Sometimes I feel ashamed of my Prius

Any of the "manly" types, just accuse them of bumming bin laden, after all, why would they -choose- to burn so much oil in their 5 series/4x4 unless they loved bin laden?
Or put a bumper sticker on their car
"This car put Bin Laden's kids through college!"

 

Funny when I first read your post, and can relate your experience to my own here in Melbourne, Australia. Here we produce monsters V6/V8 American designed.... ops I mean Australian... Fords/GM Holdens, so you will be seen by some as whimpy in a Prius. I do not drive my Prius gently and always travel over the speed limit (yet still getting over 50MPG), I overtake as I see fit, but some V8 drivers did not like me overtaking and attend to overtake me back, but guess what, I just ignore them. It doesn't help when those idiots from topgear bagged it so much... but they did give Prius an award (2009 city car of the year), so all is even.

As for my work colleagues, some laughed, some joked, but I just tell them "I just halved middle eastern men's wealth, what about you?" Most questioned with curiosity rather than negative remarks, and my job is to inform and educate them about the car. And I am not ashamed of driving one given all these indifferent views.

Over the past 16 months of ownership, I have changed my mind of swapping this car for an Insight at the end of my lease due to a couple of financial reasons, and also this car very practical. For example, out of the Prius, Mazda6, Ford Falcon, Renault Megant, my small Prius is the only car that fits a whole roadbike without detaching both wheels! Love it when I gave it back to the Falcon driver, so much for such a big car!

Just drive it and ignore all the negative remarks... laugh it off and move on. Given GFC Mark II is around the corner, you need this car to keep your running cost down in the not too distance future!

Happy Priusing

 

I just challenge them to compare gas receipts! I also jot my mileage and calculated MPG on the receipt and pin them to my cubicle wall, that tends to shut them up as well... One guy in the office drives a Jeep that he claims can't get much over 14 mpg, every time he see a new receipt he just shakes his head and walks away... Another used to drive a Ford Explorer, he's now driving a Prius. It may take some time, but eventually they will see the light!

Of course I also have a couple guys in the office that drive larger targets than a Prius, one drives a purple Miata and the other drives a Smart Car, so I'm not normally the target of opportunity in my office!

 

Wow, he must really be pushing that Jeep. I've had my brothers Jeep Wrangler for the past 3 weeks or so and I've managed 16.5 mpg in it (calculated - it doesn't have a gauge) and that's with my 4.5mi commute with 9 traffic lights (timed so that at least half are red). These things have a built-in headwind (as I call it) because it's basically just a big box you're pushing through the air. I can absolutely understand his response to your receipts. I grumbled every fill-up in this thing, and can't wait to get my car back in 2 weeks. I plan on telling my brother he owes me another $100 to compensate for the gas usage difference

 

Sometimes I feel ashamed of my gender.

I am tempted to add to my 'who should not own Prius' post weak 'guys' swayed by the jokes of other 'guys'. Perhaps if you are male, you need to consider are you a 'man'?

I am driving a 5.7l Toyota Tundra this week, 17 MPG instead of 45 MPG, I will be glad when the body shop is done with my Prius. (Other driver started a left turn, saw me and panicked, stopping at a 45 degree angle, using the entire lane)

 

I suggest watching a little South Park - your particular Prius is filled with SMUG - that's your only issue....

 

Boy did that bring back a memory!! I had been working for a year in a lab in La Jolla, CA. One of my co-workers was an extremely beautiful young woman. We were friends but I never asked her out because (a) she had very high standards in men and (b) working in the same small space would have been really awkward if things didn't work out. I was leaving to take another job, so she and another friend there (likewise a gorgeous young woman from another lab who was dating the boss of a third lab) asked me out to lunch. We went to a place frequented by business guys. All through lunch I could see guys sneaking glances at this nondescript long-haired guy in jeans and sandals with two drop-dead gorgeous women and wondering, "what's he got?" Answer: absolutely nothing!! I almost burst out laughing several times.

 

People Look at these videos and tell me who is having an inferiority complex!
Prius will outlast their cars, OK.

Consumer Reports Video Hub - Cars - Hybrids & Alternative Fuel - Do hybrid cars hold up?

Consumer Reports Video Hub - Cars - Hybrids & Alternative Fuel - How well does the Toyota Prius hold up?

 

this is pure jealousy, why i don't know. i watch these people in a parking lot, walking 360 degrees around a prius, from a good distance. so not to be noticed. it is really comical. usually i'm sitting in my venza, waiting for my wife to come out of the doctors office. also i've noticed if theres a prius in a parking lot, and it's surrounded by other parked cars, as soon as a spot opens up next to it, someone will switch spots to be nearer to it. go figure?

 

1. Loss of "man points"
Refer to: [ame=http://www.cafepress.com/+nice_truck_little_weenie_sticker_bumper,272925916]Nice Truck Little Weenie Sticker (Bumper) by allstuckup- 272925916[/ame]

2. Prius has a higher safety rating than most pickup trucks. It's just that their drivers drive like the fools they are, when not at the filling station. Trucks are for work, not the grocery store.

3. Prius is one of the most reliable cars on the road today. Plus, you know its a hybrid not an electric.

4. Your friend with the BMW sounds like almost everyone who drives that brand; yes I mean a pr.ck. And from the sound of it an immature one.

