Prius is a "no sell" to most, why ???

The landcruiser here has a straight 6 or V8. I knew quite a few from that corner of Burnley, Burnley Wood and the northeast corner and that attitude was pretty consistant, however all the people I heard it from were from the same circle of friends. I was saddened by the racism actually. One thing I did like in Burnley, I'm not very tall in Australia but in Burnley at 5' 6" I was above average height! I made this observation one day coming into the main shopping street from the Market Hall.

I was there when a vendor's van in the main shopping street, I forget the stree name, exploded due to a gas leak. We thought it was a bomb when it happened. We heard a loud bang and the shock-wave hit us after coming down an arcade.

 

Burnley Wood is no longer, the council knocked it down

I live just on the outskirts of what was Burnley Wood.

 

It still on google maps. Last time I was there they were going to tear down parts of it and rebuild with larger homes no one there could afford to buy and that somehow would fix poverty in the area. Well yes it would fix poverty there but not in the area.
There are houses for sale in Burnley Wood too. There are houses for sale in Parliament Street, Hollingrave Road, Parkinson Street, Dall Street, etc. I know they are in Burnley Wood as my friend lives in Parliament Street and her daughters live in Dall Street. It would be a shame if my friend's home is pulled down, she was very house proud and although her home is small it is quite comfortable. She lives with just her husband now her kids have moved out so the little house is just right for them.
Are you in Hollingrave Road on the railway side of the road? Or on the other side of Burnley Wood?
I had some nice walks around there heading to Townley Hall, been to the football at Turf Moor and had quite a few pints down at the Burnley League club. When i couldn't stay with my friend I stayed in the Town Mouse and the first time there at the Travel Lodge up by the Motorway.

 

I'm late to this discussion but here is my experience:

• 2001 - we rented a Prius for a couple of days when we needed to get a "goin' for groceries" car for my wife. Instead, we went with a new, 2001 Echo that even now has less than 30,000 miles on the odometer. When a car is not going to be driven much, it doesn't need fuel efficiency. At the time, I had a 32 MPG, manual transmission Camry and my wife was not about to drive a manual.
• 2005 (pre-accident) - I was on a waiting list from the local dealer. They called me up and said, "First one here with a non-refundable $1,000 gets the next Prius." They made it sound like an auction and I had no interest in paying more than MSRP for a Prius.
• 2005 (post-accident) - I lost the 32 MPG Camry in a rain-slick accident and needed a replacement.

Now I wasn't going back to the dealer who was auctioning off his new Prius. Prius were still in short supply so waiting lists and dealer markups were the norm. I noticed Ebay had used Prius in my price range, $16,000 for a new Scion xB. But there was some 'buzz' about battery life even though I knew it had a 100,000 mile/8 year warranty.

As I was walking into my office from the parking lot, I suddenly relealized the people who had been touting battery problems were the same right-wing, nuts whose political opinions and points of view about life were so wrong in every other case. They lied about everything and I instantly realized they were lying about the battery.

I visited my bank and arranged an open ended car loan for a used car and how they wanted to handle the purchase. Within a week, I found via Ebay a used Prius in Texas for $1k under Blue Book value and after a call to make sure I could get a dealer tag, I put a $1,000 on Visa to hold it and the deal was done.

So in my case, the hybrid skeptics actually sealed the deal because they had been so wrong about everything else.

I don't blindly find the dumbest person around and ask them for their advice so I can do the opposite. I still make my own price-performance tradeoff. But if my numbers look good and the dummies say it is a bad idea, it tends to re-enforce my judgement and I do it with "in your face" enthusiasm.

Bob Wilson

ps. I am reluctant to ask "why" dummies make decisions the way they do. After all, what if it was 'catching?'

 

Burnley wood is bordered by Parliament Street, Hollingreave Road, Todmorden road and Hufling Lane. Most in the middle of that lot has been, or is to be, blitzed. Dall Street is sitll mostly there, top side of Branch Road is pretty untouched as yet. I live on Brooklands Road which you must have walked down between Hollingreave and Towneley Hall.

Travel Lodge by the motorway, not sure it's a good choice now unless you want to rent a room with a 30 minute rate.

