Prius Haters are at it again.

Thank you bwilson4web for driving my point...this is a Prius left seat issue...on some models. No T-SB can fix that.

 

Remember the "buggy-era" cars all had quick-fading drum brakes,, and most were non-power brakes, which meant looooong stopping distances, especially if the drums got wet!
I am also amazed at quick stopping of tailgaters, but then it struck me that most of them are probably 40 years younger than I am, and have MUCH better reaction times!
Wait, am I wandering off topic too?
I plead Senior Moment!!

Ok, you're on!
Wet spring in western Canada last year, so huge numbers of mosquitoes, which I did NOT stop for, but also huge numbers of huge black dragon flies eating the abundant mosquitoes, which I DID stop for, or at least swerve around to avoid hitting, because those suckers were a real mess to clean up!

 

The Jaguar MK II was one of the first production cars to have disc brakes. It could stop so much more quickly than the other cars of its time that it had this warning on the back:



Mind you, if you were close enough to read that, you were going to crash anyway.

 

There's someone who parks her Prius outside my daughter's school who has an "I brake for wombats" sticker on the back of her car.

It looks all green and caring and lovely and Priusy.

But everybody brakes for wombats. In part, this is because they're cute. But mainly it's because they're so dumpy and solid that if you hit one head on, you'll bend the underpinnings of your car so badly that you'll write it off.

 

What about cane toads?

Bob Wilson

 

They probably accelerate for cane toads.

 

Nope, no Prius haters...
This pic is my car tonight after being ran off the road by an suv. Yes, ran. Side swipe into a median and off he goes.

 

They're not a problem in New South Wales. But in Queensland, I think you actually get rewards from the government for handing in dead cane toads.

 

Even paranoids have enemies:

Source: Seat Time: 2015 Toyota Prius – John's Journal on Autoline

I am somewhat conflicted by this review in part because it has some merit, noise. After a tire change, our 2010 Prius has developed a tire/bearing/transmission whine that bothers me. We also have 2003 Prius and it is not nearly as noisy. Noise is not new as some early, 2001-03 Prius postings in "Prius Technical Stuff" were about adding 'sound deading' material to the engine compartment. I'm not wearing a hair shirt because we know tires can make a similar noise.

The reviewer correctly identified middle of this winter is not a fair test . . . for any vehicle:


It was an unfair review not just because of the weather but the absence of 'reference' vehicle running through the same tests in parallel. This is and was the brilliance of the Edmunds "smack down" series. However, I would also like a quieter Prius.

I've done a few Prius benchmarks over the years. But getting 39 MPG in sub-freezing weather with a driver who complains the brakes are not grabby enough, I'm not persuaded. I well remember the 2009 Jetta-vs-Prius stunt by "Green Human."

So if you want to find a real 'Prius hater,' well we may not have Jeremy Clarkson but never underestimate the availability of more venal village idiots.

Bob Wilson

 

That really sucks!

 

My wife sent me this yesterday, and it reminded me of this thread.



But specifically, it reminded me of this post. It took me a while to find.

ETC, I thought your point about the Prius' abrupt back end made sense, and that maybe we did think people were closer than they really were.

But, as I think you know, I've just bought a new car - a Mercedes C-class station wagon. Being a C-class, it isn't vastly bigger than the Prius. And being a station wagon, its back end finishes as abruptly as a Prius' (perhaps even more so).

I've taken it onto the M4, the psychopath-ridden motorway that runs through the Western Sydney suburbs, a couple of times. And I've driven it to Canberra and back (a 300km journey each way on a mixture of busy and empty motorways). I've driven at exactly the same speeds as I did in the Prius, and driven in exactly the same style.

What I've noticed is that I'm being tailgated a hell of a lot less in the Merc than I was in the Prius. Really, the difference is huge. In the Prius, every f---wit in an Impreza or a ute or a riced-up 20-year-old Integra or an X5 would be running six feet or so behind my back bumper when we were doing 120km/h (in a 110km/h limit zone) in a queue of traffic and I was staying a safe distance from the car in front. In the Merc, they don't: I think I've only been tailgated once so far.

This makes me think that it is a Prius thing. I think men with tiny genitals do think it's a sport to try to intimidate people in Priuses.

As a control (in case it was something about the Merc) I spoke to the nanny. She usually drives a Holden (Opel / Vauxhall / Saturn, depending on the market) Astra station wagon (which I bought because it is cheap, safe and boring). Again, it's about the same size as the Prius and the C-class, and its back end finishes abruptly. She also sometimes borrows the Prius. And she said the same thing: people tailgate her a lot more when she's driving the Prius than when she's driving the Astra.

So I'm definitely leaning towards the theory that Priuses do get tailgated more than other cars. Not because of the way we drive, but because people still have this weird resentment toward the cars.

 

We disagree.....but that's OK.
You also think that soccer is a proper sport, and that tea should be consumed in an itty-bitty cup.....at a near boiling temperature...and you're wildly mistaken about what a biscuit is and how to eat one.

The G3 is much more angular that the G2, and the Prius C-type looks almost nothing like a Prius.
When the G4 comes out, it's going to take on the same tragic styling theme as other Toyotas and it's going to look nothing like a Prius, and I'll bet you a cup of coffee to your thimble-sized cup of tea that Prius drivers will still be crying about being tailgated.

I'm thinking that it's not the car.

 

Well, I do think soccer is a proper sport. But in a maverick way, I think tea should be consumed green, with jasmine or chrysanthemum, and iced.

Biscuits:


Scones:



I reckon my experience and the nanny's experience suggest that it is the car. Or at least the bell-ends behind the car who think it's some sort of statement.

 

Once they get close enough to read my NRA sticker, my come and take it flag,and my Chuck Norris for president bumper sticker they usually back off.

 

Sourthern:

Biscuits and gravy



As for tailgaters, you might 'adjust' the passenger side windshield wiper nozzle to throw a stream over the car and to the car behind. Then mix a special washer fluid with a little ammonia . . . yellow dye would be excessive. Now if the rear window had a washer nozzle and a 'special' reservoir . . .

Bob Wilson

 

Just get a bumper sticker that says "I drive a hybrid so I can have more money for ammo" They are available

 

I swear sometimes people see the Prius and they target lock on the thing and tailgate to no end. I get that when driving sports cars as well. Not sure why.

 

You can get that driving any car. I was driving an old Camry back from Colorado and some dude locked on the bumper and would not budge, no matter if I slowed down, sped up, etc. I finally "lost" him doing a last second across two lanes "exit."

 

Where I work, the only surefire way to get people hot, bothered and acting out, is to bring up the Prius. Kinda scary and weird.

 

That shows you how screwed up people are