Why the Prius Hate?

Possibilities:

1. This is a facet of local culture you've not noticed before.
2. You are in the way, blocking faster traffic. In my part of the world, people passing on the right is often a sign that you are in the wrong lane.

"Aggressively waved at"? What happens if you wave back?

 

You have to keep up with traffic and let them go by if you are in the left lane on a freeway.

If they are jealous of anything it's your mpg compared to theirs combined with they paid more for their truck. Overall they pay considerably more and depreciate their asset quickly and they know it.

But don't try to save 5 mpg by slowing people down.

 

Peculiar. I made a trip to Vancouver a bit over a year ago, which involved traveling through several states where Prius sales numbers are probably lower, but I didn't experience any of those kinds of incidents.

 

I've heard from Prius owners who use to live in the south that it's way worse there than elsewhere.

 

Never seen this. I live in northeast FL and travel throughout the southeast US often, many back roads trip too. I even spent a bit of time in Knoxville last year! To be fair, I try not to block/slow the left lane unnecessarily, or hold up the road if it is 1 lane. For example, as much as I LOVE to slowly and smoothly accelerate out of green lights, I don't do it if the speed limit is higher than 35 or if there are people behind me, or I'm in the left lane.

With that all said, there is a LOT of aggressive behavior on the highways out there, especially in bigger cities.

 

It is not you or the car. It is them.

I thought the people in LA were uneducated, but I now feel better after hearing this from you. So, yes, it has to do with education (the lack of it) than anything else.

FWIW, I got tailgated a lot more in my silver Gen 4 Prius Prime than I am being tailgated in my blue-magnetism (spirited aqua metallic) Gen 4 Prius Prime. So, for some reason, silver cars are more prone to tailgating, perhaps because they are perceived to be for older people. Bright blue is perceived sportier and helps a little with tailgating but not always.

And, last but not least, Trump is eliminating the Department of Education, which is especially responsible to help educate those in disadvantaged groups.

 

Truck bros gonna truck bro.

Yeah, I've received this treatment as well. Right lane, getting tail gated, passing me then rolling coal.
I de-badged my car and it tapered off

 

I have not seen that behavior in Virginia when I had my 2017 Prius. I now have a 2025 Camry hybrid that kinda blends in. My coworkers used to call my Prius my spaceship because of the noisemaker. I disagree that the newer Prius looks cool. It looks ugly to me personally.

I had a coworker buy a black Tesla model 3 with license tag RolinCol (rollong Coal). Weird humor.

 

prius peeps have been complaining about this since there was prius. it's a thing.
even if you're driving like a nut like everyone else, prius has a reputation because of people like me

 

People who traded their Prius for a Chevy Bolt EV two years ago?

 

I'd vote with those suggesting any Prius-specific hate you are encountering is linked your local road culture.

There was some Prius hate in my region, but it was already waning when I joined the Prius family in 2009. Being a multi-car family, the difference between the vehicles was sometimes visible, but I can't remember back to the last time it happened. I moved to a different model PHEV early last year.

OTOH, general road aggressiveness and rage have increased since the start of the Pandemic five years ago, since de-policing took away most traffic enforcement. The other household vehicles witnessed just as much of it as did the Prius. Not focused at us, but generalized road behavior.

 

Install a forward and reverse drive camera. That kinda aggressive driving usually ends up in collisions. It would be nice it there's a record of the events in question. My last collision with an uninsured motorist lied to authorities - I was lucky a witness hung around and backed my story.

 

This was you?

 

If you are in the left lane going slower than traffic, move over.

Or move to the UK where everyone stays below the speed limit - primarily because of automated radar tickets everywhere.

 

we don't have any 35mph roads with two lanes here. they are usually 50+

 

We have numerous multi-lane arterials now posted 35 mph, marked down from 40 or 45 a few years ago.

There are lots of left turns off our such arterials, and many people approaching their turns. Diving into the left turn lane from the right-hand through lane is heavily frowned upon.

A lot more of those are appearing here too. Originally just school zone camera operating only during school commute hours, but now the state legislature has allowed them to expand to 24/7/365. School zone speed limit (lower) when the warning lights are flashing, regular limit when not flashing.

Also:

Portable radar-based construction zone speed cameras (just a few test units so far, moving around to various work zones);

Fixed photo interval cameras, recording how long it takes each vehicle to travel a 5 mile interval (currently 3 test sections on Interstate Highways).

A few months ago, Emma Watson (Hermione in Harry Potter movie series) and another actress in the same series, both received temporary driving bans the same day in the same court, for speeding, one for 6 over, the other 8 mph over the posted limit. Both had "points" from multiple prior infractions, putting them over the threshold for license suspension.

Where I was originally licensed in the U.S., the same policy applied. Driver Education instructor stating that a habitual 5 mph over the limit was a recipe for license suspension in typically about a year. From old fashioned enforcement from life officers, as we didn't have speed cameras back then. Good thing my brother-in-law only visited there occasionally, spreading his points out over longer time than counted for suspension.

 

Since 2020 it honestly seems like EVERYONE'S driving has gotten worse and each year it continues to decline. Not only are there your bog standard idiot drivers who just can't figure out what they want to do or brake for no reason or do 10 under the speed limit on the mildest curve in the road, but you also have SUPER aggro drivers everywhere it seems. This was true in my previous car (non-Toyota), this is true now in my 5th gen. You are not special, no one really cares that much about you. I'd wager that most people still don't even recognize the 5th gen as a prius when they see it.

You have to remember that the average IQ in the US is about 100 (and dropping!). That means that there are a LOT of people on the road who are below average IQ. You have low IQ, low impulse control due to either conditioning from how life just is now or natural factors, and a general lack of real empathy, and voila you have millions of borderline psycho drivers on the road making life miserable for everyone else. Not to mention you have a lot of just generally BAD drivers out there. I have a friend who I will NEVER ride with again if she's driving because she tailgates everyone, for no reason! She just can't not do it if someone's in front of her. She can't explain why. She just locks in and has to ride the person's nice person. So there's a lot of weirdos like that driving. Big vehicles also make bad drivers overestimate their ability to drive so that's another factor. They just don't care because you're a bug on the road in your small car.

As far as the older more identifiable prius', I really don't think there's even that much hate for them anymore. Most older gens I see on the road are FLYING by at crazy speeds. I don't think anyone's really mad at them.

 

Quite frankly I rarely see Gen2s and Gen3s on the road anymore except on the west coast where Prius v cabs are still everywhere.

 

And drive in the left lane all day with abandon.