5. I've finally learned to pull over and let them pass. Or, if you want a fight refer to #1.

 

I work for a major Highway construction company in NC. I have been driving my prius to work for over two years. Only one person makes fun of me for having it, and he's just playing around. People who don't vote ot don't vote GOP ask me questions about it. The Fox news/ GOP people just spread lies about my car. . A few hardcore GOP/fox news watchers see my car then start telling others hat i have to replace my batteries every two years for 7,000. I just tell them no, Toyota warranties them for 8 years or 100,000 miles.

Sounds like you are around a bunch of stupid people. Their not better than you cause they burn 2-5 times as much gas as you do. Sounds like they got their own problems, or their do sound like the hardcore GOP/ fox news watchers i see from time to time in construction that will make fun of my car. But i don't let them get to me, I have no respect for them. They are just full of lies, The civil war wasn't about slaves. The prius is worse than a hummer on the planet. The president is not an american. You have to buy new batteries all the time. It's just best to ignore them, the only way they will believe anything is if it is said on fox news.

 

What is this? High school all over again? They need to grow up, and you need to learn how to not give a F.:usa2: (no pun intended, by the way). Most people's attitude changes when they sit, or drive in a Prius. Till then, they are all very mis-informed.

 

Celebrity Hybrid Drivers
Old 2006 list

"Forgive the generalization, but hybrid drivers tend to be free thinkers who resist the over-commercialized, celebrity-obsessed aspect of American society. But with so many celebrities jumping on the hybrid bandwagon, it's hard to ignore their potential influence in getting more people to think about ditching their gas-guzzlers for a hybrid.

“We wallow in what happened on 9/11, instead of focusing on what we can do. And when someone presents an idea of what we can do, [people say] ‘Oh, I'm sorry, that's too much of a sacrifice.’”
- Bill Maher"

Here's an unofficial, unverified, and incomplete list of actors, singers, and pundits who were early adopters of hybrids.

Celebrity Hybrid Drivers | Hybrid Cars

 

Just the one correction: the Prius is built in Japan by a Japanese company and doesn't help the trade deficit.

30mpg *$20,000/($4/gal) = 150,000 miles.

If you want to improve the trade deficit, you buy an efficient car from a US company, assembled in the USA using mostly US parts and hypermile it.

 

Camry and Accord Most ‘American’ According to

 

That doesn't address the problem of oil-dependency or smog-emission though.

Remember, Toyota got midway through their setup of facilities to produce Prius here in the US. Had the fallout in 2008 not happened, those plans would have ushered in a new outlook for hybrids... sooner.

It will still happen in some fashion, but those making some feel ashamed are not acknowledging the difference between WANT and NEED. Sadly, a few still don't even understand the difference.
.

 

You're co-workers are ignorant, but at least they're paying attention. One thing the Prius does is get attention.

Maybe photo copy some of your gas receipts and hand them over right when they bother you. That'll get their attention.

Tell them some owners have gone over 300,000 miles on the original battery with very few repairs needed.

btw, those people with big trucks can be a nuisance .... I was in a line of cars waiting to get into the SC Cnty Fairgrounds yesterday ... for over 25 minutes. Guess what? Two big SUV/trucks were cutting into the line just a few cars behind me. Jerkoffs.

Snapping a photo of them trying to cut in line might have got rid of them.

 

My wife traded her Toyota RunX for a demo model Prius and after driving her car on a family holiday I decided to get myself one too! But being who I am :suspicious: I made a study of the Prius and looked for reasons why not to swop my one year old seven seater Toyota Avanza for a 3 year old Prius . The reasons I found I later used to good effect when my friends and colleagues questioned or made fun of my Prius.

Reasons that convinced me to buy the Prius (in no particular order) like:

* 6 year factory guarantee
* 8 year service plan
* Vehicle lifetime warranty on the HV battery
* 5 star NCAP safety rating
* Lowest emmissions of cars available in South Africa
* Lowest fuel consumption of cars available in South Africa
* 1000+ km fuel tank range
* Space and seating for 5 fully grown adults
* Loads of torque (400+ Nm)
* Navigation system
* Leather trim
* Voice commands
* etc. etc. etc...

usually leave them with a frown that looks as if they are thinking "Now why did I not get myself a Prius the last time I purchased a vehicle?"

So, what worked for me is to be informed about your Prius and enjoy it!

 

Real man will shrug most of this off. Although, a real man wouldn't drive a Prius, ha!

I can't believe you didn't expect comments like this from your friends. The best way to inoculate against their humor is to partake in it. I make fun of myself for driving a Prius sometimes and you know what, they make fun of it far less because it's a great deal less fun mocking a person on something who's mocking themselves on it already, isn't it? This is fat kid defense psychology 101, man

Oh, and another thing I do from time to time is send them pictures I've taken of my phone at my current mileage and rub it in, particularly if we've just had a big ramp up in gas prices with comments like "I don't care what gas costs" or "This is what winning looks like".

And it's ok to respect your friend's BMW's power.

 

Well, I guess I am a real oddball. I have owned several high performance cars including a Mustang Cobra and a Neon SRT-4. Plus, I currently own a BMW 3 series with AWD (needed for our winters). I will vote with the GOP, and really bought the Prius for the great gas mileage. How does that fit with the sterio-typical Prius demographic?