WOW! There's a lot of Prius's on the road.

Okay. Cool. You won. I wasn't trying to play "greener than thou," anyway. I'm truly baffled that the discussion took that turn, but whatever...

I am quite sure one reason we have so many Priuses on the road here is because of our heinous traffic, not because we're particularly enlightened or anything.

That said, the HOV rules here do tend to encourage single-passenger Prius use. I heard somebody say (probably here on PC) that four people in my wife's gas-guzzling BMW is a lot more efficient than one person driving a 2010 Prius.

And in any event, the HOV exemptions have been lifted from certain highways around here in the last three years, but Prius ownership and use has exploded in that time. So no, the HOV rules do not explain why there are so many Prii here.

Maybe people around here just like driving a greener or more efficient car, who knows?

 

like i said, word of mouth is the reason. u just had a little help with the # of mouths due to the HOV. so did we. the estimated 5,000 Gen 1 and 2 Pri's owned by the state helped a lot. had too many state employees who were forced to drive the Pri before it was cool to do so. they were converted and the rest is history.

 

There won't be after they are all recalled.

 

Why will the replacement of the accelerator pedals cause these cars to disappear from the road?

 

There's a lot of Prius's in the parking lots also

There's three, the close one is mine, the next one was there when I went in, and the third I saw when I came back out, in the next parking area. All 2010 Blizzard Pearl. In North Dallas.

 

They're pretty popular here in NASCAR country too. Parked next to one at the Daytona speedway...go figure...It's real flat here so 50+ MPG is easy too.

 

I was going to work the other morning at 7:00 AM and three out of the four cars near me were hybrids. Three Prius (Priora?) and one Insight.

I was behind the Insight and thought it was a Prius except for the tail lights were different. When I passed it , I realized it was an Insight.

 

You guys are lucky to see many priuses on the road. Because where I live or drive if I see one prius in a day or week on the road, I'm lucky. But all I see is big GM SUVs, Dodge vans or Ford trucks with 'Support America, buy American' logos and I feel like they speed up like crazy with a most annoying loud noice when they see any fuel efficient small cars in front of them! They way I think is that how can you support America by buying unreliable cars that hog more foreign oil??

 

I was at Costco in La Quinta today and I saw 3 Gen III's (including mine) in the parking lot. A blue one, a BP and my silver.

 

Previous to three weeks ago, I was seeing several a day, and I drive only 1.25 miles to work. But since the snows began, they've all gone into hiding. And I'll admit to driving my old Safari van more often in the winter precipitation myself. I guess they're all protecting their new investments.

 

LOL. That's what I've done. My Gen 3 has been in the garage for 3 days now. No sense getting road salt all over it when I have another car parked on the street.

 

3 month-later bump

I'm in Western NY and as with many things simply never paid attention, but when I started to look at a '10 I did note that in fact there are a lot of Priuses around here, though almost all of them are Gen II. I am the first in my 85-house neighborhood to have a hybrid, though (at least an obvious one like Prius or Insight). The largest vehicle to take off in popularity in my 'hood has been minivans, but I was ahead of the curve on that a few years ago, too. Our main demographic seems to be fairly young families of professionals.

God willing gas will sky rocket this summer (I don't really expect it to go up hugely, though) so that I won't be mocked. Because I know they are mocking. I can live with it, though At least I didn't buy a Miata (at least not yet, anyway).

 

Petrol is cheap there and compared to other cars they are too eapensive. My dad just bought a Honda civic top range with a difference of usd 15,000.

 

I just assume that . . . . The higher a particular locales IQ is, the more Prius's they drive. The Toyota Prius is the new definition of a 'Performance Car', we just came to that realization before the rest of the population.

 

This is a thread I almost started myself after buying my Prius a few weeks ago. I am glad I stumbled across it.

Here in the Puget Sound area in Washington it is not unusual to stop at a traffic signal and see three or more Prius waiting with you. I have taken to trying to spot the Gen IIIs among the Prius herds and there are more than I expected, given that they came out just before the economy went south.

Here is a question for the forum membes from the Phoenix area. I was in your neighborhood on business for a week recently. Sadly, my rental car was not a Prius, but I tried to keep an eye out for them as I roamed around the Phoenix, Mesa area. They were very rare; at least as compared to around here in Western Washington. What I did see were a lot more Hummers than you see around here. Did I experience a bad sample or is this consistent with your observations?

 

Is it hard to rent Priuses? I am at a hotel this week and there is a 3rd gen (same color as mine!) and I did peak inside. It looked like a rental or at least absolutely brand spanking new; still had the tag hanging out of the glove compartment. I'm stuck in a corolla, though The Prius is nicer, even the barebones II that I have.

 

Back in 2004, Prius motorists, excited by the rarity of the encounter, would wave to one another, just like their goggled counterparts in the 1920's.
But times are changing. After visiting a garden center a few days ago, I came back to my silver 2010, dropped a bag of mulch in the trunk, got in and then found the car wouldn't start. If I left a few traces of mulch in the back, I apologize to the owner.

 

So.....that was you. Just kidding, but that is a great story. Seriously, the Prius is everywhere. There are three in the 50 car parking lot I use at work, including mine.