Jerk At Work Harassing Me Over Prius

also getting some heat at the LotusTalk forum

they said that buying a corolla, yaris, mini, mazda3 is better because it will take about 5yrs to pay the cost difference back and not have to worry bout the "stupid" battery / electrical issues that may arise?!?

how to handle this situation???

 

The "time to pay off the cost differential" argument ignores the higher resale value of a used Prius.

 

To within reason, I've learned to not talk too much about the FE that I get. When people who don't know me hear about what I'm getting, I've noticed that I get some pretty dirty looks. Besides doing this routine is getting a little old:

Them: You can't be serious.
Me: Yes, I am.
Them: But that's not possible.
Me: Yes, it is, wanna see the log?
Them: Holy @#$( !!!!

This has gotten sort of like doing "Who's on first?"

It's also invariably followed by one, or more of the following:

1. It's not cost effective to own.
2. You know the battery costs like $80 bizillion to replace.
3. There's no advantage to driving that on the freeway.
4. It's a gutless wonder.
5. So where do you plug that in at work?

The only one of these I still like is #5 because I really do want the ability to plug it in...

The rest are just short of automatic at this point. I bet many of you could actually script these conversations without having heard a single word that either party actually said.

However, not everyone I've done this routine with is ready for the conclusion. The ones that "can't" or "won't" see the point can't be budged. There's really nothing that can be said to them that will sway their opinions. The best resolution to these conversations is the simply "agree to disagree" and drop the topic permanently.

If you allow the discussion to be tabled for resumption later, you're just likely to get really annoyed. Remember, our opinions are likely as entrenched as the other person's. Yes, there are degrees and concessions, but I doubt that any of us are going to be swayed into selling our Prius and buying a Yaris or a Matrix or even thinking that those might the right cars for us.

 

Except, I am doing 20 mpg better than a Yaris a friend at Work has (65.9 versus 45 mpg over the same period). And this is like 37.9 mpg better than my old SL2. The Prius is so much easier to do mild hypermiling in traffic with.

That is $273.5 a 10000 mile year savings in fuel over the Yaris, and $813.2 than the SL2 (which is better than a Ion in mileage rating).

I think the issue comes down to cash/versus loan purchase, and people's eyesight. The cash purchase has less cost of money. But there is cost of money either way, of course. And the smaller car is more likely to be run into by poor drivers. At least that was my experience with my similar sized SL2.

For guys like us that can and do do our own brakes/alternators/starters, the cost advantage is probably to the Yaris. But for the general public, the two cars are pretty close in total cost of ownership, assuming you want an automatic transmission and anti-lock brakes/traction control in the car one purchases. Being in the northern teir states, I just cannot think of buying a car without traction control, myself. Oh, except if one lives in a state that has a car property tax (like CT).

 

The irony here is that probably none of those people drive any of the cars mentioned.

MSRP on a Lotus Elise is $46,270 - over $25,000 more than I paid for my Prius. Ask them how many years it will take their car to pay back that premium at an EPA combined 23 mpg.

Ask them why their choice of car was a smarter purchase than a Corolla or a Yaris.

Tim

 

Yak18 - Don't overlook the obvious. He is constantly talking about it because it is constantly on his mind! Use this to your advantage. He is like a fly in a spiderweb, complaining that the spiderweb is flimsy.

 

Ex Ford and Ex GM workers?

 

To the OP: Is you carpool situation one where you each share driving your own cars and paying your own expenses? Do you alternate driving days or weeks? I only ask because that's been my experience. However, I've known people to equate ride sharing - where on person pays another to share their ride - with carpooling. In that case you'd be doing all the driving and your co-worker would be paying you to ride along (or not).

 

I agree with you. The Prius is a "real" car, with good safety features, very low emissions, great gas mileage, that seats more people and carries more stuff than a Yaris econobox. Although i do not know if the Yaris follows the example of the Geo metro, (I formerly owned a Geo Metro), on the Geo I recall replacement brakes/rotor assembly cost almost 1/2 the resale value of the car after a few years...

I do not know how something like a Yaris can even be cosidered comparable to the Prius.

