How do you know you really like your Prius?

I'd be a mushroom cloud layin m***** f***** !!! The Guns of Navarone!!!

 

All I can say is I always pay my debts with a little interest. Need I say more?

 

Full speed ahead with the shopping cart in his driver door. Then say, "Oops, so solly.

 

Ok how about an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. If that jerk would have damaged my car in such a disrespectful way I'd owe him one, but I always pay my debts with interest!

 

I take care of all my stuff. Don't park my cars amongst the masses. So yea, all the above.

 

Glad to hear that you kept your cool. As much as I dislike dings and scratches, it's not worth a confrontation. Damage done. Only body shop can undo, anyway.

Personally, I don't do any of those things on your list when I drive the Prius, except #1, #2 and #3. Don't park under trees if I can help it.

I really dislike admitting this, but I have a 1999 SW2 Saturn Wagon that I take to the high risk areas like grocery stores, or state park dirt parking lots with my mountain bike in the back. It's plastic bodied, so it's fantastic for that kind of duty. I can park that thing right next to the shopping cart return and that rusty old '82 Firebird professional grade car door dinger and not give it a second thought! I usually park at the farthest point away from everyone else just from habit, but it's nice to know that this car can't be damaged by the car careless.

The main reason I have it, is to use in Winter when our Maine road crews put down an ocean's worth of salt to melt snow. I recommend having a beater like that to lower parking lot, and rapid oxidation angst levels!

Our '05 Prius got traded in after 6 years with zero dings and the undersides completely rust free. So the crazy plastic beater strategy has worked out extremely well so far.

 

Agree that it's very good to have a beater car. No doubt about it.

But, a 911 isn't quite what I would consider a beater... I think I would still feel wounded if I had a 911 full of dings. Heart broken even, but you can always have that kind of damage repaired.

A Saturn wagon, on the other hand... well suffice it to say that it's looks don't seem to be affected by "character" marks!

I tried deforming the plastic body at around 20 below zero and it was still pretty pliable. That was years ago after I had just gotten the car... don't think its been nearly that cold around here since I tried that. I just pushed on the door skin with the back of my arm and fist and it deflected quite a ways.

The owner of the holed Saturn you mentioned may have experienced a slightly sharper tap in the cold!

 

How can you tell I love my Prius? 10.000 plus posts on PriusChat might be a give away. I also love the people who drive them.

 

You know you really like your Prius when you want to sleep in it at night

 

I have done several trips where I have covered 6,500km (over 4000 miles) in a couple of weeks, or even 4 days once. Adelaide to Perth and return on a long weekend in a Prius. 30 hours to cover 3,000km going over to Perth and the return trip was across the Nulabour Plain at 48 degrees celsius outside, covered in under 2 days. Oh, I slept in it at night. Leave it in ready mode and enjoy the AC all night. Enough room with the seats down to roll out a swag in the back.

 

I park my Pri as close to the entrance that I'm heading for as I can.

I make no distinctions about the vehicles next to me on number of doors, size, truck or no truck, bumper stickers, etc.

The only thing that changes process is if I see an empty spot next to another Prius. Then I prefer that over a spot that is closer to the building.

One day I parked next to a Prius and then when I was leaving discovered that another driver had parked his or her Prius next to mine. Three Prius is a row--in Omaha, Nebraska!

I was so tickled that I had to snap a photograph. It's just too bad that my Prius was so dirty from the mud from the Nebraska winter freeze/thaw cycles...

 

I do #1 through #3, avoid trees as we got a bunch of sap on our car when we were camping in the Sierras last year. DH also has this thing about parking downhill in a parking lot, he thinks that shopping carts will roll downhill and crash into our car, so we have to find a #1 through #3 space that's uphill from the rest of the parking lot. Sometimes I have to drive around the parking lot twice to find a place to park. I've never done that with any other car. I really do love my Prius.

 

Was "there" yesterday. Had to park next to a beautiful, sparkling Blizzard Pearl and another white Prius pulled in on the other side of me, two spaces down. It was a beautiful sight - I normally park far and away from other cars and walk, regardless. This was a small lot that is crowded except for yesterday.

Slowly and steadily Prius drivers are taking over the world...

I'm about 1, 2, and 3 - but not 4 - trees are messy things and sunlight is needed to charge that fan I like so much after a run in warm weather.