Former hater turned believer

Your story is not new. It is actually quite common. What usually happens later on is you begin driving the Prius everywhere and become fascinated with it. If your a gearhead, there are lots of cool things on the Prius. Just take a gander at how the transaxle works. Its so simple, it will blow your mind.

HowStuffWorks "The Power Split Device"

 

" I was never a fan of this car, the stigma attached to it and especially the drivers."

Try to drop that attitude.

You hang around this site enough? You should come to realize that Prius Drivers are a diverse group. I would personally never let a supposed "stigma" or stereotype influence whether I liked a vehicle or not. The Prius...is a vehicle. The Drivers? A diverse group of human beings with uncountable reasons for embracing hybrid technology.

I also don't understand why often owning a Prius or driving a Prius is considered an Either/Or scenario. As you have discovered it is quite possible to own a Prius, Drive a Prius and Enjoy a Prius and STILL be a "gear head" .

Believe it or not? I still enjoy the ICE. I still go to auto shows and classic automobile shows. WHEN I win the lottery, I'm getting my 1967 Mustang...with no apologizes to anyone.

Toyota has sold over 5 Million Hybrids. There is not one singular group buying them all.

Your presentation and introduction is interesting as it seems that at almost every step and at almost every level "The Prius" was at least NOT your personal #1 choice.
It's interesting to hear that you have if not been totally swayed...at least have come to appreciate the vehicle.

Plus...don't dump Prius ownership totally on your wife. I hate owners that "hide" from Prius ownership by always defining it as being "The Wifes" vehicle..or the Wifes Choice. Hey, it's a marriage...YOU BOTH own a Prius now. Man up and deal with it.

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you should have waited for the accord hybrid. all the mpg's with none of the stigma!

 

Every car is 'perfect' until it exists.

 

reality has no advantage over fantasy.

 

Hapa DC5 New Member

Since: Thursday​

He's an FNG. Give him a break.

OP, you are correct. There ARE a**hole Prius drivers...a small percentange. But there are those same type associated with anything you can name. The people here at PC are helpful and polite, and only occasionally condescending.

As with any other forum, enjoy your conversations with the friendly people and ignore the buttheads.

 

Prius, and the lifestyle it has become poster boy for, is a lot like a religion. It's difficult to discuss religion with some people. I try mightily to avoid them at all times.

We got our first Prius in '09. It's wifes car, but my name is on it. She chose it for the pocket protector factor because she's a geek programmer type and the technology thing is strong in her. Plus she couldn't get all her shopping into a Miata convertible like she really wanted to get. When I first got here to PC the religion feel was strong. It's abated some, but not gone completely away. I'm an old gun-totin', redneck, hippie, garden-growing, technology-using, prior military type (lots of identity issues to work through ) that has come to enjoy saving money on gas. You'll have to pry my 10mpg F250 Super Duty V10 4wd from my cold dead hands, but I enjoy getting into my bright-stinkin'-orange Prius C every morning and zipping off into the sunrise.

I have buddhist tendencies and try hard to maintain good feelings towards all and to let everyone live their own life without being judgemental or cruel. Not everyone is on board with that, but can be influenced by seeing it in action. That's a good way to be here on PC, and anywhere else.

Welcome aboard, and happy motoring.

 

Greetings and Welcome Aboard!

Open up your mind a little bit, read and learn.
You'll be rewarded with a 50-MPG car that's better than you probably think that it is, being driven by people that might just surprise you at times with their diversity and tolerance.
--- after all, they've (mostly) put up with people like me for 3 years.

I don't own a Prius.
My company threw it into my parking lot to replace my almost dead 96 Chevy with lunar mileage, sagging everything, and questionable A/C.
It was NOT love at first sight.
I've come to respect Priuses and their drivers enough to publicly defend both over the last three years in no small part to the patience of many of the regulars on this forum.

GOOD LUCK!
Enjoy those $30 fill-ups!!

 

My prius story... I was never a "hater" but I was defiantly VERY skeptical. A couple years ago one of my eclectic friends decided he was going to build an electric car. Being a good friend I offered my advice and did some surfing on his behalf which included coming to understand the brilliant design of the prius synergy drive. I too am a bit of a motorhead and never thought I'd see myself behind the wheel. My relationship with my 95 Tacoma is the longest of my life by far. With 280k on the clock it's never let me down, I don't think I've spent $1000 on repairs in 18 years and I've stretched every absolutely mandatory service interval to the limit and ignored many service items. It's never had any drivetrain work done, on the original clutch still and has never had a valve cover off.

Welcome to 2013, time for new wheels. I am NOT a big fan of all the airbags and electronics in new cars. My list of minimum needs is small; cruise, air and intermittent wipers. I despise automatic transmissions and the new rage of 6+ speeds really turns me off with all the shifting and subsequent clutch wear. The few manual boxes you can find are 6sp and many are not available with cruise as they can't reliably pull any significant hills in 6th. After driving the camery and smaller options I half jokingly took a prius out for a test drive. First time in my life to be inside one. I was amazed how well seamlessly integrated all the systems were and how big and comfy it is on the inside. Thinking back on my knowledge of the synergy system, I realized I was driving what now I feel is the best option. Functional cruise w/o the shifting required by "modern" fuel efficient transmissions. Nothing to wear out! I'd seen a few mentions of taxi fleets love of the prius. Anyway, that's how I ended up in a Prius. I hope the prius lives up to what I've come to expect from toyota!

On another note: The eclectic friend ended up buying a Solectria/geo metro electric car with dead lead acid batteries. We put lithium batteries in it a couple years ago. It really turned out to be an amazing car. Will run 80-100 miles on a charge with adequate performance. So far, after 50k+ miles there is no noticeable decline in the batteries and he couldn't be happier with it. He pulls a little trailer with it and hauls lots and lots of stuff. It's a bit too much of a compromise for my taste but has shown me what should be possible today. A modern version with a few more creature comforts is the perfect 2nd car for a 2 car household. Weight is the enemy and I suppose that is still what's holding back the pure electrics with all the current mandatory equipment but I do feel like I've seen the future.