Hello, my name is Andre and I was a gas abuser, a Prius antagonist, and a Dumbas . Yes, I did spend 5 years driving a Dodge Mega Cap Diesel and touting diesel as the way to get high MPG, however at an avg of 16.5mpg and dumping black smoke into the environment, I was delusional. Along the way, I was down on the Prius at every conversation. At some point, I looked in the rear view mirror and saw that I was hauling just me in this huge truck and was paying, at the peak, $5.25/gal. When no one was watching what I was doing on the computer, I started looking at the Prius. My son was mortified when he found out that we were selling the Sportwagon ( the first conversion) for a Prius. He has since been converted by watching the mpg meter. Those arrogant Prius drivers, all high on their indigent attitudes of low emissions , low cost of driving, giving the middle finger to the Middle East, yes, I bad mouthed them up and down the hwy, but now it's more like Hello, my name is Andre and I'm a converted Prius head. I speak Prius, I drive Prius, and I rebuild broken Prius's. And of course karma has set in and I almost get run over by people in big trucks passing me as I do one or two mph over the speed limit. Although it does take the edge off, when I now know though experience, that they are getting 5mpg or less at that moment, it still brings me back to when that was me doing the passing. Now I rebuild damaged Prius's giving a low cost alternative to retail for those that can't afford or those who like to invest instead of spend. Unfortunately, that is on a scale of one at a time. It all helps, but it's not enough. My next Prius adventure is to change the way the construction trades use their vehicles in a big way. You see, most get an avg. of 10 to 15 mpg. and don't have to. But that takes changing hard headed tradesmen and green investment, although small, it will be a game changer. So yes, I do now admit that I was wrong, blinded, and a dumbbass, (I had to miss-spell it), about the Prius.
Welcome to the circle, Savedprius. For most of us it was a multi-step program to get to where we are today. It sounds like you're successfully past acceptance and onto the next, and final stage, evangelism. You wouldn't be the first to trade in a gas guzzling truck for a Prius, and now you're driving three times as far on the same volume of fuel.
Hi welcome to the Prius group. I am glad that you are smart enough to learn and change. Everything helps.
Greetings from Auburn! Thanks for taking a different road and helping clean up the air in this area. I am a land manager for nature preserves in this area (Lincoln to Cisco Grove) and I know how important it is to have a work truck, especially a diesel. Unfortunately many people drive them when they don't need to and/or the modify them to spew out more smoke (and other harmful emissions). It's hard not to look down upon those people. It's not about Prius smugness, it's about observing others who are joyfully creating a negative impact on the health of our community and nation. Some label this view as smug. IMO they are just trying to make themselves feel better because they know they are doing wrong or they are just willfully ignorant. Thanks again for helping our community.
I think something like this will be the game changer. Being able to plug power tools right into the truck without the need for additional generators will make a lot of lights go off in those "hard heads". Pardon the bad pun. 2015 Ram 1500 PHEV Welcome to the ever expanding hybrid world.
Welcome to PC!~ Best Of Luck with Your New Ride. You have joined the many who put their families first. Pay for all this gas to Look Macho at the expense of my family or Get a Prius and spend the money on vacation or entertainment for the kids. You chose wisely my friend!!
Welcome!!! Now that you're one of us, can you let us in on the secret and tell me what it is about us that "they" hate so much?
I used to call people who drove a Prius, "Prius Smug", now, I have a sticker on my Prius that says "Prius Smug".
I've been driving an '07 Prius since April '07 (bought it new). I ran the numbers, and figured that I could use the gas savings of the car to pay for a nicer car than a stripped-down Yaris/Civic/Hyundai. Of course, it took ~ 100,000 miles to do so. Now I have a nice car, totally paid for, that's cheaper to run than anything else I can think of. Besides, it really is a slick piece of engineering! I didn't have any lofty save-the-planet-go-green goals. I wanted to save my own green.
Rebound, I cannot say for sure, as I'm bound by secrecy, but I can teach you the handshake. Assumptions, generalizations, and stereotypes. Feeling a loss to their freedom to pick the vehicle of choice and drive it where they want. The generalization that a group of people with very radical views are bringing that fear to bear, and their assumptive symbol of that is the Prius. It's kind of like someone who gets some news from Fox, they are assumed to want to let old people die, the young starve, and have the desire to rape and pillage the environment. But of course nothing could be further from the truth, (see, now stop laughing) but they are still grouped that way. On a separate note, thanks for all the support from the other members......
Welcome aboard, SP. That's a great story. I'm glad that I was the first to give you a "thanks." Stick around as there's lots to learn and plenty of experts around here to love to help. And as you rebuild more Prii, you will become one of the Experts we all turn to. :welcome:
It may have something to do with that arrogant few of us who insist on driving exactly the speed limit in the fast lane while other traffic whips by. They give the rest of us a bad name.
Grab your self a tree and . . . . . I'll bet over half of us have a similar story to yours. I too, came from a two land barge family. It seems so normal now, to NOT spend tons on fuel. Yet (as you mentioned) you'll often be branded with a label as some kind of crack pot.
Tony, Your welcome. I'm marveled at your MPG chart. Had a thought about your mileage going forward juxtaposed against an Expedition. You drove 97,131 miles on 1731 gallons of fuel. It would take about 8094 gallons for the Expedition, a savings of 6363 gallons of fuel. Now if an Expedition driver was to do that going forward in California it would cost him $26,725. pre tax dollars to drive that over the cost of a Prius. At an avg of 30% combined tax rate it will cost about $34,741. to drive the Expedition for 97k miles or the cost of a fully loaded Prius, that does not include the amount that could be realized if that gas saving dollars were invested at 10%, which could be over well over $200k after 10 years. Anyway I'm sure this has been stated many time here. And thanks for that MPG chart, it's illuminating on many fronts.
