What is up with all of the Prius Hate ???

You live in NJ ... EVERYBODY tailgates EVERYBODY ... ALL THE TIME .... regardless of the car they're in.

It's by far the most obnoxious driver state that I've ever experienced. I commuted there for 25 years ... people will risk their cars, their careers, and their lives .... for a car length.

It always makes me laugh when you hear NJ drivers say ... "I can't believe our auto insurance is so high'. I say ... Have they ever LOOKED at how people drive there ?? They actually think that's how people drive in the rest of the country.

REV

 

The Prius is IMO very polarizing. The debate between more regulations vs less is as well. Nature balances itself out without intervention, but in the world of commerce today we don't have that invisible hand Adam Smith talked about anymore...that self correcting mechanism. Without the risk of sounding like a tree hugger, due to the lack of that true free market mechanism we are destroying our ecology with over production, consumption and pollution. It is not natural to grow forever but we human seem to think indefinite economic growth is possible on a finite planet.

 

Of course there is. I used law enforcement as an example of a case where just because something may not work effectively does not mean that you should get rid of it. That doesn't mean I was equating the two.

 

Nature can handle all the pollution humans can throw at her. In a few hundred thousand years, places like Fukushima will be perfectly fine. The humans might be all dead, but nature will be just fine.

One of the arguments I hear is that science will always be able to find solutions to our environmental problems. That may be true, but only if we listen to our scientists.

 

How true that statement is. Well said.

 

I live in CT where everybody drives like a selfish prick, but I've experienced the same thing with NJ drivers. The closest I've gotten to road rage violence was with a NJ driver.

When I was in college in Minnesota, it was like being on another planet. I would get to an intersection with stop signs and nobody would move because everyone would try to wave the other drivers on. I got a flat onetime and the first driver that came by stopped to help me.

They should make a short film where people walking around on the sidewalks treat each other like NJ drivers. Walking 1 inch behind the person in front of you. Cutting people off. Weaving between people in a desperate rush to save 1 minute of precious time. Treating everyone walking around you like an obstacle. It would be pretty funny.

 

Funny, I have the same feeling about Jersey drivers... You can cross into their lane a quarter mile up the road and they speed up and honk at you...and that's even when I am not driving my Prius.

I'm one of those extremely happy Prius purchasers. Why did I get one? I needed to replace my 1995 Rodeo that was getting 11.5 mpg around town. I got it because my mother and father were able to get out of the front and back doors more easily than in my previous Crown victoria. I got it because I despise sending money to unfriendly countries that would spit in our eye, or worse.

Couldn't be happier. Paid less for my Prius in 2009 than I did for my Rodeo in 1995, and maybe a few hundred dollars more for my Crown vic in 2000.

Wish I had an excuse to get a pip right now. lol. I will eventually.

 

If Prius is showing 50 MPH, you are going 48-49 MPH (per my GPS). Regardless, the normal speed of traffic is usually 5-10 MPH above the speed limit. So, you ARE blocking the traffic.

 

Yap, exponential population growth has to stop sometime. Every child learns that in biology class.

Some people thought it would stop 1960's-1970's. Didn't happen due to technology breakthroughs, especially in agriculture. Now, the energy crunch is begging the same question.

 

Some of the responses are exactly what creates the problem -- It's a car not a statement.

If you are doing the speed limit and everybody is passing you going 15 mph more -- move to the right lane ...... for your own safety if nothing else.


And just so you all know.. when driving on the NJ turnpike the left lane is 80mph the middle lane is 70mph and the right is 60mph ... that is just the way it is. Many moons ago I used to have to drive on the GSP - the northern part of that .... takes practice!


Going "out east" on the LIE is no better ....... not as many Prius .... until you get way out.

 

Another compalint from haters is Prius crawling silently in a parking lot. some claim they almost got hit.

Hopefully the VPNS works at crawling speed too.

 

Haters gona hate.....
Preachers gonna preach.

This is the latest in a loooooooooooooooong line of threads about Prius hate and tailgating.

