WOW that is QUIET!

Heh. I made a turn behind two college age guys who were in the crosswalk the other day. I had plenty of clearance, but I think I did scare the one guy, cause he jumped around to look at my car after I went by him. Don't think he had a clue I was there...

 

Well, it's not so much the comments I love, as it is the looks on people's faces. I know we're all trying to promote a positive image of this car, but it's too much fun to roll silently along behind those people who like to walk down the middle of the lane in parking lots. I hate when people do that without looking, so I really enjoy watching their surprised reactions when I sneak up on them!

 

Sometimes I make sure to turn off the A/C when I'm near pedestrians or in my neighborhood; this seems to shut down the ICE (depending on how the A/C is set). I really like gliding by, hearing just that cool little ghostly hum and almost no other noise.

 

Here's one for you: My neighborhood isn't very big - if i enter it going 15, i'm usually around 10 (which is the "official" speed limit) when i get to my driveway, gliding the entire way. Well anyways, a few weeks ago i scared the crap out of a guy who didn't see me coming up behind him, and he filed a complaint with the office (rented townhomes) that i was driving excessively fast through the neighborhood...

luckily the person in charge of the office is a friend of mine, so nothing came of it (i've shocked her a few times too)

 

Another one: My wife and I were leaving a cafe after breakfast a few weeks ago, and got into the car to drive home. I started backing up and got yelled at by a bunch of senior citizens who were standing in the parking lot talking. I thought they would know better to get out of the way when they saw us get into the car, and the backup lights came on. They didn't.

They looked mad as I drove away. I was afraid one of them would get into their car and chase after me!

Next time, I'll wait for the engine to start before I start backing up!

 

A couple of months ago I came upon three kids playing Hacky Sack on the sidewalk in front of what was undoubtedly one of the kid's home. Two boys and a girl . . . looked about 12-13ish.
The sack was kicked into the street and of course the kid with his back to me went for it - trying to make a save. He ended up kicking it further into the street.
I saw the whole thing and slowed to a crawl from my 20 MHP speed. The kid never looked. :blink:

I made a palms raised "what's-up-with-that" hands gesture to the friends. The boy replied with a "crazy" twirl of the finger to his head. He then quickly whispered something to the girl. When I got to about ten feet away, the two kids on the sidewalk yelled, "CAR!!!!! WATCH OUT!!!! CAR!!!"

The kid was in the process of bending over to pick up the sack . . . he took half a look and seeing something jumped and stammered between two parked cars on the opposite side of the street.

The kid then looked at me and said, "What the f*** you trying to do, kill me?"
I then replied, "what the hell you trying to do, kill yourself?"

He had a really mad look on his face, but his friends started laughing and yelling stuff like, "hey Trevor (or Troy or something like that), didn't your mother teach you to look both ways before you cross the street?" "It's LOOK for cars, not LISTEN for cars."

The boy on the sidewalk then said, "hey mister, do that again, that was fun."

I'm not sure if he meant stealth mode, or scaring the crap out of his friend, but he was right . . . that was fun! :lol:

 

Our Prius has been commented about as well. My wife went to the base to get groceries at the commissary. When my wife was at the guard shack at the base entrance, the guard told her how quiet the car was.

On the other hand, I just thought up a sales slogan for the Prius:

"Toyota Prius: Keeping everyone's attention on the cars, not on the surroundings."

 

Somehow my wife doesn't believe me when I say cranking the stereo is a safety feature...

 

There is a dog up the street that use to chase me when I drove by in my pick-up. Now that I drive a Prius the dog does not give me the time of day. I guess the dog can't hear the noise like it did with the pick-up.

 

In order, I drive:

A bike
An EV
A Prius.

I *WISH* the Prius was quiet. It is the loudest, least-efficient vehicle I use. (Show of hands. Who's surprised that I posted this?)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Jun 27 2007, 01:51 PM) [snapback]468953[/snapback]</div>

Does your sunnyboy make any noises? Mine gives off a nice constant buzz.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Jun 27 2007, 10:46 AM) [snapback]468903[/snapback]</div>

I've had that happen with a deer the other morning.
She was eating along the side of the road.
I stopped. Rolled down the window. She just glanced at me, and then went back to eating.
With my previous *NOISY* car, everytime I saw a deer in this area, they were fine until I stopped, then they would take off immediately.

I rolled away, and she barely looked up, then continued her morning snack...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ Jun 27 2007, 11:55 AM) [snapback]468955[/snapback]</div>

Yeah it does hum a bit, though I hardly ever notice it. It is out on the far side of the garage. It seems to buzz loudest when it is just on the ragged edge of generation... like ~10W. The Prius is still louder. Actually, because of the freewheel on my bikes, the Rav is often quieter than the bikes.

 

Had an entertaining deer experience the other evening. While heading
down into a shallow dip in the terrain, there was a car coming the
other way and I noticed thin shadows flicking *sideways* across the
pool of light its headlights were throwing. "okay, something is
walking across in *front* of that car", and invoked about 30 amps of
regen to bring it down to a crawl ... and sure enough, by the time
I got a little past the bottom of the gully, there's a smallish deer
wandering around by the side of the road. Started to walk out in
*front* of me, duh ... I drifted toward the left a little and stopped.
It wandered back off the road and I eased up just a little more ...
and because the car was pretty much silent, there was a longish
moment where we were just looking at each other through my passenger
window. I was like "you idiot, get OFF the road" but like it would
have any concept of that... finally I hauled out my flashlight and
got a few more photons on it, which is fascinating because from an
LED based light a deer's eyes glow a really gorgeous *blue*...
finally it turned and headed into the woods, but probably not all
that far, I'm afraid...
.
Through all this I had half an eyeball in the rearview to make sure
someone else didn't come flying up behind; they would have gotten a
hefty shot of the Yuppie Button to warn them that something was up.
.
Anyways, more fun with that Quiet Thing. The deer didn't run away
at first, probably because I wasn't making threatening rumbly noises.
.
_H*

 

I remember taking a blind member of our church home. He was impressed by the quietness of the car as well as the noises it made (like the NAV system beeping when made a turn).