still astounded by the amount of ignorance and misinformation by anti-hybrid/anti-Prius folks

Re: still astounted by the amount of ignorance and misinformation by anti-hybrid/anti-Prius folks

I get on the forum 1-2 X month, mostly to keep up with technical issues. I am Native, live in the country with livestock, tractors & the whole nine yards. I work in the medical field & I am always amazed at the ignorance, prejudice, hatred & plain old stupidity that invariably displays itself here. I drive a Prius because I like getting 50 mpg, reliability, relatively quiet & smooth ride. I haul a lot of feed & tack, so the hatchback is very important to me. Every once in awhile, the ice or snow is too much for my Prius, but I have a 4WD PU I usually drive then. I have a flatbed & horse trailer that that requires a pu.

If someone wants a Prius. Fine. Good site to get some nice tips or info. Anything else is pure bs. I'm not upset with this crowd as you can't expect anything else. There are probably a few radicals out there the other way too. What I drive does NOT define me in any way, shape or form.

I have found my Prius to be a very road worthy vehicle & I like it very well. At this point in time appx 70,000 mi & would buy again. I make 1-2 out of state trips monthly. Hopefully, anyone wanting info can sift through all the non-relevant bs to find what they need to know. My Prius has been a very good vehicle so far.

 

Re: still astounted by the amount of ignorance and misinformation by anti-hybrid/anti-Prius folks

What band? The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa are the major group in this area.

Tom

 

I might mention there is not a single person or vehicle that doesn't violate the "laws of nature". The one cartoon has it right, the prius/prius driver still destroys/ takes more than it gives, but that's the point in & of itself. Some see the problem & takes steps to minimize it & others go to excess to grab "their share".

 

Face it bru, there are simply too many stupid people in the world and you'll never enlighten all of them. I always think of the Wizards First Rule in times like this. Cheesy book bu the rule still applies. lol

"Wizard's First Rule: people are stupid." given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People's heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool."

 

Only two weeks of Prius ownership and I have given up on trying to explain my car to people.

I have "learned" from my neighbors and coworkers the following:

1. My car needs to be plugged in at night. Since I am not plugging it in, I am destroying the "generator" and eventually the car is going to break down.
2. My car can't go faster than 60 mph
3. My car can't go faster than 45 mph
4. My car is limited to a 300 mile range (from where?)
5. My car is limited to a 100 mile range
6. My car is limited to a 30 mile range
7. My car was built in China and supports Communism
8. The battery will only last about a year, then cost me $8,000 to replace...and the batteries are "always going bad on those things"
9. If I get in a wreck, the battery acid is going to leak on me and my passengers and burn us
10. If I get in a wreck, the battery will explode
11. My car requires premium fuel
12. Building my car consumed more raw materials than building a Hummer
13. Toyota accelerator petals "always stick" and the car cannot be shut down manually
14. My car cannot be towed

I could go on, the ignorance is astounding, and the resistance people have to being educated is disturbing.

 

that is an A list of the 'beliefs' that somehow cannot be un-believed'! Wow, and i thought i lived in an unenlightened part of the world...

We as a species really are stupid...wizard's first rule. nice one f8l. And the majority don't WANT to be educated. sheesh. doomed i says.

 

Yep, I think I've heard almost every one of those as well. Get ready for a new one.

15. If you park in a parking garage and lose your key fobs the car cannot be moved and will be totaled.

It's not the ignorance that bothers me. I mean that's just knowledge or a lack of knowledge. It is the resistance or the almost concious resistance or momentum to WANT to create reasons Hybrids aren't viable.

Really, I don't care if someone doesn't want a Hybrid or Electric. I don't really care if they still are happy with ICE choices. I think degrees of change are inevitable but people clearly have the freedom to purchase whatever transportation option they want and can afford.

I just don't like it when it seems they NEED to create reasons why they wouldn't buy a Hybrid. When they search out and embrace any falsehood or negative mythology.

That goes beyond innocent ignorance and into the realm of self dellusion.

 

Agreed.

Well, that is the only thing the US is truly still #1 at...

 

Got this one from a coworker yesterday:

Coworker (approaches my desk): "So do you get a lot of fender benders?"
Me: "Huh?"
Coworker: "When you drive, I mean. How does your car handle wind?"
Me: "It's the same as any other car." (spoken in a way that makes him feel stupid).

 

Ugh, can you guess which one I am?

How smug? SO SMUG. The Prius other Priuses wish they could be. : pics

The battery drains completely on the highway? The only technology that's different is regen braking? Where do people even get these things from? I mean, you have to try very hard to fabricate all that, and this is from a supposed engineer. This is why I do not get into internet "debates", although apparently today I slipped a little...

 

I have to get out more. Number of silly nonsense Prius statements I have directly heard since ownership began in 2004: nada. I used to be asked fuel economy questions, but not for a while.
Internet forums on the the other hand are rife with loud ignorants. This forum keeps my smugness within bounds however. Nothing like a theist or climate change denialist Prius owner to remind me that stupidity is everywhere.

 

Jeremy Clarkson was interviewing some "actress" (blond, pretty, trying too hard in some dumb new car-crash based movie) on UK Top Gear last night and they were showing off about how many Prii (see what I did there?!) they had managed to hit in an accident and how they got out of their cars and just laughed... Clarkson then indulged in some rant about how Toyota mined minerals in Canada and then shipped them half way around the world to Japan to make the Prius and then sort of ran out of steam before reaching any conclusions. Don't get me wrong, but if Clarkson hates the Toyota Prius so much, it confirms in my mind that I've made the right choice!

 

Heard that. All they have to do is say the EPA, IPCC, NOAA, NASA, USGS, etc... are all full of it and listen to their little buddies on talk radio and next door. Brilliant.

 

People still ask me if I plug it in.

By the time that cluelessness gets over with, I will be plugging it in!

 

Just before I purchased my Prius, I also assumed that the efficiency was primarily derived from the aerodynamic nature of the car and the fact that it captured brake energy. Only after driving it and doing a lot of reading (thanks, Priuschat! ) did I realize that there's a whole lot more to it.

 

Fixed!!

Lets keep this updated so i can just print it and hand them out whenever i face ignorance! :lalala:

 

Re: still astounted by the amount of ignorance and misinformation by anti-hybrid/anti-Prius folks

Ralph Nader. The man who gave us G W Bush, and then claimed there was "No difference" between having him or Gore in the White House. Hoo boy, let's not get me all wound up before the coffee even kicks in!