Maybe it's being in the Detroit area that makes most people that I encounter on the roads act as if my Prius is no big deal. Whatever, it's still the "It" car these days. Today I saw several people reacting to it. As I drove out of a parking lot, one guy in a Camry that just parked there stood and stared at it as I drove off. A group of bicyclists were waiting to cross the road and as I approached one of the women said something to her companions as she pointed at my car and as I drove past them, they all gave it a long look. As I left another parking lot, a woman crossing back to her car after parking her shopping cart gave it the long stare treatment. Strangely enough, no one's come up to me at the gas station to ask my mileage. Of course, I've only been to a gas station twice in the past three weeks. What's your favorite story about how someone reacted as you drove by?
As we were leaving Yosemite on Friday, we almost ran over one of the park rangers. She was crossing in front of us at the booth and didn't hear our approach. Looked like a deer caught in the headlights! She stopped us and asked us about it. Also had a kid (20 something) ask me all sort of questions about it in a gas station in Mammoth. Small wonder with gas prices there at 2.80/gal.
I get asked fairly often about the Prius while at a gas station. The way I see it: 40% of the people are seeing red as they watch the price to fill their tank slip into the $40 ~ $60 range . . . and they were just there last week!!!! :x :x :evil: They aren’t much into socializing at that particular place and time. 20% are totally oblivious to anything outside their three-foot six-inch sphere of existence. 20% believe everything they ever read or hear . . . and in their rational, the negative always trumps the positive. No need to ask that foolish Prius driver about his car with them $5,000 batteries which must be replace every two or three years. “I read about it in the Enquirer.†10% are too snobbish to ever be seen in a Prius. (But what the hell are THEY doing at a gas pump anyway?) 10% . . . that is the magic number. That is the percent of people who want first hand accounts from the people actually in the know. [In Detroit, that number may be lower due to company affiliations. :wink: ]
A guy stopped me in a parking lot today as he was going to his plain old fashioned non-hybrid highlander. He wanted to know all about it. Plans to go to the Toyota dealer tomorrow and take one for a test drive.
We were pulled over by an unmarked police car just so he could look at our car. As I was not speeding he had no reason to pull us over at all he asked for my licence and didn't even look at it. The guy was just looking at my energy screen then said well you have good night and go off to bed. :roll:
Interesting breakdown, Patrick. Of course, there's another possible category: Those who are affiliated with the American auto companies and secretly want a Prius but can't because they'd be ostrasized. What a lot of people outside of Michigan may not know is that Toyota has a significant presence here. They don't have any factories here but the do have a good-sized design facility in Ann Arbor that is going to get bigger soon. But I digress...
I've never been asked I've never been stopped I've never had curious inquiries Looks like people here aren't very sociable. I waved at a Prius full of people and not a single one looked at me =(. I was sitting at the back this time.
With my previous cars, when I was driving on the Interstate and was driving just a bit slower than somebody else, they would pass me, very slowly, by first pulling into the left lane, then slowly inch their way past me without altering their speed, and then eventually move back over into the right lane once they were well past me. One thing I started noticing the very day I picked up my Prius back in January (out of state, which required a 300 mile trip on the Interstate to get back home), was that people would start passing my as desribed above, then when they are about 2/3 past my car slow down a little bit until they fall about one carlength behind me, stay there for a minute or two, and then accelerate again to get past me. First time I noticed that was when I was being passed by a Suburban full of geezers!
I think he was referring to those dinosaur-type people who still drive around in ancient technology, popoff. You know, the kind who, when you ask what their mileage is they say "I don't know, I've never checked and I don't care." I call them AssUVs.
I used the word "geezer" as a hidden and admittedly obscure pun, in the sense of a group of elderly people gazing (staring intently) at my Prius. They probably never saw a vehicle as odd looking as it was and couldn't help but stare (or gaze) at it. I did not mean to offend or be derogatory towards my elders, and apologize if I came across that way.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ltu1542hvy\";p=\"108320)</div> Just kidding. FWIW, my daughter calls me geezer.
My parents (both in their 70s) refer to themselves as geezers, and sometimes I call them that too, however more as a term of affection than anything else.
ltu1542hvy: Bill, from geezer Fred, where in the world did ltu1542hvy come from. I forgot to ask you Saturday. Again, nobody ever asks me anything. I guess it's because of my geezer status. They overlooked that when I had the Insight. I couldn't get anywhere on time if I ever stopped.
LTU Airlines, Flight 1542, Heavy aircraft. Bask in the mid 90's it used to be a once-weekly non-stop from Duesseldorf to Phoenix, which I thought was a very unlikely city pair. It's an inside joke for a close friend who is a heavy-duty aviation fanatic. I started using it as an Instant Messaging handle a long time ago and it has pretty much stuck ever since.
LTU, first time I ever heard of it. "Every year, LTU carries more than 5.7 million passengers on its 24 red and white coloured jet aircraft and more than 70 airports worldwide are served."
The first month I had my car (11/2003) I was parked in a McD parking lot about to go in for lunch. The manager came out and asked to look at my car. I let him sit in it and play with the MFD. He wanted a Prius but the dealer he went to did not have a demo and new nothing about the car. I answered a lot of questions for him and then he gave me a card that said BE MY GUEST. I could go in an order anything I wanted, then hand over the card as payment. I still get the DO YOU HAVE TO PLUG IT IN? question.
