My Prius doesn't want other people driving it

My Prius doesn't like other people driving it either. I've allowed a grand total of 3 people to drive my car.

The first was my brother, for a whole 5 minute drive the day after I got the car, at speeds below 25mph inside my parents' neighborhood with me in the passenger seat.

The second was my husband, who has only gotten to use it without me in the passenger seat to go a few miles to the grocery store to get me some food.

The third was the guy who washes our cars at the office, without me being anywhere near, but ONLY because 1) he was moving the car 50 feet to another parking spot & back and 2) he also owns a Prius, a 2005 Salsa Red and is thus familiar with the workings of the car (fob, startup, etc) and I feel that I can trust a fellow Prius owner to sit in the driver's seat of mine.

 

haha!

my prius only likes me, too. well, and DH because he changes the oil and does the alignment and stuff. i let my friend from college drive it through the parking lot at our old apartment complex, and the detail guys drove it across their parking lot and back when i had that unfortunate construction overspray incident.

i said i'd let my stepdad drive it (he's a decent driver and has the money to repair anything that may happen... and we're trying to convert him to hybrids... and i kinda wanted him to see that ha! i made it on my own but that's another story) but breathed a sigh of relief when we ran out of time to do so.

 

Haha! My dad kept accidentally putting my Prius in neutral, then trying to undo it by various combinations of pressing the brake, gas, gear shift, etc. while i sat in the passenger seat shouting "Wait! Stop! You can't do that! You're not supposed to... WAIT!" :blink:


And I just noticed that all of us who have posted a reply so far have black Prii!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rancid13 @ Jul 27 2006, 02:25 PM) [snapback]293425[/snapback]</div>

Hard to drive when you are seeking them pickles and ice cream, huh Rancid?

I, so far, since May 10, have allowed dh to move the Pri in and out of the garage, for photgrahic purposes:

<div align="center">[attachmentid=4295]</div>

and the guys at the car wash...where I am maybe 30 feet away, the fob is in the slot, and the valet card is stuck onto the dash right above the steering wheel.

do not know when anyone else may get a shot at it!

 

I'm kinda the opposite of the above posts. MY '04 is 'broken in' with a few minor scratches. I have the attitude that "It's only a car" and if anyone wants to drive it it's OK with me. In case of an accident I don't care about the car...only that no one gets hurt. I still have comprehensive insurance on the car and it can be repaired/replaced.

 

It’s the effect on MPG that has me cringe whenever anybody else drives our Prius. But we make it a point to let anyone drive it who wants to – as a way of spreading the word about how great the car is and how much sense it makes to own one. My wife and I have already had two converts decide to be Prius drivers after test diving ours. And one of them had had two friends who also made the plunge. I’m grateful for the friend who let me test drive hers, and try to pass it on whenever I can.

 

The only other people who have driven my car are my brother for a test drive around the block (with me) and the dealer people. My wife doesn't drive (yet).

As luck would have it, my sales guy scraped a sidewalk when he delivering the car to me a couple days after I picked it up (they were installing an accessory). The damage is about a 1" scrape on the trim ring and some "frills" on the mudflap. Of course, I did not notice this until about a week later, and I know it was not there when I picked up the car (only 10 days earlier, and 3 days before the damage) and since I was the only one to drive the car, it is pretty conclusive as to when it happened, as he parallel-parked the car in front of my office building. <_<

Of course, as luck would have it, by the time I was back at the dealer, my sales guy (who was a rookie) was no longer employed there, so I couldn't even accuse him of it. :angry: And of course, getting the dealer to confess to something like that after you've driven away is pretty much impossible.

In the big picture, it's no big deal, I'm waiting for some trim rings to come up on eBay for dirt cheap and I will just swap it out. The scrape is barely noticeable anyway. At least the trim rings prevent having to replace a $300 rim for cosmetic damage.

Sorry for going off on a tangent...

Kevin

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sarge @ Jul 31 2006, 10:22 AM) [snapback]295175[/snapback]</div>

Same here, but change "brother" to "father." Also my wife is a technophobe, so that "doesn't" would change to "won't."

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MarinJohn @ Jul 31 2006, 09:46 AM) [snapback]295146[/snapback]</div>

The REALLY strange thing is...I NEVER BEFORE had this attitude about ANY car I ever owned! DH bought a "new" (2002) BMW about 2 months before I got the Pri and I was raggin' him about his moaning about some teeny tiny itch...not even big enough to call a scratch...on the roof of his car. I, on the other hand, came close to cardiac arrest with the first TINY scratch I found on MY car. DH also has a '75 Triumph Spitfire, (that he has owned since 1980) which he spent a small fortune having repainted several years ago, when I couldn't see a thing wrong with it. (What makes THAT even worse is that neither of us is terribly able to get in and/or out of the Spitfire anymore...I can see us now....the beemer, the pri, the kid's acura will ALL be gone, and dh & I will be at the old folks' home with the spitfire...and needing forklifts to get us in and out of the little bugger. And having to take our dentures out to get the bugs out after a ride with the top down.... :blink: )

