[Q] No respect and bad road manner from other driver?

On a positive note, I have frequently been waved at and spoken to by drivers who are driving Tesla's. Yes, Tesla's!! In a parking lot, one gentleman commented on how the the Prius has revolutionized the driving experience. I told him I like how the Tesla brings "sportiness" to an electric vehicle. Not the usual "bubble mobile" look. This gentleman commented on how the Pruis kept getting better and better looking over the years. In my area, Toyota's are the norm. The Sienna Mini Van is visible, plenty of Corollas, Scions and of course Prius's. I'm not crazy about the interior design and the cheaper interior materials. I just like how intelligent the car is. I like how the car was intelligently built. It was made to drive and drive and drive and not bust your wallet with ridiculous repairs. I also like how the stock radio I have picks up my Samsung phone as soon as I turn the car on, and allows me to do my google playlist music.

One thing I need advice on is the cooler weather. Here in So Cal, when the weather is in the 70's and cooler, my gas mileage drops 2 to 3 miles per gallon. I need to investigate the "blocking" that so many have done. My best gas mileage is when the weather is in the high 80's to mid nineties, but then I want to run the A/C.

 

Well I'll stir the pot.

Whether it is jealousy, discrimination or hatred....

The Prius is a slow car
0-60 in 10 seconds or so.
60-0 in 130 feet or so.
Lateral G about .70
Do you loose speed on up hills?
Do you fail at merging for lack of acceleration?
Do you keep right?
Do you take off delayed from stop signs in EV or ECO mode; not utilizing Power mode?
Hilary or Trump bumper sticker perhaps?

I don't experience the road rage you mention, however I do experience the joking and "ribbing" about Prius', which I believe is all in good fun.

 

I wouldn't waste your time with the blocking method. I think that is for people in the north or cold climates.

We Californians think 60 is cold. Others laugh when we say that. They think that is "t shirt and shorts" weather where they came from.

Your mileage drop could be from winter blended fuel. California recently switched to summer fuel a week or so ago, so you should notice better gas mileage.

 

guilty as charged your honor.

 

i live in red neck country, but i don't have this problem while driving my prius, because i don't block the roads with inconsiderate driving.
sorry folks, but it's a problem prius drivers created themselves by slow driving and some other annoying antics. When i'm behind a slow person, i'm going to honk regardless if that's a prius or not.

 

Same here in the local urban / suburban zone. I don't dare put my NRA stickers on any of my household's cars, they attract political vandalism. Just bring them along to temporarily tape in the windows when traveling through 'other' territory. But I never had any need for them yet, most such other territory in this region of the continent has already accepted Prii.

 

Well said, Kenny. However;

Over the Atlantic pond, here in the UK, I kinda beg to differ.

This is Europe, land of the econobox cars. And in London in particular, you'll not only find hordes of Prii mixing it with these econoboxes, but you'll observe them giving a rather good account of themselves too.

The only time you'll normally see a Prius wafting along slowly and noiselessly, would be in a car park or in a built up residential area with small tight roads - as we usually have in the UK.

On the main highways, watch out.

A large number of Prii in London, are used as minicabs. You can tell from their green and white stickers (there's an older blue and white sticker too). The grand majority of these Prii, both 2nd and 3rd generation vehicles can be regularly seen whipping up and down busy highways, not just keeping up with the traffic, but even leaving it behind where possible.

The only ones you'd see driving slowly are those driven by some (not all) pensioners, certain women, and a few ignoramii who fervently believe that you save fuel by driving verrrry slowlllly. No you don't!
Then there's those who want to stick to the speed limit, regardless. But many other cars do that too!

The only other Prii that I might see ambling along in the 'slow lane' would be the PiP models, running in EV mode.

Is the Prius really perceived as slow in the UK? If London is anything to go by, NO!

I'll confess that I always get up to speed from a stationary position very quickly, then cruise at the same speed as the rest of the traffic, especially in an area NOT festooned with Speed Cameras (a.k.a. Government Tax Points).

Incidentally, I am now forced to travel at the speed limit for at least half of my commute along the A406, as they have now introduced Average Speed Cameras on that road. Ergo, I have started using my cruise control to not fall foul of a speeding violation. I'm not bitter, as my MPG has actually gone up as a result of this!

