Where are all the Prius Haters?

[font=Comic Sans MS:dfbaa16fc1]I think we could all find quibbles. I wish the doors would lock and unlock automatically. The JBL sound isn't that good. The view out the rear window isn't great. SO WHAT???

YES, the Prius is really that great![/font:dfbaa16fc1]

 

I can't speak for anyone but myself and my wife, but so far we've put almost 2500 miles on our new 2005 Prius. We've had it for 3 months. It has comfortably taken us and our belongings everywhere we've needed to go. It has never felt underpowered even going over the mountains. AND we're averaging over 49 MPG even though we make a LOT of quarter mile trips which don't allow the Prius to get warmed up when we go to the nearby stores in our area. It's true we haven't had it that long, but so far we haven't had one problem and - - What's not to like????

So far, we couldn't be happier 8) .

 

I don't understand why people can't mind their own business. If I own a Prius no one should criticize me for my purchase. That's the problem in this country! Everyone cares about what everyone else is doing! You would not believe some of the posts on the Edmunds hybrid forums. I really think some of the posters take "stupid pills" in the morning. I love this car and I'll repeat what I've said before. I've owned Mercedes, Audi, Lexus and the Prius is my favorite car. I've owned it since 11/03 and still enjoy driving it every day.

 

Human nature... look at all of us here on Prius Chat who are quick to bad mouth GM, american cars in general, Hummers and their owners...

I could go on and on and on and...

 

its not hard for me to understand a 14,000 hundai owner criticizing me for my purchase, but to hear it from a 30,000 SUV owner??...

u may need some major repairs for your glass house buddy...

 

Kirbinster, Don't worry. At least you were smart enough to get the extended warranty. Wait a minute, you did get the warranty, correct?

 

Over 16,000 wonderful miles. Keeping the thing out of the hands of a dealership service department likely helps, the stories on here of dealer departments overfilling the car engine oil are too numerous to ignore. I take mine to places where I can keep a close eye on all work being done.

There really isn't much to do for a dealership anyway, Walmart Supercenter does the oil changes and the tires are handled by my top rated Tire Rack store.

 

I was starting to feel the same way too, until my latest Car and Driver arrived this weekend, which has a very scathing anti-hybrid editorial by Brock Yates. (Car and Driver, September 2005, Vol. 51, No. 3, p. 26). The piece is entitled "Hybrid issues and a riding star at Indy" and has a highlighted piece of text reading "The dark side of the hybrid miracle is now beginning to surface."

I looked for a copy of this article online to link to, but couldn't find one, so here are a few choice quotes to get your blood boiling:

"Of cours, if we pay attention to the Cassandra-like fulminations of the liberal media, we might be led to believe that hybrid vehicles are our only hope to save us all from ozone asphyxiation and indentured slavery to the Arab oil barons. To ignore their PC incantations and to continue our binge buying of conventional internal-combustion engines will, according to these all-knowing scribes and electronic chatterers, doom civilization to a dark age embroiled in a heat-soaked Sahara. Yeah, maybe. Then again, maybe not."

"The Pious -- oops Prius costs about $5000 more to manufacture than a conventional Corolla and retails for about three-grand extra."

"Now let's jump ugly about the whole situation and talk a little reality. The guys at Edmunds.com, who run hard numbers about the car business as well as anyone, estimate that a Prius owner would have to drive at least 66,500 miles anually for five straight years, or gasoline would have to soar to 10 bucks a gallon, to equal the cost of operating a cheaper, conventional Corolla."

"Then we have the battery pack, that heavy lump of nickel-metal hydride juice boxes that presumable improve fuel efficience (but not that much, according to our road tests). ... battery replacement will cost $5300 for the Toyota and Lexus hybrids, and the Ford Escape replacements run a whopping $7200."

"Moreover, the industry types aren't talking about total battery life. Will they actually last 100,000 miles? How will this affect resale?..."

"And now comes word that the computer brain inside the gas-electric grids in some Priuses is tending to go nuts. This causes instant blackout stalling at either 35 mph or 65 mph -- the latter possibly in the fast lane of an interstate where 50-ton semis running 90 mph can crush compacts like beer cans."

"[Batteries] are hardly biodegradable items like spoiled vegetables. They are in fact self-contained toxic waste dumps. How and where millions of these poisonous boxes will be deposited in the new hybrid nirvana has yet to be considered, much less resolved."

"And speaking of the environmental component (the glamour issue centered on the brave new world of hybrids), a number of EMT and fire crews have announced that they will refuse to rescue victims trapped in such vehicles, opely fearing electrocution or fatal acid burns."

"Says a dealer friend whose immense franchise network includes several brands offering hybrids: 'There is no advantage to owning a hybrid in terms of fuel mileage when the extra cost of the vehicle is added in. Period. Do the math. This is a feel-good purchase.'"


I really don't know why I'm still bothering to subscribe to that rag. I used to respect it as a source of objective information about things automotive. However with these kinds of editorials I can't do that any more!

 

ltu1542hvy

thanks for the heads up. as usual, the printed version will always be released sometime before the online version just so the people that have paying subscriptions will have an advantage over all us tightwad internet lookie-loos.

the link will appear soon enough and i agree, the article is nothing but the opinion of a single writer who is stuck with 12 mpg $400 a month SUV payments who has only recently realized that his gas credit card payments are higher.

if i was in his shoes, i would be upset too. so dont be too hard on the guy, he is having a bad year because he had to live with his dumb nice person decision

 

Thanks for the excerpt, really boils my blood. But Dave's post calmed me a bit.
When it is available online we need to make the facts a little clearer and the extreme spin in his writing (90 mph semis??) rebutted.
I have been a fire chief for decades and no firefighter would "refuse" to rescue a victim in extrication. They are trained and use their head. The Prius is actually BETTER marked for "hot" areas!
I better stop before I send this to all the chiefs in the country.

 

It looks like the Car and Driver writer is giving the typical gear-head response to something changing on his beloved set of wheels.

Remember when no-lead gas was mandated? The gear-heads knew someone who's neighbor's wife's ex-husband's brother-in-law put only one gallon of no-lead in the car completely fell apart, doors laying in the street and the engine blew up with a piston taking out a boy scout and the little old lady he was helping across the street.
Then there's the time metric parts were showing up on cars, that was suppose to make the country turn communist...
All we can do is when we get into the gas station next to his land yacht, pull out that can of Sta-Bil and ask him "How much of this do I have to add so my gas doesn't go bad before next fillup?"

 

Just look at the front page for car and driver. I guess anyone who can't afford a Porsche or Bugatti is not worthy of reading the words of wisdom they offer to us normal people. They used to be a great source for general car info that also had articles about high end cars but not anymore. They seem to think any car that cost less than $60,000 is a piece of junk. Makes me glad I canned my subscription years ago. With the new tax credits kicking in next year the $3000 price difference he mentions won't even be a factor considering the credit for a Prius will almost equal three grand. The last time I checked a base Prius had features on it that aren't even offered on a Corolla so it really isn't even a fair comparison anyway.

 

...the haters

 

I know it was Motor Trend's "Car of the Year" for 2004. I also distincly remember that it was not on Car and Driver's list of "Ten Best Cars" for 2005. I don't remember off the top of my head if it was on that list for 2004, but I want to think that it wasn't.