Prius owners educate the public

I get that all the time, and actually have come to appreciate all the extra attention I get. Most people are naturally curious due to the unique shape of the Prius, and once I open the hood and show the HSD they become hooked.

I think I'll probably wear out the hood release in another year or two, but that's a small price to pay. And I still get fingerprints on the side windows, from all the folks gawking at the interior.

What was REALLY odd was my condo neighbor, the person with that sad, broken i-drive in his $$$ BMW, never gave me more than a passing nod in the elevator before. We also work in the same building, but he get's off on a different floor.

It was only after his BMW started spending all that time in the shop that he apologetically approached me to bum a ride. Can't hurt, we work in the same building so why not, right?

He was totally hooked after the first ride, and every subsequent ride his enthusiasm for the car grows. I finally gave a careful once-over of my car when we got back from work and I was amazed at how the word spread.

Everybody in the building at work now calls me "that guy with the cool hybrid car." Hey, maybe Toyota should PAY me for all this free advertising!

Seriously, for the money, what other car will give you consistent positive reactions like that??

 

What burns me is that some people who should be educators are not, sometimes anyway. My wife and I watch a very popular call in auto repair/advice show from Toronto on the weekends. When the expert finally got around to talking about hybrid technology one weekend I was sorely disappointed, but not surprised. The fact that he is an expert yet he could not remember the name of the Toyota hybrid model (that is he couldn't remember the word Prius) told me I should not pay attention to anything else coming out of his mouth. His conclusion was basically: don't get one. The hybrid technology is too new and untested. We can't be sure how it will stand up in Canadian winters (can Frank please call this guy?!) and why would you buy a compact car that is so expensive?

Now of all those things, what bugs me most is he bought into the myth that the Prius is a compact. The Prius is FAR from a compact. When people ride in mine, the two things they invariably comment on is 1) the space inside and 2) the quietness of everything (the ride, the engine, suspension...all of it).

So, as anticipated, I just ignored everything he said. Not being a Hybrid Educator, I did NOT call in to set this guy straight. Not worth my time, that's for sure. I should end by saying, the gentleman is very knowledgeable, and quite pleasant to listen to , I just think that like many "experts" he doesn't really know what he's talking about with Prius!

 

Because of the overwhelming success of the Prius, Toyota have been put under pressure in the production area.
As a result, they have held back on advertising - it's just not necessary for the purpose of sales!
In Oz there has been absolutely no advertisng for most of 2004 - the last one I remember was late 2003!
The side-effect of this of course is that the general public are not kept informed about it all, except for the rare press articles.
It's a pity, because this is more than just about a car.
On one hand Toyota have done the right thing in actually producing a practical hybrid, in defiance of the other car manufacturers, but they really have missed the opportunity to push the message.

Personally, when anyone asks me about the car ( usually in shopping centre car park) I can hand them a copy of an information sheet that I have compiled for the purpose.
We can all do our small bit in educating others!

kenmac

 

My impression has been that most of the people I've given "the grand tour" to (including letting them drive it around) were not overly impressed by the keyless entry or keyless start. Don't know why, but they were left with a much deeper appreciation of noise (lack of) and space (abundance of). Not one person has ever said, "No keys! Wow!" they seem to just breeze on by and get to other stuff. I do point it all out of course, but keyless entry and start could be on ANY vehicle, and I'm sure will be soon in the future. It's the hybrid stuff that is really of curiosity.

 

I have to say that the Car Talk guys (Tom and Ray on NPR) have done a pretty good job keeping up with the hybrid cars, particularly the Prius:

http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/hybrid/

 

Unfortunately, they were in gross error a few weeks ago... when complained about Prius not providing anyway to adjust temperature other than using the Multi-Display.

They had absolutely no idea there were buttons on the steering-wheel.

 

I'm just picking nits, but in case you end up showing your Prius to an electronics geek, a small nitpick with your comment about battery technology might reduce your credibility with some hypothetical future ubergeek.

Battery technology has improved in the past 20 years, but not as much as you think. The part of the comment that bugged me was the comparison between old bag phones and newer cell phones. Old bag phones needed much larger batteries partly because they were radiating a much larger amount of signal. Transmitters were much farther away, and there were far fewer cell phones in use. Now we have extremely low-power transmitters on our cell phones, and transmitters are much more common (and therefore much more likely to be close to you).

The rest of that is true. Advances in battery technology indeed have made the hybrid possible. (I started writing an extremely geeky paragraph on different battery chemistries, but I don't think anybody really cares.)

So I'd omit the analogy about bag phones versus modern cell phones, but everything else sounds great. Keep up the evangelism!

--Michael Spencer

 

I heard that episode, too, John; my impression was that Ray was complaining about the usability of the Climate screen on the Multi-Display. I may have missed something, but I don't believe the steering controls came up.

And on that point, I have to agree with Ray.