However, on the portions where there are no Average Speed Cams, you'd hardly call my Prius II slow. Of course there are reckless drivers with a penchant for speeding above and beyond sanity - the type who do 75mph in a 50mph limit zone. It would be unfair to call a Prius slow, just because he refuses to travel at 25mph over the speed limit, but will touch 60mph. Common sense prevails here, and many Prii are driven by very sensible people indeed.

I don't loose speed when climbing hills anymore. I don't have to. My Prius II will easily climb hills on my way to work everyday. Yes, it will sound like a Boeing 777's twin turbofans thrusting as it does so, but I can assure you, I've stopped being so fanatical about saving fuel in situations like this. I often utilise cruise control to hold my speed when climbing a long hill. I leave a lot of standard econoboxes far behind.

I'll usually stick to the fast lane, unless I'm in an Average Speed Cam zone, when I'll adjust my speed accordingly, and allow anyone who wants to contribute to the "Govt Tax Point" to whizz by, and I'll stay with the traffic who don't want points on their driving licences!

Ironically, (at 5.30am) even staying in the slow lane, on a triple lane highway (A406), while commuting to work with the cruise control set to 42mph in a 40mph limit area, riddled with Average Speed Cams.....I get 16 wheeler HGV trucks trundling up my tail, and instead of overtaking, flashing their lights at me - to go faster!!! Bad driving, bad manners! They could easily overtake on the other 2 lanes left free.

But....no! They'll sit on my tail, inches away, trying to intimidate me into going faster. I don't think they're aware of how Average Speed Cams work.

The only real disrespect a Prius driver is likely to get from other road users usually comes from very young "Boy Racers" driving a tiny 3 door econobox (Vauxhall Corsa mostly).
They drive these 1.3 litre engined vehicles like they're formula 1 racing cars, engines screaming as they try to pass you, only to then drop in front of you and drastically drop their speed, forcing you to take evasive manoeuvres.

Now, they certainly think Prii are slow ('Cos they're electric like a milk float, innit?). Silly boys!
They often learn the hard way, when under safe conditions, the Prius II (a 2008 model, displaying a 2003 private plate), pulls out from behind them into the next lane (after they've pulled their silly stunt), and suddenly goes to warp speed - whooshing off ahead like something with twin turbos attached. They'll watch it dwindle towards the horizon, before it returns to its original lane, and a normal speed. Suitably chastised, they'll usually hang back and stop being stupid.

The Prius can be astoundingly fast when it needs to be. Electric propulsion with instant torque ensures that, in an urban environment

 

I live in a very red county (that wants to become its own state) and haven't experienced anything like that. The only time I've been cut off was when driving the old truck. I don't consider the Prius to be slow at all. It gets to 60 faster than a Lotus Elite, and it can hang in the left lane just fine, when I get a wild hair.

I love the old trucks, too (if they don't have 'baccy juice running down both sides, they're doin' it wrong) and I've been wanting to get one of those" Prius Repellant" stickers for the back of the Gen2--I think it'd be funny.

I wouldn't take tailgating personally. I've ridden with perfectly nice people who engage in friendly conversation while riding the bumper of the car in front of them. Yes, it's a bad habit, but it's not always intended as a negative statement. I'd probably be tailgated if I were driving a Testarossa--I just like to take my time!

 

Yes, I get more people tailgating me, now that I drive a Prius. Buy they are driving 15 mph over the speed limit. I'm usually 5 over the limit.


I had a fun experience yesterday. Driving on a 3-lane street, every lane had a Prius. Three abreast.

Gen 2 on the left... Prius v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon) wagon in the middle... And a Gen 3 on the right...

And I was bringing up the rear in my new Gen 4. I'm sure it frustrated everyone behind us.

 

The car in front....is a Toyota! (There used to be an advert like that on TV many moons ago)

 

I had an experience today on the freeway.

I'm doing 65, keeping right up with the flow of traffic, but this young guy in a Hyundai is right on my tail! He was so close, he could read my underwear size!! Then he tries to "slingshot" me on the left... but I anticipated that silly move... so I gunned my new Prius and cut him off!

Man, that felt good! This Gen4 philly has some kick to it!

No more Mr Nice Guy! This is war!

