Less than an hour home and already someone has dissed my Prius :(

There are people of all stripes both within and without the Prius owner community.

Shake it off and take pride in your beautiful car and awesome mpg.

The cars of the 80's with great mpg were death traps compared to today's cars.

 

It's not normal, just annoying. I find most non-Prius drivers either admire it or don't know a whole lot about this little marvel. My MIL still thinks I need to plug it in to charge the battery.
Enjoy your little tech mobile, and smile at your mpg's. Congrats!

 

First of all....
Congratulations on your new car! I personally think you made a good decision---at least in the choice of a new car.

OK...now it's time to rip off the band-aid.
Fast or slow?
Fast?
OK.

You need to shake it off and get over it.
Of course you think it's a nice car. You spent >$20K for it.
Frankly I get tired of thin skinned Prius owners bellyaching about how people are always trash talking their smart little cars, and then turn around and make snotty comments about truck drivers with truck nuts and loud exhausts.
Yeah....I know.
They deserve it, but you're supposed to be smarter than that, right?
Act like it.

Leave the junior high school, car coolness anxiety crap for the guys in the frat house.

Welcome to the sharp end of the stick!
If somebody asks you why you're rolling a Prius, give them your sweetest smile and say:
"600 miles.....Thirty bucks.....Toyota reliability."


Next....

 

I'm wondering if the person making the disparaging remarks was even around in the eighties. I was, and drove a VW diesel that got 50 mpg. I can't remember any other car doing any better than that. But that was then, and not a valid comparison because one would be hard-pressed to find such a car still on the road. I would say to you, "Consider the source." Envy is sometimes disquised in remarks like were made to you.
You have made a good decision, and you don't have to defend it to anyone. Enjoy your first car. Congratulations, and welcome to PriusChat.:welcome:

 

Congratulations on your purchase. Great car! All kinds of bone heads out there! Hal

 

This is my 3rd week with my 2007 Prius in the UK. My previous car was a "run of the mill" 1998 2L Turbo Diesel Estate.

Since owning the prius, EVERYONE wants to overtake you, my driving is the same, I still use the loud pedal, but everyone simply wants to overtake, or pull out in front.

Oh, that's after they've sat about 1m off the rear of the car for the last ten minutes...

Funny thing is, I've "had" a VW 2.0 TDI owned off the lights, I gave a BMW 525d a run off the lights as well today, although it eventually out-dragged me at 40mph

Still, I can have fun and still get 58mpg

 

Sorry you had to endure that tirade. You made a wise choice. Congratulations.

Now lets look at the data... What would you compare a 2007 Prius to? Perhaps a 1985 Ford Escort wagon w/automatic? They got 23 mpg in the city, a Prius gets 48 mpg. The Escort got 29 mpg on the highway, the Prius gets 45. And remember, that Escort didn't have ABS brakes, airbags, stability control, traction control, etc. etc.

In short, this person did not know what they were talking about.
With a Prius "form follows function" and not "form follows fashion".
It looks the way it does for a reason. Ugly? No way.

Enjoy the ride!

 

Ditto.

 

Tell them you are empathetic to the fact that they're not smart enough to remember what fuel standards of the 1980's actually were. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) the average gas mileage for new vehicles sold in the United States has 23.1 miles per gallon (mpg) in 1980 to 24.7 in 2004.

C A F E Overview

So, the Prius gets almost DOUBLE the average car's standard set for 1985. It gets MORE than double the actual real live auto mpg sold in 1980. By the way - as was the typical case, the auto lobby got in there and un-did the 27mpg regulation that was supposed to be met by 1985 - as they have continually kept doing now, decade after decade, as soon as it becomes obvious that the industry fails to meet the objectives set. That's why the auto industry really doesn't care if standards are set for some future decade ... as eventually they'll get the law over turned.

Here's a funny one from wikipedia showing mpg's really never got any higher (CAFE standard, which doesn't even include heavy guzzler SUV's) than 26mpg - and, that was in fact in the 1980's:
[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Average_Fuel_Economy[/ame]

But yea ... don't ya just love it when people invent history out of the clear blue sky, that coincides with their need to be condemning? I'd go back and ask Mr. Smarty Pants for an apology . . . not for being dumb, but for being a (dumb) liar.

Now go enjoy your new ride . . . they get WAY great mpg's and they look most excelent!
.

 

LadyJ,

Congratulations on your purchase!!! Yes, it is a normal reaction from non-Prius owners - they are JEALOUS!!! The question I asked them - what are they driving? When they tell me, I just say "I'm sorry to hear that" and just drive away smiling. They are usually at a loss for words.

Enjoy your Prius!!!

Cheers,

DBCassidy

 

Yeah, unfortunately it's probably a little more common with a Prius than other vehicles.

You know, within a forum on the internet I will offer my opinon on anything. It's kind of why we are here.

But in life? If someone buys a vehicle, new or used, I'm not going to say anything negative, even if I don't like it, unless they directly ask.

So to me? It's not so much that somebody would Like or Dislike The Prius, it's more that somebody, concievably an aquaintance, would decide it's perfectly fine to come out and trash somebodys choice and investment.

That being said? The other day somebody asked me what I thought of the Toyota FJ Cruiser, and I said, "That's not a vehicle, It's Military machine. You don't put a roof rack on that, you put a Gun Turret". ......Now I feel guilty...but they did ask....

 

Ignorance never settles a question.
-Benjamin Disraeli

 

jeeeeeeeeez.........congrats on your new ride and never mind whatever these idiots say.

you got this for a reason and stick to your guns. they are confused, jealous and plain out ignorant. learn from this site and amaze others, especially the nay sayers.

cheers.