Kind of off topic I think

 

Rokeby: You must be a Prius-pastry newbie if you haven't figured this out already. Although I think it has been posted earlier, I'll repeat the instructions:

Push the power button to the "On" position. While continuing to hold it down, reach into the back seat and adjust the left (NOT the right) rear seat to its full, upright position. Now release the power button and press the "alarm" button on your smart key. (This isn't really necessary, but it scares the crap out of anyone who happens to be in the garage when you do it, and so is good for a laugh). Next, insert a very thinly sliced bagel into the CD player, and select Program #9. When the bagel pops out, add butter or cream cheese to taste.

Hope that helps.

 

Who cares what anybody else drives? Are you looking for personal vindication? Just enjoy the ride.

 

No more off topic than I normally get.
Yes the regeneration thing was all happening when I was over last but sounded like there was little support or money left for it.
I see from a search Charles has popped his nose into it now, sad really. He can not hope to understand what the project is doing to working families in the area. Did he even talk to the people being forced out of their homes? No, too busy joking with school kids about being trapped in a tent and chatting with council members who don't even live in the area. Yes there are a lot of boarded up windows in the area but why force out the people who live there with nowhere else to live? Some of the maths used in the proposals was laughable. Knock down a heap of houses and hand people a few pounds and the value of homes in the area would climb. Rocket science! Reduce supply, inject cash and prices go up, brilliant!! Who would have thunk it? I must say though, they haven't gone up much, 6 years ago I could have bought a live-able 2 bedroom terrace for 19,000 and today for 37,000. In the same time my place has over doubled in value so regenerate and elevate aren't doing much good.

is a little off topic, sorry. I should say that people who live in Burnley Wood would be unlikely to buy a Prius.

 

The only two valid reasons against a Prius that I can come up with:

1. Not as good as an EV.
2. Ugly.

Other than that, I'm all for 'em!

 

The stupid council knocked down maybe 300 stone built solid houses and totally destroyed a community that had been there 100 years. You would not believe what they replaced them with, something akin to a portable temporary garage, absolutely criminal. I'll see if I can find the time to take a picture of one before I go back to Greece.

There is another area of the town that received a face lift but they knocked down every end house from the terrace and occasional rows to make play areas and open the area up. That was extremely well done and worked better than anyone could have expected but they didn't repeat it, this council take great pleasure from failing I think and to be successful twice would have baked their noodles.

10 years ago I could buy houses in Burnley Wood for 5k each, it was the cheapest housing in the country. When I bought this house, 10 years ago, it was 47k, it is now valued around 250k and is less than 300 metres from the edge of Burnley Wood.

I will say this though. Since they destroyed Burnley Wood we have had no vandalism or breakins in this neighbourhood.

Most councils in the North West take great pains to preserve the "mill town" heritage that made us what we are, all that is, except Burnley.

 

Regarding "Top Gear".
Absolutely my Favorite TV show!
So they don't like the Prius. So what!
Still great TV, with amazing production values and imagery.
I get the humor, so they are opinionated, so are we all!

What also strikes me on top Gear, is it all depends on the high tech. If it is performance oriented, and it works, they love it.
These guys are car enthusiasts who drive foot to the floor.
I can identify with that..........
But I can't afford to do that on a daily basis..............
The practical side of me, loves my Prius.
The fun side of me has other options.
Even if it happens to be autocrossing a Corvair, or taking my Dodge down the quarter mile.................

 

The feel of the mill town in Burnley was something else for me. I forget just where I was but there was one part where all the terraces have been restored in an earlier elevate mission. I was on a high place somewhere it may have been on the straight mile (no gays allowed) and I looked out and saw a few rows of matching chimney pots all in rows like good little soldiers following the contour of the land. It was a sight I'll not soon forget. There really is a charm to these towns that should never be lost. Yes crime in Burnley Wood was out of control, but some of that was the people themselves not watching out for one another and accepting the crime. My friend bought some stolen property and did she cop an ear bashing from me for it. After that she was harassed by the people who sold her the stuff, coming with more and more stolen stuff but she saw what I had told her and stopped buying. She was in fear of these clowns, they bought stuff to her door and walk in uninvited to discuss the sale and wouldn't go until she bought. One time she only had 5 quid in the house to pick up a prescription, she told them that's what the money was for and they badgered her to buy something from them with the 5 quid. To her credit she stood her ground.
I was there for guy Fawkes last time I was there and it was how I imagine Beirut must be. Bombs going off all night.

I'm glad the vandals and crooks have grown up or moved on, it was a shame that element congregated in the area. It might not be the nicest place in the world but Burnley and Burnley Wood have a special place in my heart.

The council have no idea. I even wrote to them telling them how stupid the elevate proposals were.

