1st experience being viewed as a smug prius owner

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DonDNH @ Jan 30 2007, 09:19 AM) [snapback]382833[/snapback]</div>

Sounds like a really nifty un-documented feature - a cell phone with a built-in hand warmer. (Great for cold winter climates!)

Seriously though, if an electronic device develops a short circuit, the battery can discharge at a very high rate and the battery will heat up (or burn up). This phenomena has occurred recently with laptop computers, which incidentally use the same battery technology as cell phones...

Regards,

Keith

 

Maybe her cell phone had the same kind of spontaneously combustible batteries that appeared in laptop computers recently...

http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/22/dude-yo...ll-is-on-fire/3

 

Ignoring the whole cell phone thing, because I think that's an urban legend,

What is the official stance on fueling up while the engine is running? There are an awful lot of people that do it (not me, but people I know) and I always wondered what the risks were. :huh:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(quagmire0 @ Jan 30 2007, 01:38 PM) [snapback]383007[/snapback]</div>

Probably best to shut off the engine. After all, why waste fuel?

Regards,

Keith

P.S. Ever notice that people who are in a big hurry have a tendency to forget things, like putting the gas cap back on?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(PA @ Jan 29 2007, 09:49 PM) [snapback]382550[/snapback]</div>

They have had news reports down here in SUNNY SOUTH FLORIDA, that indeed, that can happen. Don't want to find out if they are correct the hard way...so I just shut the phone off when pumping.

One time, I did tell someone who was pumping while the engine was on it was a hazard...and he ignored me, then cussed me out. So, I went to the cashier, who turned off his pump. Good for him. The cops got called when this mo-ran started a fight with me and the cashier. He ended up in the back of the cop car.


Seems he could have just kept the car off. Oh well. What you going to do?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TJandGENESIS @ Jan 31 2007, 07:09 AM) [snapback]383192[/snapback]</div>

This is an interesting one because in the UK you can't pump gas without actually holding the pump in place (ours don't have a lock 'on' catch) I always assumed that it was more the dropping of the phone and creating a spark than anything else. We had a few issues in the 80s when shell suits (those really horrid plasticly leisure suits) were popular. Several idiots managed to incinerate themselves wearing them (and all the static they created) while pumping gas.

I get people treating me with distain too. Men of all ages and backgrounds tend to look at my electric car and go "Coooool!" but there is a subset of women (namely richus stuckupthearsus con vehicular pollutus grande who either try to run me off the road by riding my rear end or assume that they can jump infront of me in traffic because I don't take up a full lane...

I say screw SUV woman. If you see her again offer her a nylon top....

 

all those rules were designed so you stay at the pump.. not walk around.. not walk back into your car.

the only way fires are created is by static electricity... the only real way static is created is, if on a dry day you decide to go back into your car... rubbing your feet on the carpet creates static. walking strait to the pump and not grounding ourself on the side of your car will cause a spark.

this is the only way the proved gas pump fires.

on a dry day, it's easy to create static in the prius. I'm almost afraid to shut the door because of the initial shock sometimes. my g/f has the same problem on her corolla.

 

Urban legend?

Not according to this story: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/14/...ain617547.shtml

Everyone knows CBS News never lies, well, okay that was that one incident where they became "BS News."

Gas stations can also explode from a lava flow: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2002/01/21/c...cano020121.html

Here's a "woman in an SUV" story:

http://www.esdjournal.com/static/Montana/s...0gas%20fire.htm

February 17, 2005
Great Falls, Montana- Static electricity could be to blame for a fire that damaged a woman's car and a gas station. It happened at the Town Pump on 10th Avenue South around 1:30 p.m. when a woman began pumping gas into her SUV.

The Great Falls Fire Department says the woman felt heat coming from the nozzle when it caught fire. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The woman and a child in the back seat were not injured. The blaze engulfed the rear end of the GMC BLazer and part of the canopy above the gas station. Fire crews sprayed water and foam to control the blaze.

When refueling your vehicle, the following suggestions will save your life or that of someone else:

Never allow your vehicle to have less than 1/4 tank of gasoline when refueling.
Never Allow Children to refuel a vehicle.
Never have children in the vehicle during refueling.
Turn off the vehicle before refueling.
Never smoke near a gasoline station or especially during refueling.
Every time you exit the vehicle, discharge the static on yourself by touching the metal of your vehicle away from the fuel door area.
Every time you approach the fuel dispencing pump, discharge the static on yourself by touching the metal parts of the pump away from the nozzle area.
Refuel the vehicle slowly until you have at least 1/4 to 1/2 tank full. Then you may refuel at the maximum rate.
Never use the auto-latch feature of a nozzle if available. Stay there with your hand on the nozzle.
Never get back in the vehicle during refueling.


And the most important thing to remember if a fire occurs during refueling:

Never, Never pull the nozzle out of the vehicle.

The car will not explode.
Run away
Get help
Ask the attendent to shut down the pumps
Get a fire extinguisher
You have time, don't make it worse.

