Was hoping for more camaraderie on the road... where's the love?

ya, that ended years ago. it is no longer a group of free thinkers. everyone is driving one, especially in cali!

 

We are smug,,, didn't you get the memo?

 

In southern Indiana, the only "friendly" group is the motorcycle riders. but yet you have the young generation that think they are too good to acknowledge a fellow bike rider.....


Sadly, the times are changing. Everyone is in their own little world and tends to shut the outside world out.

 

I'm a biker - even they don't acknowledge a fellow rider like we used to do it a few years back. Outlaws never waved of course but now everyone waits for "you first" ...

 

I ride. I wave.
Here in the deep South...most people wave, even if they don't know you.
Bike, car, or truck.
Black, white, or what have you.

Prius drivers never wave.
We're the biggest disadvantage of being a Prius driver.

 

I find if you flash your lights and wave they'll wave back - even if you don't know them.

 

Maybe they wave instinctively where you are in LA (Lower Alabama) ... ?Try this some day, don't wave "first" and we'll see what they do. Course being in a borough of NY City here in East coast FL ... maybe I forget?

 

When I bought my Saab 99 - that would have been '78 - they were pretty rare. We all waved at each other. By the time I bought my Saab 900 - that would have been '86 - They were all over the place and nobody cared.

When I bought my 2005 Prius they were unusual, many people and never seen one, and we all waved at each other. Now they're ubiquitous and nobody cares.

That's just kind of the way it works, I think. But you're always welcome here! And I'll wave at you! :welcome:

 

In my moving parking lot commute to work I would give another Prii driver a V for Victory sign. Sometimes I get it back and sometimes I only get half of it back.

 

funny!

In my area, there are tons on the road.
I am normally ready to wave, but seems that the other is not even noticing me.
And almost all are older folk. yeah yeah I am getting there, and will be there someday

Then in the C, I dont expect much since it is new and not known well.

 

Same here in NC. I know when I bought my Prius I was so glad to finally join the Prius club. I thought other Prii owners would be smiling and waving when I passed. Like someone else said, we must be a really smug group, all wrapped up in our own air conditioned world

 

Yes, I thought that when I got the Leaf that there would be interest from Prius owners, not even a look.
I think that there are owners that like 50 MPG, buy the car, drive the car, not have much interest in the hybrid system, or becoming part of a movement.
My wife will be one of those,

 

I don't know,,, perhaps it is because of the low visibility?

 

In my neighborhood? Seems like every other car I see, is either a Prius or a Subaru..

If all the Prius drivers stopped to wave at each other? Only the Subaru drivers and perhaps myself would still be moving.

The success of Prius, has moved it's numbers to levels where the exclusivity that allowed for unique camaraderie has dwindled...at least in my neighborhood.

Move out to the Dodge Truck loving rural areas...and you can get flipped off...sorta like being waved at....

 

You're not getting camaraderie on the road from other Prius owners because it's not a cult car.... To be a cult car- you need to fill some basic requirements...

1) Be inconvenient- A great majority of cult cars have only two seats. Some have amidships engines requiring the owner to have the dexterity of a chimpanzee to complete even the most basic maintenance tasks. Some require removing the motor mounts to change the oil filter- or spark plugs. Inconvenient ragtops that catch you fingers in the framework and leak like a screendoor during rainstorms- and usually the leak is directly over your lap. Heat and cooling systems that actually do neither- they just seem to blow unconditioned air around the cabin. And noisy as a jet engine on takeoff rendering most in car conversations to a yes/no or nodding situation.

2) Be notoriously unreliable- True cult car owners seem to bask in the glow of their cars greatest failures. Getting (repeatedly) stranded is a badge of honor, getting stranded many miles from home requiring expensive overnight stays and tows... well that's just pure gold for a cult car owner!

3) Be rare- If you see more that one copy of your car in a week, it's not rare enough.

4) Require frequent (and expensive) maintenance- Anyone who's owned a British auto with those hideous SU carburetors that required seasonal changing of the temperature sensitive dampening oil and frequent sync's knows what I'm referring to. Timing belts need replacing- and if you go 1 mile past their published limit- they break- and bend a few valves along the way.
Electrical systems that throw a hissy-fit from driving through even the smallest puddle. I won't even go into their convoluted nightmarish brake systems- just use you imagination here....

