Driving a Prime--Are We Just Smarter?

Statistics show that High % of Pruis owners are in upper management or owners of companies. The owner of a company I used to work for could afford a Lamborghini, but had a Prius and a Jeep for the weekend for the mountains.

 

How many Lambos have you seen in University parking lots ?

 

Depends on the region. University California Irvine you will see everything high end!

 

First - that thread title is so thick with smug you could cut it with a knife. Remember all those Prius owners who were so insufferable with their smugness (many of whom seem to have moved on to Teslas) that they were forever meme-ified by South Park? Please; don't be one of those people.

I am fortunate enough to own both a Prime and several sports cars (cars are my hobby) - the Priuses get driven much much more since it's a fool's errand to try to enjoy an (expensive) high-powered track machine in 12 mph stop-and-go bumper-to-bumper traffic (where you're likely to get run into by some d-bag on their cellphone driving an SUV).

The S4 is a nice car, but there's not a ton of places to proverbially open it up in any metro area (though the Carolinas have some excellent and beautiful driving roads). I also felt like it was a car I had to push kind of hard to get enjoyment out of - kind of like an M3/4, where the entertaining dynamics of the car involve such high speeds that you never really get to explore them save for your occasional track day. Ever heard that phrase "better to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow"?

Have you attempted driving the Prime on some backroads? While somewhat underpowered and "slow", the actual handling of the car is pretty entertaining (I've noticed not ever feeling "ahead of the car" when driving it).

I'm very curious - how does the Prime handle narrow european city streets (perhaps better fit for a Fiat 500)?

I must be missing something here. I have gone on many bike rides in the pouring rain (nothing like the intensity of a town-line sprint with some bike club buddies on the wet pavement) and no-one seems to care? Most of my paramours have enjoyed romantic moonlit walks under the stars?

That and everyone in Bellevue has a new BMW/Merc and exotics are pretty common. A Prime might be rarer than a Lambo around Puget Sound these days.

 

If you say so -- not my experience.

Lets exclude the physicians. Head over to the Physics, Math and Chemistry Depts.
Bicycles and beat up Honda/Toyota dominate

Lambos are for trust fund babies.
As for the smart (but not Prof level), rich and young, I'd guess Tesla is the most common car.

 

Title of this thread - if you believe it, your probably one of the reasons that people complain about Prius drivers. I know I b**ch** about them quite a few times myself. Now I am one, but I swear to I will always do my best not to behave like a Prius driver and slow the entire flow of traffic to a crawl in search of the "All Holy mpg's"

 

If your in California, probably.

They regulate everything there. haha

 

I thought I was smarter, until I backed into a light pole. That kind of grounded me.

 

I hate going to Bellevue more than anything in this world (worked at nordstrom for 4 years) but they have EV parking and I can't wait to take one away from all of the teslas

 

Have you been to a college campus lately? Many (especially West Coast schools) have significant numbers of overseas students with very, very expensive vehicles.

I agree with the general sentiment of your statement, and I think that a lot of people would benefit from some lifestyle de-escalation. That said, I find it kind of disappointing that you would imply such negative assumptions about my financial condition. All our cars have been paid for in cash and we have no debt (save for a car loan on our Tesla where we got a lower-than-the-rate-of-inflation interest rate and we're netting out positive on). I also did a little back-of-the-envelope math out of curiosity, and determined that I (very roughly) use less gas across all my cars (the sports cars don't get driven a lot) than your average 18mpg SUV driver who drives it every day (assuming 12k mile average yearly mileage).

I'd argue being stuck on the 520 bridge during rush our is worse than Bellevue. You get all the aggressive distracted drives and none of the coffee shops and restaurants to stop and take a break.

 

Arizona State University is a very large school and hard to drive around, especially for a Ride Share driver (Uber and Lyft) like myself. Twice I've seen a gold plated Corvette at the school driven by a Saudi Arabian student according to my riders. This is blatant overkill.

 

My commute was ~5 miles from Bellevue to Newcastle and it would take me almost an hour to get home (taking backroads) if I left any time after 4

 

That's just a metallic vinyl wrap. Most shops will put one on for ~$3500 (depends on the size and shape of the car).

Depending on where your endpoints are, it's not a bad bike ride (unless the weather is miserable). I've biked around Lake Washington a few times in the past. Hopefully your commute has improved.

 

it's not gold plate. it's a vinyl wrap.

Costs ~$3K ... same as any high end custom paint shop.
EDIT
Sorry a-g-prius .... didn't see your post
.

 

You missed the words "biking to work" which is a daily routine, not your fun ride with some bike club buddies

 

A bit too tacky for my tastes.

 

Did that for a few years too - we had showers at work though. I can see where it's an issue where that's not available. Obligatory: Never skip leg day, bro.