Nope. Prianism is indeed a cult and I am a fully paid-up and brainwashed member!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BobSoNH @ Jul 31 2006, 01:11 PM) [snapback]295167[/snapback]</div>

Same here! My mom (briefly) and my dad are the only other people I've let drive mine. The first time my dad drove it, it took him 10-15 minutes to get it to go... He swears he had the brake pressed when he pushed the power button, but I'm pretty sure he was cycling between OFF/ACC/IG-ON. (I was returning a rental car, and they were supposed to meet me with the Prius...)

And last week, we drove to Tanglewood for a concert, 100ish miles each way. I let him borrow the car that day, while he did errands. I'd averaged 48.6 mpg for the half tank I used til then... When he picked me up, it was down to 40.3! :blink: lead foot....

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rufaro @ Jul 31 2006, 03:21 AM) [snapback]294985[/snapback]</div>

Haha, not quite. I don't particularly care for either one of those foods, especially not together. It was a late night grocery run when he realized he was out of Coke and I realized I was out of bananas or other some such snack food, I was already in my pajamas and would he be a sweetie and go to the store to get the food? I threw in the 'you get to drive the Prius' part to make the errand sound more fun.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BobSoNH @ Jul 31 2006, 10:11 AM) [snapback]295167[/snapback]</div>

That's my main reason for not letting anyone else really drive my Prius...otherwise, it really is "just a car" as MarinJohn stated.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(HokieHybrid @ Jul 27 2006, 01:05 PM) [snapback]293254[/snapback]</div>

Is that true? I thought it had to be ready before you could go in drive?

I put my foot on the brake, press the power button, I see ready and put it in drive and drive off.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rancid13 @ Jul 31 2006, 04:25 PM) [snapback]295388[/snapback]</div>

Just wait...four more months!

And when do we start to get to hear the RancidRant about the lack of the telescoping steering wheel????

AND...do you have the dropcloths for under the car seat yet? Color coordinated? Oh, no...that'd be black, not blue...

You got the conversion for the MFD to the dvd player worked out so you can watch Barney while you and dh TRY to drive...AND to keep ANY car clean?

(at this point...when I am in my jammies and I wanna bribe someone to go out for snackfood, it's by offering dh's beemer or spitfire to 18yo. :huh: )

The Pri is my first NEW GROWNUP car! Hell no, no one else is driving it! And god help who/whatever gives it its first BIG ding/scratch! B)

 

lately i'm kinda torn over the mpg thing. see, i'd rather DH drive the prius if i'm not using it, to avoid spending extra money on gas lately. sure it knocks my mpg down, but so does the really friggin' hot weather and me cranking the AC so as not to pass out while driving. and 45 mpg is better than anything else i'd be driving.

this is our first new car, and i guess i see it as more proof that i have succeeded in rising above everything that was expected of someone like me. someone else screwing that up is a scary metaphor...

i've relaxed in the past year, that's for sure. i call that progress :lol:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rufaro @ Jul 31 2006, 05:21 AM) [snapback]294985[/snapback]</div>

and the guys at the car wash...where I am maybe 30 feet away, the fob is in the slot, and the valet card is stuck onto the dash right above the steering wheel.

do not know when anyone else may get a shot at it!
[/b][/quote]

My dad did the typical stuff trying to drive ours - Pushing the power button without the brake... yadda yadda yadda. I sometimes think that Toyota went overboard in makng this car so different. A hybird Honda Civic does not require a check ride and log book endorsement . You put in the key, just like any other car, and use the stick between the seats. marked PRND321, just like any other car... But NNNooooo... I told my dad, "try 'control alt delete,' that might work."

Aside from the service people at the dealer, only one person has been able to just jump into our Prius and drive like they knew what they were doing. A valet at Scott's Seafood Restaurant in Oakland. We hung the little "valet cheat sheet" on the key but it appeared to be unnecessary. The first thing the valet did was reach in through the drivers window and check to see that we left a smart key. He knew right where to feel for it - insterted in the dash slot. He then shut the car off without even looking for the button. We we claimed our car, a different valet was able to retrieve it from the garage in just a couple of minutes - obviously was not spending time learning how to start it. I would imagine any valet on the job for more than a week has driven one - they are everywhere.

I drive our Prius most of the time as we got it for my business travel bewteen Sac and the bay area. We have had it 16 days and I have put 1800 miles on it. I have no problem getting 50+ mpg average. My wife knocks that down by 10 mpg easily. We got back from Santa Rosa last night with the computer showing 52.2 mpg average. She drove it about 20 miles today and knocked it down to 45.