Why do Gen 3 Priuses tend to speed?

Sampling bias.

 

Could be your imagination....

 

They did sell a lot of gen 3s, after gen 2 had become so popular with earlier adopters.

 

It is almost never accurate to take anecdotal evidence and generalize it.

Your question was an interesting one. So I did some digging.
According to:
Car Models With the Most Speeding Tickets (2024) | Insurify
The only Toyota that was in the Top 10 list was the Toyota Yaris iA! It came in at number 10.

That shocked me, but their dataset is pretty good sized (97 million insurance applications).

Here is what they say about it:

The data has led them to state that the most likely speeders tend to be smaller, less expensive sedans and sporty cars.

 

In Corollas that we own here I'm always 25 mi over the speed limit No tickets no problems no issues but in the corolla's in the celicas we're always speeding they don't break and there's no electric motors to mess up or charging things to deal with there's only one battery You can flog them pretty good and they don't really care no serious engine problems that sort of thing our 7AFE Corolla 1.8 '93 model is still on the road today A friend of our owns it and it speeds everywhere it goes the minute it leaves the driveway It's 20 mi over the speed limit automatically nobody gives it a second glance police included doesn't matter that it's moving fast it doesn't look the part so no one's interested in chasing it. It's not red and flashy and all that sort of thing no pretty blonde driving it all those things make a difference

 

Because the world is finally running low on 4th generation Altimas?

 

A few weeks ago I drove my silver gen 3 through Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Canadian border control, British Columbia, US border control, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and a bit of Wyoming, before noticing I'd forgotten to renew my plate. Nobody pulled me over or said a peep about it.

Perfect stealth vehicle?

 

Yes I've never been stopped in the Prius even with no license expired tags plenty of insurance and whatever I think cops are embarrassed to stop Prius I really do I even heard cops talk about it at a diner before so whenever long weekends come or anything like that 4th of July DWI checkpoints I drive the Prius all through those times never get stopped never even looked that twice even at the DUI checkpoints get waived through barely have to roll the window down seriously

 

I don’t think the Prius is quite as bulletproof as you think.

In 2022 the Prius C was #28 in ticket ratings.
28 Cars That Get Pulled Over The Most

As an aside, a neighbor of mine died due the type of attitude you portray.
Feel free to take whatever risks you want with you own life.
Please be considerate when sharing public streets.

 

my guess is that gen 1 and 2 purchased for eco reasons, but by gen 3, people were buying to save money. now you wouldn't think speeding would help with that, but they were happy compared to what they drove previously.
then cheap gas came back and that crowd had moved on and prius sales dropped

 

Does that mean "Prius c just managed to edge into the top-28 list"?

Or does it mean "list-makers made it a top-28 list so they could get the Prius c onto it"?

 

do people really get pulled over for speeding anymore? not in the places i've driven.

 

The Prius c has a lot of local popularity in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

...which also has a vast, dense network of automated speed enforcement devices.

Getting an ugly in the mail for 35 in a 25 is not hard around there.

 

LOL... That's because it's virtually impossible to speed around Boston. Have you driven I95 north of Boston? I see police car on median every 30 miles and consequently pulled over speeders on this stretch all the time... especially during holiday weekends. When I drive down to Boston, it takes me ~5 hours to go NH boarder to drive over 300 miles. Then via NH to North of Boston is only ~30 miles can take ~1 hour. Once I enter greater Boston area, last 15 miles can take over 1 hour.