Agreed. I'd go as far as suggesting that the keying of his car might even have been a revenge attacked prompted by an act of overly aggressive or unnecessarily provocative behavior to another driver. Sorry if that sounds overly critical of you andrewrohn. But I just don't see the sense of what you said you did in points #1 and #2 of your post (especially #2).
I drove to and stayed in Detroit last week (admittedly a wee bit nervous) and experienced ZERO Prius hate. :cheer2::rockon::cheer2: I must have been surrounded 60:1 by domestic brand cars and not one instance of perceived aggression or attitude from other drivers; I was thoroughly impressed. I even had the chance to tout Prius' features to people and dispell some of the usual myths they had. I think the Volt's roll-out may have something to do with greater acceptance of hybrid vehicles in Motor City, regardless of brand.
I'm in Michigan occasionally. I have the feeling that between the dramatic population drain, (local, state, and city) government financial insolvency, ridiculous levels of unemployment, crime, and other issues affecting the population, they could care less about your/my Prius.
I have a love/hate relationship with my Prius. It drives like crap and its not any fun and it looks pretty funky but it saves me so much money on gas.
In EU people don't really even know what a Prius is. Meaning that if they see one in front of them, they don't associate it to tree-huggers, hollywood stars making a statement, environmentalists, etc. It is just another car and nobody really is noticing that it is "hybrid", electric or whatever else associated with the Prius... We already drive since years diesel and natural gas driven cars and the Prius does save fuel in town, but on a normal road behaves like a modern diesel. I think, especially where I live here, it is simply ignored. It is also not "cool" stylistically compared to other EU based brands, so "people" don't consider or think about it when needing to buy a car. Plus it's Japanese, a statement in itself for many people already. And it is "big" for most towns. The Yaris for example is a hit in Italy. Much less in Germany. But surely you don't see Priuses here all over the place. In CA, USA where I was recently instead it looks like a Toyota dealer on wheels.... The only "hate" I get is at traffic lights, because I don't rush it - but that would have been a problem with any other car. Here you need a Porsche or a BMW or an Audi to get some respect... Moreover, there are really a few Priuses here, really. I think the problem in the US is not Prius itself, but rather some of the people owning it and the publicity they attract. The envy that some have of that "guy" halving its fuel costs (but I have this cool SUV with 400HP). And the fact that some Prius owners drive it like a granny the whole time thinking they are saving liters of fuel (when in fact they are not) being annoying in traffic. Add it all up, and you get "Prius" hate.
Most of the priuses you see on the road here are taxis... and they, like taxis everywhere, do not have the reputation of being slow non-agressive drivers. It's pretty much a non issue I would say. I got a bit of flack in the coffee room at work when I ordered it, but that was just the general teasing banter that goes on there about everything.
Yeah, you guys are probably right. My ambition to change those few minds who drive aggressively around me, only backfired into me driving aggressively as well. I didn't see it that way. Thanks for pointing it out, though. But no, the keying couldn't have been related. The one instance on the highway was in Madison, the car was keyed here in Richland Center area, which is over an hour away. Regardless, people hate them, and me trying to prove a point isn't going to change anyone's mind, only increase my chances of encountering MORE road rage. I'm an idiot sometimes- and like someone pointed out, still young (27).
Are people really this passionate about stuff like this right now? We are in political and financial crisis and I got a hate post on FB... "You ARE the reason our country is broke sending dollars out of the country because you "cant afford an American hybrid"." UUUGHH!!!!!!!!
lawls, meanwhile that person is fattening the bank account of some Saudi so that he can order another platinum-covered 911 Turbo.
Yeah, I didn't think so either... but they said that that increases the popularity of the vehicle in the U.S. so dealerships will continue to stock and purchase foreign cars etc...
Not a stranger - it was a conversation on somebody elses page about how high gas prices are and about how her VW sedan gets worse MPG's than the Hyundai Santa Fe. I posted in response saying how glad I was that I got my Prius with gas hitting 4.09 here in IL. A friend of hers, an acquaintance of mine, posted that in response to my post about purchasing a prius. Then proceeded to try to verbally beat me about Union workers etc and how I'm the cause of X Y and Z financial problems in our country.
My dad, a Union worker for Chrysler for 30+ years, drove a Toyota Corolla to the Chrysler plant for over 10 years (1974 to 1985 or so). It was either that or put his paycheck directly into the gas tank every week. It is amazing that there isn't such vitriol for people who are buying TV's made overseas, clothing made in sweatshops, etc. As if those things are ok because we have already decimated those industries in the U.S.... This acquaintance seems to think that we may as well keep funding terrorism and propping up shady regimes through our oil dollars.
Are there people out there who berate every single import driver they see? Did that guy yell at the VW owner? VW hasn't had a plant in the U.S. in 20 years. Is that Santa Fe American enough for his standards? There's a whole lot of outrage that could be dealt here, so he should calm down.
She drives a Hummer H3... so I doubt she understands. They only purchase GM cars. I decided not to argue because I prefer to keep the peace at this stage in my life there is enough stress.
Ah, the anti-Prius. Yeah, no sense in trying to bridge that gap. Forgive her, she's probably just ornery about her $90 fillups.