OK. A little personal history…
I was thrown kicking and screaming into the Prius Community (some would say to the determent of the latter) about a year and a half ago, when my company purchased a $25,000 placard to stick a "We really care about the environment!" sticker onto.
My indoctrination into Priusdom consisted of a 10-minute test flight with my boss, and him driving away with my former car.
Frankly...it wasn't a completely happy honeymoon, but I decided (as is my wont) to treat my new transportation experience with an open mind, and to try to learn as much as I could about Priuses. A quick Google search landed me here.
One week (and an aftermarket lumbar support) later...I wasn't cursing the car quite as much. A few weeks later, I was admitting to myself that this car had strengths that overwhelmed its weaknesses, and I entertained thoughts of trying to convince my CFO to purchase one as a third vehicle.
Those thoughts died of loneliness BTW because my Harley has a greater factory tow rating than "my" G3 does, but I'm something of a convert with the car.
However (comma!!!) the Prius COMMUNITY, with a few statistical outliers, has lived up to my worst fears!

I live in the South.....in a small town in the South (pop 12,000.) Not the usual place that you would expect to find a bunch of Prius fans. And yet.....in the 18 months that I've been a daily Prius driver I have yet to encounter anything that I could remotely associate with Prius hate. Not once!
In fact.....I was in another smaller town two days ago when a big tired, mud spackled 4x4 pulled up to me at the gas station, whose driver openly admired "my" car and asked very detailed questions about price, mileage, drivability, etc.

A very quick tour of this forum will reveal pages and pages of real Prius hate complete with junior high school locker-room insults about GM, SUVs, 4x4's, tailgating, etc.
I frequent some other forums, mainly motorcycle ones, but I lurk in the occasional truck forum when I want to do some research on my 09 Sierra. Even on the motorcycle forums, I encounter only a very tiny fraction of the bitches, gripes, moans, groans, and complaints that I read about on this site.
(Motorcyclist's solution to tailgaters: a pocket full of lug nuts... )

You want to find real Prius hate? Maybe while you're sitting in your car, you should adjust your rear view mirror down and to the left (to the right for you folks who drive on the wrong side of the road!) Take a good long look.
You want to help stop Prius hate?
Perhaps a little tolerance towards other folks that do things just a little bit differently than you do might help...OR...while you're looking at that rear-view mirror maybe you could ask yourself what kind of ambassador you are to Priusdom?

Me?
I can claim that I've personally caused at least two people to test drive one that would have never considered sitting in one before.
How about you?

Note for the humor impaired: The “report a link” button is on the bottom left. It looks like a little red flag

 

Dam black ninja prius!

 

Yup, I had one of the ladies down the street wave me down cause I was "speeding" (15mph in a 25) and to say that my car isn't safe when her kids are playing in the street cause they can't hear it like other cars. So i told her that they should LOOK and listen just like I was always taught and should play in the street and I could drive faster to get the gas engine to turn on (never gonna happen)

FYI: I live in the "redneck" area of the county and 80% of the people out here drive an SUV or grossly lifted truck we call "bros".

 

You can validate our wonderfully silent vehicles by simply saying:

"Deaf children look both ways before crossing the street, but not because they are deaf. It's because they are intelligent and don't want to get hit by a car."

Also to Jacek; I tend to think GPS units are subject to as much margin of error as the factory speedometer is since there is a delay between sending and receiving information, as well as interference from external sources such as the sun. Also the relative speed of the satellites, and your vehicle all contribute to a "pretty accurate" speed measurement, but nothing is perfect.

Me going 50 in a 50 is just being a law obiding citizen. But it reminds me of the old saying "If everyone was jumping off a cliff would you follow?"

Me.. no. I'd probably build a bridge, or scale my way down.

Yes, going the speed limit obstructs the accepted normal flow of traffic, but I don't think doing so can ever be argued as being the wrong thing to do.

I do try to accelerate "normally" as to not annoying everyone behind me but once I'm up to speed, I remain in the right lane so others are free to pass.

To the guy in the Poconos who said NJ has the worst drives, there is a very funny irony to that as a matter of fact. (although I do agree with you people here are insane.) Most of the residents who live or work in NJ are from other states. This is where the jobs are, this is where people move to. So the state filled with "terrible drivers" is really a state full of a collection of the worst drivers from all over the country, lol. Always get a laugh out of that.

As for our insurance rates, that's because there are 8.8 million residents in the state of NJ which has about 1,170 people per square mile.

Yikes! I Can't wait to buy my house in the Poconos too!

 

First ... I didn't say NJ had the WORST drivers ... I said they had the most OBNOXIOUS drivers.