 

I've had my Prius for a month, and I've had to deal with some people picking on me (nothing too mean). I started telling them my mileage, and they've stopped.

 

It's called Prius Envy. You'll get that a lot at your monthly visit to the gas station.

 

People have many objectives and most are hard to figure out. The Prius flat out works to get you from one location to another efficiently, safely and comfortably. The mission it has is to serve not to impress. Other cars may do more on the impress function but much less on the efficiency, safety, comfort and reliability attributes.

So far our Prius has met my objectives. I wish I could say the same for the BMW I traded in when buying the Prius!!

Enjoy you new car!!

 

It's not a new phenomenon. I bought my first Prius in June 2002. I thought it was the greatest car ever (until I later bought a Gen II) but I was surprised by the reactions which repeated itself over and over in two different ways:

Reaction 1: This always started with "What gas mileage are you getting? I would tell them. Followed by them asking "If you don't mind me asking, what did you pay for the car?" I would tell them. You could then see gears whirling in their head as their eyebrows furrowed in apparent discomfort. I couldn't figure out why this was happening until finally one person after completing their mental gymnastics said "I don't think that it saves any money". This caught me completely off guard as I had never thought about saving money, I had only thought about buying what I thought was a really interesting and fun to drive car. I eventually learned that the people who were asking me these questions were thinking about buying a Prius, but only because they were looking for ways to reduce their transportation costs. I noticed that I got a lot questions about my Prius when fuel prices were high, but almost never when gas prices went back down.

A variation of this scenario would start with someone asking "How do you like it" which I would then proceed to gush about all the things I love about my Prius, but I would notice that they wouldn't seem very interested in what I was saying. They would wait until I stopped then they would ask "What gas mileage are you getting" and I quickly realized that it was the same old story, they were trying to save money.

I eventually developed a standard answer to the questions "How do you like it" or "What gas mileage are you getting". I would answer with a question "Are you thinking about getting one?" which would almost always be answered affirmatively. I would then give my standard speech "You should always buy a car based on what you like. I bought this because I find the technology fascinating and enjoy driving it, and it has features that are normally found only on luxury cars. I also like that it helps reduce foreign oil dependence and reduces pollution. It costs quite a bit more than a comparable car in its class but the terrific gas mileage pretty much offsets that over time. If you would like to know more about the car I would be glad to tell you but if you are just trying to save money there are better options." Unfortunately in almost every case they weren't really interested in the car, they were just looking for ways to save money.

Before I get to the second reaction, I also observed a lot of negative opinions in the media in 2002 and 2003. Prius and Prius owners were often mentioned in a negative way. Just one example was Jay Leno in a PM article expressing his dislike for the Prius, although he wasn't mean about it he just gave his opinion. Others in the media were not nearly as kind. Many seemed to equate Prius owners with radical environmentalists, and more than once I heard Prius owners referred to as "self righteous" which I am convinced was pure assumption on their part and not based on interaction with Prius owners as they never said why they believed this about Prius owners.

Also it was quite common to see articles back then that set out to prove that you don't save money buying a Prius, again ignoring any of the other reasons to buy one. And of course I had several people who gleefully forwarded to me the article which "proved" that Hummers were more environmentally friendly than Prius.

Okay here is reaction 2, which fortunately was not as common.

Reaction 2: This normally occurred in a setting with several people present. Someone would inform me that buying a Prius makes no sense and they would then go on to regurgitate whatever they had read in the media. Like others have pointed out, you rarely hear someone directly criticize someone's car, especially in a public setting. Yes people will express likes and dislikes but you rarely see people attacking someone for buying a car like I have experienced. But with Prius this seemed acceptable. Why? I really believe it's because of safety in numbers. They read things in the media which they assume is the common wisdom, and especially back in 2002-2003 there were very few Prius owners so they could feel safe attacking one in front of other people. I found it disappointing when it happened, I tended to lose respect for that person, at the same time I used it as an opportunity to educate the other people in the room about the Prius. I generally got a favorable reaction from the others in the room although the "hater" of course wasn't happy with my answer and wouldn't say anything.

I love my car, and although the reactions especially in the early days were a bit disappointing it didn't bother me and didn't stop me from upgrading to Gen II in 2006. As Prius and hybrids in general have become more common there seems to be less ignorance about them and more acceptance and I rarely get these type of questions or comments anymore which is fine with me.

 

Besides the other comments already posted, the other person probably doesn't realize that EPA mileage tests have been adjusted twice since that time. Per http://www.caranddriver.com/columns/with-3-gas-we-need-accurate-mpg-tests:

They were adjusted again starting w/model year 2008.

If you're curious about the EPA tests, see http://priuschat.com/forums/other-c...uth-about-epa-city-highway-mpg-estimates.html.

If you want to see what the raw EPA dyno numbers were (which would've been what it got prior to the adjustment in 1985), per http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/epadata/11data.zip, the '11 Prius gets 71.8 mpg city, 69.6 mpg highway and 70.8 mpg combined.

Have him name those cars from the 80s. Compare their weight, size, power and acceleration to your Prius. They were likely light, tiny subcompact or compact slugs w/half the horsepower of the midsized Prius, besides lacking a large # of safety features besides being gross polluters compared to current cars.

 

I get crap from my wife all the time. We are in our Lexus 200h driving around, and anytime a Prius passes she sighs wistfully and says "It is so nice. If you had let me choose..."