Harry

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(aminorjourney @ Jan 31 2007, 02:38 AM) [snapback]383195[/snapback]</div>

Do you miind if I plagiarize here? I think I love this faux-latin species phrase...

 

I don't think the original poster was a smug Prius driver. However, he/she was kind of a smug person. That kind of situation can erupt (not the gas pump) very dangerously. Some folks feel threatened if they feel they are being lectured or scolded. (I open my mouth at all the wrong times about all the wrong topics, so this I know.)

I agree that it's better to walk away on that one. Now, if I saw someone smoking and filling up at the same time I would just stop pumping and finish at another gas station. Whenever I gas up, I just gas up and go unless there's a cute chick worth around. However, even saying, "Hi.", in the wrong situaton can get a face full of pepper spray plus some undesired explaining to the police.

Cynical? Yes, I am.

 

I have heard from one of my friends that he liked Prius but didn't buy it since he didn't want to be viewed as a "Prius person". I asked what did that mean and he said "you know, someone who thinks they know better and wants to teach a lesson".

I have a feeling that maybe sometimes, wishing for the better, people may create negative impression. I did encounter a few "lesson teaching" Prius drivers myself - like someone going 30mph on 45mph single lane road or accelerating very slowly (probably not wanting to start gasoline engine) and delaying 100 cars behind him/her. This has nothing really to do with Prius, I have seen drivers in all kinds of car doing the same. But we all know, type of the car does affect our perception of a person: think Hummer or flashy Ferrari.

So let's be nice and make everyone think that Prius drivers as nice, helpful people. Educate and help works better than force and insist.

 

Enthuasism and zeal can be interpreted as smug or condecending.

For instance, Mac Users really love their machine. Just today, a Mac User went out of his way to say his endorcement of Windows Vista was not intended to be "apostasy" (see http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16873608/ if you are interested ). Must older is the "holier than thou" barb thrown as people perceived to be self-rightous, but may be non-egotistically serious about their lifestyle instead.

Yes, it's iimportant to be a good poster boy - not a bad one.

 

Well, as far as fueling with the engine running, in many jurisdiction's it's against the law. It's usually a local ordinance. It is dangerous.

As far as fires, I had one when I was going to school and working in a gas station, back in "The Dark Ages". No cell phones, no leisure suits. The jerk left his engine running, the carburetor overflowed and the fuel ignited on the exhaust manifolds. Now THAT was exciting. Being one of the station attendants, it was my job to extinguish that fire. FUN!

And for further proof, I watched one of those "Amazing Videos" taken from a security camera recording. Guy was filling up, cigarette in mouth. Suddenly he was engulfed in flames - and it was clearly the vapours being ignited as there was no liquid fuel around. He wasn't seriously hurt, but his vehicle burned until the fire dept. got there, as the station fire extinguishers only managed to extinguish the fire on him.

It's possible for -something- to go wrong with any battery. Current LiIon batteries hold a lot of energy and they can burn. It's very rare. Except the laptop battery debacle of last year. I stay with the assertion that cell phones will not cause a fire while filling your fuel tank.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusmatic @ Jan 29 2007, 06:14 PM) [snapback]382510[/snapback]</div>

Find me a story of a gas station that has blown up because of a car or cell phone not being shut off and maybe I'd change my stance :blink: , but I dont believe that can happen anymore with todays cars. I'da told you to shut up too :angry: . Half the problems in the world today would dissappear if people would just mind their own business. As for that woman, shes obviously a loser....she drives a Hyundai :wacko: .....but seriously, mind your own business. If you believe your life is in danger, leave :blink: .

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(fathale @ Jan 31 2007, 10:06 AM) [snapback]383276[/snapback]</div>

While I note getting too nosy is asking for trouble, the other end of the spectrum is not good either. Hear of the 37 that watched Kitty Genovese die? I'd tend to think running a car at a gas station deserves mention.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(allargon @ Jan 31 2007, 09:31 AM) [snapback]383233[/snapback]</div>

I agree 100%. I think the best option would have been to quietly go into the gas station's office and inform them of the issue, they would have come out and shut off her pump and made her turn off the engine.

 

Good point - go to the ones in charge.

 

Ultimately it is their problem and liability, not yours as another consumer.

Given the wrong person, you very well may put yourself into danger confronting people like that.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Delta Flyer @ Jan 31 2007, 11:18 AM) [snapback]383289[/snapback]</div>

Fortunately I only said "half the worlds problems could be solved if people would mind their own business" rather than " everyone should mind their own business regardless of the consequences". My experience is that you can find the majority of smug prius owners right here on this site. You know the ones Im talking about: they're the people that respond to a question about disabling the seatbelt or back up beepers by saying "you know, toyota put those in for a reason. I think it would be irresponsible to disable a safety device".......Let me go on record as saying that if someone is being harmed physically you have an obligation to get involved. The scenarios are too numerous to list, but yes, there are many instances where one should get involved. This is not one of them.