Toyota Prius vs Hummer H3 ? ( Yea, a serious question ... )

Driving a Prius results in lower emissions and smaller carbon footprint. When gasoline goes to $5 Liter ($20 gallon) watch how fast Hummers disappear. No rational person needs to drive a "Chelsea Tractor."

 

Hummer?! Ha. That's for chumps.

What you really need is a Marauder built in South Africa I believe.

 

Two observations about "real men"

- they don't seek validation thur their choice of vehicle - i.e. some 4x4
- they don't attempt to start viral threads centered around them.

 

damn. guilty.

 

When people say that they are being hassled for driving a Prius, I sometimes wonder if they are hypermiling in traffic. I've driven a Jeep CJ5, a Honda Civic, the Prius, the Zap Xebra, the electric Porsche (very briefly), and now the Roadster. And I never encounter hostility. A few (VERY few) people made derogatory comments about the Xebra, but tons of people had positive things to say about it, and the derogatory comments were not hostile. They just thought the car was stupid.

Maybe it's because I've never lived in places where people will shoot each other over a parking space. But when I read about people being frequently insulted over driving a Prius, I have to wonder if it's the car, or the way they drive.

 

Daniel, hypermiling can get a negative reaction depending on the circumstances.

You can't do much during rush hour, but still say you should be OK driving around the speed limit and easily letting the gearheads pass.

I seek less traveled routes and choosing times around rush hour to hypermile.

Hypermiling like anything else is common sense.

But back to the thread topic, I definitely think you can drive a Prius in Miami peacefully most of the time if you are determined.

 

This whole everyone else out there is out to get me because I'm in a Prius thing is really getting a bit crazy.

Do some people drive like jerks around us because we drive a Prius? Sure.

Is it THAT bad that your choices are buying a hummer or packing heat?! Really? Is it that dangerous to drive a Prius that you need deadly force to keep you/your family safe?

In psychology its called a representative bias. In any other car we'd see a tailgater/SUV/bad driver/whatever and shrug it off. When we see it behind the wheel of a Prius we confirm our belief that everyone is out to get us.

Go buy a hummer and you can worry about how everyone is out to key and ding your vehicle because they hate it.

 

Four years ago near me > Affidavit: Southlake man keyed more than one Hummer | Top Stories | News from Fort Worth...

May have keyed 50 Hummers.

Probably settled out of court and hit his retirement really bad.

Turned himself in the second day after the H2 security video went viral on YouTube.

 

Yep.

Yep. Though I suspect that some folks do hypermile in rush hour, or other times when it interferes with traffic. And in fact, the only time it won't interfere with traffic is when yours is the only car on the road. Which is why I've always advocated "just drive it."

That's what I'd have thought, though I've never been there.

Buying a Hummer seems an ill-advised solution to the problem of other drivers sometimes being jerks.

 

TV Spot: H2 driver discovers/enjoys hypermiling

^ a month ago I was on a local TV spot on hypermiling, but phrased it that anyone in the Dallas/Fort Worth area can get 20% better on a gallon of gas....that's the amount of improvement you can easily get without annoying other drivers. Also made it very easy, non-controversial, and absolutely legal. Get Better Gas Mileage No Matter What You Drive « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

On the TV spot, my points were:

1. Don't speed or drive aggressively
2. ^ don't aggressive drivers intimidate you - easily let them pass (stay in right-hand lane, flash emergency lights as tailgaters approach...)
3. Be sensitive on the accelerator pedal - on a level highway, speed typically creeps higher.​

Later coached the reporter while driving to go from 44 mpg in the city to virtually 60 (30% better) before he was done in urban traffic - easy, non-extreme stuff.

What I did not know before airtime is the reporters also did a gas guzzler. They did not do a common F-150 pickup that drinks 3x the Prius, but an H2 Hummer that burns 4x as much - show biz.

The reporter coached this woman and she gets 20% better in her H2 - in a Prius she would save $200-$300 annually, but for her it's saving $1000-$1200. The spot suggests she is in a video game mode like many of our PC members here.

I strongly suspect the H2 woman on the story would tell Ray66 this "respect" thing is not worth it - look at my bills. She is getting over it.

 

H3s are for wimps!

 

^ interesting - we have a number of Floridians at CleanMPG, An authoritative source on fuel economy and hypermiling and they are still active....suggestions of their deaths are exaggerated.

 

OK...I used to drive through FL often: would drive my grandmother back and forth to her winter condo in the Sarasota area. I'm highly dubious you can do much hypermiling in FL because the sate as is SO FLAT. Atlanta has some hills...so with the traffic lights I find it hit or miss as to how my mpgs are: some areas I can coast better when it's clearly downhill with no traffic lights. But the highest point in FL is only 345 ft above sea level! I've found my best averages with mpgs is when I drive up to visit family in Asheville, NC. I've got open areas to have good hypermiling...and even when I hit areas with steep inclines, I'll still gain more coasting down.

 

Florida may have more than it's fair share of bad/fast drivers, but hypermiling can and is done there - it just takes a tougher skin.

In contrast, when someone shouts NYC, Boston, LA, Dallas, or Miami you MUST speed or die, I conclude they either love to speed or lack guts....talking about avoiding speeding - not hypermiling.

 

More and more I see the problem here as not being about cars at all. I wish Ray all the best in his future endeavors.

 

I've been stuck in DC, NYC, Boston, and LA traffic...humm lots of luck to try to speed if you're in the typical stop and go traffic!

 

Define 'interferes with traffic'.

You can improve traffic markedly, guess how, by driving slower, not faster. See: The Physics Behind Traffic Jams and SCIENCE HOBBYIST: Traffic Waves, physics for bored commuters

These techniques are similar to hypermiling. So it could be that hypermilers are actually improving traffic!

 

I wonder if we're all using the term "hypermiling" the same way. Some may use the term to mean accelerating gently, staying within the speed limit, trying to avoid sudden stops, etc.

I was using the term to refer to a particular technique developed by some Prius drivers in Japan, which exploits the peculiar behavior of HSD. It involves fairly quick, but not overly aggressive acceleration to just below the 42 mph electric limit and then finding the no-arrows spot on the pedal and coasting down to a very slow speed. The constantly changing speed, and the time spent well below the speed limit when other drivers would be keeping a constant speed, is extremely disruptive of traffic.

Any car can be driven more efficiently than the average driver. And anyone who is not already driving efficiently can learn to do better. But the kind of driving I refer to as "hypermiling" only works with a car like the Prius where the ICE starts and stops effortlessly. And is extremely obnoxious towards any other drivers sharing the road with you. Even on an open highway where other drivers can pass you, they may have to slow down as they wait for an opportunity to pass, and having to change lanes is enough of a distraction that it increases, even if only slightly, the chances of an accident if they don't happen to see a car approaching rapidly in the lane to your left.

Simply driving at the low end of the acceptable speed range in the slow lane is more efficient than driving at the high end of that range, but is not the technique I was referring to.

 

Hypermiling refers to any driving technique used to save gas.

Pulse and gliding/coasting(it can even help tradition cars, actually appeared in a 1950's Popular Mechanics article) can be done in a manner that doesn't interfere with traffic. Doing so is rude.