 

And that is part of the problem. Why not just safely pass the person and leave it be? Here's an example. My wife got hit head on and broke her breastbone. She's in a lot of pain, the slightest bump was excruciating. I'm driving her home from the hospital, yes slowly. I had my flashers on. Instead of just passing, the jerks are honking and giving us the finger. 3 of them pull in front and slam on the brakes to tell me I'm going too slow. Wish I had a gun with me. Those jerks could have finished the job the crash didnt.

 

it's a sad world we live in, and sadder to see some priuschatters on that side of the street.
unfortunate that some think driving the speed limit is inconsiderate.

 

Sorry to hear about your wife's accident. Hope she makes a full recovery. That's absolutely horrible of those uncultured motorists - there's no justification for behaving like that.

And it's because of sharing the highways with brainless morons like those described on this post, that I was forced to buy a dash-cam and use it during my commute.

I can now record footage of anyone endangering my life on the road, or otherwise exhibiting psychotic behaviour behind the wheel, and if need be, hand it over to the police for their consequent prosecution.

It's also very useful for insurance purposes, especially in a world where "crash for cash" scammers delight in criminally targeting well behaved unsuspecting drivers - in the hope that they can easily turn them into victims. Some of them assume that anyone sticking to the speed limit must have poor reaction skills and must be quite timid behind the wheel.

I've been targeted at least 4 times in the last month alone, but I usually run a profiling algorithm in my head when driving, that spots these low life scum well before they pull their dastardly stunt.

Some of them are now getting smart - they'll only target cars without a dash-cam device, so they don't get caught red-handed.

A close friend of mine's husband recently had his Audi written off by such a female scammer - he actually ended up in hospital for a few days. He didn't have a dash-cam, unfortunately.

 

Consider the pot stirred, sir

I've owned about a dozen or so cars so far in my life, and acceleration-wise the Prius is in the fast half of those cars. It's faster than an '80 Chevette, '87 S10 pickup, '88 Escort, '96 Taurus wagon, etc. Note that most of those cars are from the 80s, and they certainly had trouble merging on to highways and maintaining speed up hills. Nay, I'd say the Prius is about as fast as it needs to be, in a world where cars are generally much faster than they need to be.

There's also the matter that there's not much joy in flooring a Prius, it just whines and moans and gains speed. Floor a V8 pickup truck, and there's a brief pause while the transmission downshifts followed by a surge of acceleration accompanied by a NASCAR soundtrack. Not that the pickup is necessarily any faster (particularly considering the time lost due to shifting gears), but it does a better job at appealing to some primal instinct when accelerating. Can Toyota please spend some money tuning the exhaust of the next Prius?

 

There are a lot of phone apps for that like XLR8 on the App Store

 

They didn't have trouble merging back then. When most of the cars on the road were like that, most other drivers expected it and allowed for it.

The behavior of other drivers has since changed. They now have a lot more power than they used to, and demand the same from others.

Dad's farm pickups (of various vintages and degrees of beat-up-ness) are still all stick shifts, and I still can't image how well feeding the cows in a muddy field single handedly would work with a slushbox. Put a stick shift into first gear, low range, with the seat belt through the steering wheel to keep it going semi-straight, and the truck will self-pilot at a steady idle while the 'driver' is working in back. Will an automatic do the same, without getting bogged down or jerky through the uneven terrain?

In short, I come from a background that says a 'real truck' must be a stick shift. So whenever I see a pristine truck with very fancy wheels that one wouldn't dare take into the field (they look like they go off-road less than my Prius) and hear it really wind up the engine in a slushbox-only pattern, I have to chuckle.

 

I agree, it is a misconception that the general driving public has created based on the actions of a few. However, every Prius owner is on the receiving end of that misconception. Fact is, I see slow cars daily, all makes and models. Usually I just assume they are on the phone or lost. I never assume they are driving slow because they happen to own a certain car. That's asinine.

People see a Prius and assume "slow". Doesnt matter how you drive, people always feel the need to pass because they assume you are impeding their path. I've gotten the "stare" while doing 20% over posted speed limit and keeping pace with regular traffic.

If you've never been on the receiving end of Prius Hate, consider yourself lucky. But don't think you're better than any other Prius driver.

 

Yes, I forgot about the winter blend!! Such a convenient way for the state to such out a little more from our pocket.

 

Without a winter blend, more cars would be visiting mechanics after failures to start.