 

Wth? I don't know why you are bringing in the last federal election. What, your favorite geezer and trailer trash didn't get their dreams fulfilled?

 

A lot of it is ignorance about hybrids. Many think they are unreliable and underpowered. Exotic.

Those that have driven a hybrid know better. The Prius is miles ahead of conventional technology. Smooth, efficient and quiet. Like driving a spaceship. Makes any pure gas-engined car seem outmoded.

Of course, many people tend to get educated in a hurry about hybrids when gas hits $4. Too bad the hybrid supply was limited the first time around. They'll be more the next time gas spikes.

 

Some sort of very strange snobbery. It's very likely they, themselves have never driven a Prius. Now, you have a resposibility to educate them! Pat. Edit: Sorry,Just read all this reminiscing of Burnley

 

To go back to an earlier comment, I would agree (in general) about the arrogance of toyota salesmen - it is over the top and was especially so past summer (with many charging premiums over MSRP and what not). It is high time they feel the ground.

I have no idea why people would NOT like the Prius - just have not understood this..

Nonetheless, I love this car - an icon of our generation!

 

To really understand the hatred of the Prius, ask any "car guy" you run across.
There has always been a Ford vs Chevy vs Dodge mentality. It has to do with brand loyalty. Then there are those that absolutely hate "The Rice burners", meaning Japanese cars. There is also the Buy American train of thought.
Just so many factors and reasons...........
I think it would be hard to find someone who owns a Subaru to be a part of the anti-Prius crowd. Or any other Eastern foreign car owner either. This does not necessarily apply though to the German car crowd, they too are brand loyal.

The Prius would have normally been a tough sell to me.
But I own collector cars of all the big 3, and other than that I am a MOPAR guy. Even then, my wife has owned a Subaru since 1991 (currently we have a 98). Here in the US we bought the Subie for her to have a car with right hand steering, and all wheel drive for her mail route. It was available to us, and the limited options of a right hand drive vehicle for a mail route are really limited. Currently, she uses a Jeep Cherokee on her route. unfortunately, not as dependable aas the Subaru was.
So I have some prior experience with Japanese cars.
Fuel costs, high technology, roominess, were some of the factors that brought me aboard........

 

My father was very much against me buying a Prius. My brother was in the market for a car and ended up deciding on a Honda Fit. Which costed him about $2000 more than my used Prius. Only time will really tell which was the better choice.

For my father, the Prius is today like buying a Japanese car in the seventies. No one knew if they were better in the long run than US cars, and they cost a lot more to fix. Well this on paper is true of the Prius. I tried explaining to him why I don't expect the Prius to blow a gear in the automatic transmission and require a $3000 repair. Keeping in mind he was an aircraft assembly QA guy, basically he nodded and was probably thinking "sounds complicated=expensive repair"...

The truth is most people prefer the devil they know. The truth is use of a regular auto tranny alone should disqualify most cars from people's choices. 99% of all (conventional) automatic transmissions will require during the lifetime of that vehicle. Many such repairs will cost thousands. For many NA car producers, replacement parts are their bread and butter.

Alternators and starters are another source for maintenance costs. Both fail, especially in cold climates due to exposed brushes. None of the motors in prius have brushes (exposed or otherwise). And the smaller motor works as both the alternator and the starter. But when you ask the layman, the Prius' configuration sounds more complicated, therefore more likely to fail..

This lack of understanding of electronic complexity versus mechanical complexity in terms of failure rate is quite common in our society.

Thus while the Prius is more complex in terms of design, mechanically it is far less complex. And while mechanical complexity increases failure rate almost exponentially, electronic complexity does not even increase failure rate proportionally.

So this is probably why the idiots who came up with the Prius vs Hummer dust to dust comparison chose a ridiculously short life span for the Prius. BTW I don't know of a single Prius retired at 110,000 miles barring any accidents/abuse.

Anyways, human perceptions of statistics is probably to blame.

In the end I did convince my dad that the Prius was a good idea. My brother like the car, but he doesn't trust used cars. That internal stats again, I guess...

He says as long as it works for the next 5 years it's a good car. I told him I don't expect any major repairs for another 8 years. I suspect most Prii will last about 500,000 miles, and that their batteries may not even require a change during that 500,000 miles. And of course every year those battery packs will cost less...

But that's all lost on people getting advice from old car jocks.

 

ah nevermind, post deleted.

 

+1
other option has 2 wheels