius shirt. And while I did see a few I thought were cool, I suddenly realized - no! I'd just be being a stereotype if I do that!