5) Ride like hell- poorly designed ultra stiff suspension systems make cult cars ride like a buckboard on rough roads- and the rear wheel drives make them hop around like a bunny rabbit and are useless in anything over 1" of snow. Try stopping a cult car (think British Leyland product here) in a panic situation. Odds are- you'll be part of the pileup ahead of you rather than actually stopping to avoid the pileup.

6) Lack of modern safety and convenience features- Cult cars don't have airbags, ABS brakes (or even disc brakes for that matter) Daytime Running Lights, GPS or traction control. Many have headlights that barely illuminate the road in good weather- a little rain with a pretty much useless windshield defroster and it's your palm cleaning the windshield for the duration!

7) Weird counter intuitive engineering- My TR7 had reverse threads on the water pump impeller blade (pre-internet days- so hardly anyone knew about this fact). Many owners- including myself- busted the impeller from the gear driven shaft due to the bizarre reverse thread used to secure it. It was a time consuming- multi-hundred dollar repair which require diss-assembly of the upper section of the engine to repair.
Fiat used a single incandescent bulb connect to a fiber-optic distribution system for dash gauge and switch illumination. If that one bulb burnt out- you lost all instrument and switch illumination till you could replace the single 25 cent bulb. They also had the brilliant idea to place the distributor on the front side of the transverse mid mounted engine. This means that every time you needed to adjust the points, or replace the cap & rotor you had to get at it from inside the car- remove the spare tire from behind the passenger side seat- remove an access panel- then somehow reach through the hole in the firewall to get at the distributor assembly. Could you imagine adjusting the points blind?

8) And most of all- With all the above faults- their owner still love, covet and are immensely proud of these faulted automobiles.

Now you see- the Prius just doesn't have "the stuff" it takes to make it a cult car- it's just too logical/low maintenance and too easy to get along with! It's pretty much an everyday car now driven by a diverse lot- pretty much akin to the ubiquitous Ford station wagon we all grew up with. Could you imagine Country Squire owners waving at eachother?

 

While I would like a nod or two from fellow Prii owners I know that it won't happen due to pure numbers sold. Though it does happen from time to time. A couple months ago after leaving a brunch I noticed a GenII rolled up behind my 2012 P2. It was a the GenII owner showing off my new ride of less than a month to his Mother and friends.

We had a chat of the feelings between Magnetic Grey vs Winter Grey, much to the amusement of my fiancé and his Mother and friends. LOL

Having a motorcycle before, I understand the comradrie of being part of a clan. Been there twice with my cars, a 1999 New Beetle, and my 2003 Baja. With those two cars, there was a wave' a nod, or flash of the lights to recognize the special nature of our rides...

But with time, even with the Baja - the specialness wears off - even with only 30,000 being sold during its run. As the years went on, the comradrie was limited to conversations when running across a fellow owner in a parking lot. Sort of like my above story with my Prius.

In the end the comradrie may come from chatting in a parking lot. Or a thumbs up as we pass if we see a priuschat.com sticker on the rear window, or as we friend folks on Fuelly.com (in particular IF we know where they are posting in Fuelly from ). And from local meet-ups...

 

Here around Athens Georgia, people wave by lifting a finger, (not THE finger), while keeping their hand on the top of the steering wheel - it is very casual and they look to see if you respond in kind. This is even more the case in the north GA mountains, but they lift a finger for everyone regardless of what the vehicle is. Guess maybe they are just happy.

Now, Atlanta is a different story. The entire city is driving so fast that everyone has a death grip on the wheel and Marty Feldman bugged out eyeballs! It is hard to drive in Eco mode in Atl - in fact, since I drive like I'm in the Rose Bowl, I occasionally get a finger and it is Not the wave kind of finger.

 

Another Prii Pride moment was a month ago while in Reboth Beach, when at Dogfish Head - dudes near by noted that there was a Prii on each side of theirs...

 

You might want to check out the SoCal Prius meets that Rodney (Hawaiianbuilt) hosts every month so. For instance, last month there was this:

http://priuschat.com/forums/local-c...um-prius-c-welcome-04-28-12-sat-torrance.html

at the Toyota museum in Torrance. This is the 2nd year in a row for this event, and it's a real treat!