What I do know is that an extremely low buy in point for whatever vehicle can potentially lower the cost of ownership. One of my vehicles is a 1998 Mercury Sable wagon... I paid less than $800.00 for it, with 56,000 garage kept miles on the ticker, and it came with new tires and brakes... never been in an accident and it was owned by the father of a 70 year old secretary who formerly worked for my Uncle. When I received the I got 24 miles per gallon out of it. my last fill up I had achieved 30.2 miles per gallon.

What is most appalling to me is that somehow we have very few decent sized new vehicles that can achieve even 40 miles per gallon, regardless of the technology implemented. If I can get 30 miles per gallon out of a 4000 pound six cylinder wagon that is ten years old it seems alomst impossible that modern day vehicles cannot do significantly better as they come from the factory.

 

90+% of the lotus guys only use their cars for recreation and some of them do drive said cars such as mini's corollas, and yaris etc.

i think they are missing the point that other than gas mileage the prius is still a much more superior car hence the price difference


but as some PC members have mentioned, there is no convincing people that are very "closed" minded

 

Easy. Unlike a Honda Civic, Priuses are chick magnets. A debate over economics is irrelevant in this case.

 

where can i meet those kinna chics?!? LOL

and what if you own a Prius and a Porsche?!?

 

A Nash Metropolitan would be great to convert to an EV.

 

Just tell him you never waste time debating people who don't know what they're talking about.

 

Tell him he's right, and from now on you'll take his car. And you'll pay him what you'd save on gas. (Which will be less than $100.00....right?)

 

i don't expect oil prices to stay this high for much longer, either ... but ... IMHO, oil will probably NEVER dip below $90/barrel again, and the cost of oil / gasoline PROBABLY will exceed current levels - by far! - within the coming two or three years.

HENCE: i concur ... a hybrid is the only way to go; at least for now ... until the NEXT "better solution" comes along. regardless of gasoline prices, "reduced individual consumption / reduced air pollution / reduced dependence on foreign oil" and so on and so forth BY FAR outweigh the over-simplified aspect of "getting your money back" ....

 

this is yet ANOTHER usually-overlooked "aspect" when people discuss the old "how long to recoup your money" issue! i wonder ... how much would a "fully loaded" 2004 Civic - hybrid or not - with, say, 60,000 miles net the owner upon re-sale or trade-in, when compared with a similarly equipped 2004 Prius with the same mileage? i might just invest in a Kelley's Blue Book and investigate ....

 

The 98 Mercury Sable is NOT 4000 lbs. Per 1998 Mercury Sable Exterior - MSN Autos, it's 3299-3360 lbs. Accord and Camry V6s weigh more than that now (example: 08 Accord V6 sedan is now 3567-3600 lbs).. The 98 Sable also only has a 145 hp V6 engine which is less than 4 cylinder engines on midsize cars (161 hp for a Camry I4 to 190 hp an Accord EX I4) now.

The issue is that a lot of mileage gains have been eaten up by increases in power and car bloat (in both size and weight). See Minicars? I don't See No Stinking Minicars - Column/Csaba Csere - The Steering Column/C/D Staff/Columns/Features/Car and Driver - Car And Driver and Light-Duty Automotive Technology and Fuel Economy Trends: 1975 Through 2007 - Executive Summary | Cars and Light Trucks | US EPA.

Just for kicks, I compared the two 98 Sable V6 wagons to a 08 Camry V6 on Side-by-Side Comparison. The better mileage on the two Sables has its EPA rating adjusted to 16/24, 19 combined. The Camry (268 hp) V6 receives a 19/28, 22 combined. That's reasonably impressive in my book. The Camry is >120 lbs. heavier and has 123 more hp yet is still able to achieve better mileage.

 

I did not look up the exact weight... It is a full size wagon. Of note, I have obtained 30 mpg in my 1994 Camaro with a 383 stroker on a round trip between Maine and Ohio.... Camaro weight with me in it at New England Dragway is 3610 pounds and my weight is 185...., I was also carrying a load of tools, and two spare slicks (no back seat). I do not know the actual horsepower of the Camaro but at the time it was running 11.8 in the quarter mile at 112 mph.

 

Tell him you care about being green.
Isn't that why these cars were made in the first place?
Everyone who is jumping on the bandwagon now is doing it
to say themselves money.
Tell him YOU care about leaving a clean world for the future.