Second ... with that kind of population DENSITY ... how could 'MOST' of the workers in NJ be from other states ?

Third ... if so many people are moving INTO the great state of NJ ... why is the percentage of people living in my area that moved OUT OF NJ increasing astronomically ?

NJ residents are literally stampeding into PA trying to escape the misery of living in NJ ... from taxes ... from insurance rates ... from housing costs ... from absolutely ridiculous police state mentalities .... from overcrowding ... etc etc.

Everywhere in NJ is a traffic jam (think RT 22) ... It's the only state I've ever been in where you just go from traffic light to traffic light (think RT 10) ... with each light taking 2-4 cycles of the light to crawl your way through it. Even on weekends. It seems like there's some local yocal cop with a radar gun on every corner (think EVERY town). The state police are like the gestapo (think RT 78 or RT 80). It's just a miserable place to live, and it explains why people drive like they do ... because they're ALWAYS pissed off. For TOTAL insanity try the GSP.

REV

 

Everything in moderation of course, but environmentalism has gone overboard in enforcing regulations that have caused energy and even water shortages of recent, many times trying to protect a single species of animal. I am not so sure saving this lone animal to ensure biodiversity is worth the pain it's causing otherwise. Even windmills (which were once deemed to be environmental panaceas) are in the crosshairs now thanks to their threat to certain birds.

Also, I was originally referring more to coal regulations (rather than drilling). Suffice to say, any EPA-mandated regulations the coal refineries are commanded to follow will result in cost hikes to the customer, and this becomes especially true as older refineries are gutted due to not meeting stringent new emission demands. In the long run, it *might* be beneficial if enough solar, hydro, geothermal and nuclear (preferably thorium) can take its place...

Anyway, the bureaucracy of the Fed. Govt. is like a behemoth that does need paring down. I see more proof of this every day.

 

Wind power will make the bird population stronger, by taking out the ones that can't calculate a flight path around a moving blade. The birds that survive and continue the species will be better suited for the environment they fly in, right?

 

Until you drive a semi for a living, you ain't even begun to experience rude, careless, ignorant, and just plain "dare you to run over them", hateful drivers and I've not seen anywhere from one coast to the other to top those kind of people in Chicago.:wacko::wacko:

 

I have been putting up with it for ten years. It was worse in the early days because there were so few of us (we always waved when we saw another Prius on the road) which made us easy targets for ridicule. It is way better now and I really don't notice it anymore. The fact that there are now a million Prius on the road has caused sensible people (the type of people that I try to associate with) to realize that most of the negative things that they were hearing probably weren't true. Conversely however the increasing number of Prius must surely be threatening to those who for whatever irrational reason feel threatened by them. I think that is where you see the hatred, but it's a minority as are most haters. Most people can get along with people of different beliefs whether it comes to cars, politics, religion, or wars. It's a smaller subset that feels the need to attack. Not much you can do for them.

It is however a mistake to broad-brush any group, whether it is people who drive hybrids or people who drive SUV's, based on what you hear the haters say. That by the way is true also for politics, religion and wars.

As for the tailgating part of it, I have actually endured "negative vibes" about that for over twenty years. A long time ago, while Prius was still a gleam in Toyota's eye I decided that I would drive the speed limit whenever possible. I consider my target as being somewhere between the speed limit and five miles over the limit, I aim for about the middle of that range. I made that decision decades ago for several reasons, in no particular order, 1. I believe that we are a nation of laws and that I shouldn't pick and choose which laws I like to obey 2. it saves gas, 3. better for the environment, and 4. I can relax and stop watching out for cops

I have never preached about my beliefs about going the speed limit, for one thing it would be hypocritical of me as sometimes when I am late for an appointment I keep up with the Joneses :car: but I do not make speeding a habit. Also this is really important, if I am on a multi-lane highway I stay in the far right hand lane unless I am passing someone. I have known people who feel that if they are driving the speed limit they can drive in any lane they want - those people are idiots.

In spite of me trying not to get in anyone's way if I can avoid it, it has always amazed me how much grief I get from other drivers just for obeying the law. Not just on two-lane highways, but even on multi-lane highways oftentimes when I am in the right-hand lane I will get someone on my tail who thinks that I should speed up just so that they don't have to go around me. Not much I can do for them either.