Toyota Prius vs Hummer H3 ? ( Yea, a serious question ... )

From 1975 to 1979 I lived in a big city. (Phoenix, then Seattle) I spent 11 months of 1987 on contract in Toronto. But, by choice, I do not live in cities of any size, towns under 25,000 suit me best. As such, I am unable to confirm or deny your feelings of intimidation.

In 2001 I bought a bright red Subaru so the 330 ton dumptrucks could see me, they sure were not going to feel driving over me. Currently, I dodge much more reasonably sized farm equipment. Durring harvest time, (this week is Winter wheat) I appreciate how narrow a Prius is.


(stock photo, my neighborhood is much flatter)

Any way, I have not been intimidated by people, I am not sure any other vehicle will help.

 

Towns under 25,000? 25,000 is a city*! Our city only has 15,000.

As suggested above, try tinting your windows. If they can't see you, you're a bigger risk.

* Only because I've adjusted to living in Maine. In the UK I lived in the major town in a borough with a population of 250,000.

 

I live in metro Atlanta. When there were Hummer dealerships, I used to see a lot of H2s and H3s. I still saw them with the gas prices in 2008, but they really dropped off as soon as it was anounced Hummer was going defunct. This year, I've seen more Lamborghinis driving down the street then I have a Hummer.

I'm not really sure anyone takes the argument *well there are big vehicles on the road, so I need the biggest SUV* seriously anymore. From a crash standpoint, you're up a creek if you're involved with a bus or big rig. Hummer was overpriced because they focused more on luxury then on any real utility features. That photo of the Hummer being completely demolished when rear ending a bus is one anecdote. Then when we look at statistics, more Hummers are in accidents. That might go back to the *well SUVs are big so they must be safe* mentality. I do think there are a portion of SUV drivers that are either bad drivers or just want to be lazy: so having a vehicle that's larger might help in urban areas (except if you're a bad driver, you'll also not be able to park in tight spaces). The ironic thing is that many SUVs are unsafe in rural, mountainous areas (as they're easiest to tip over and roll).

Really one of the biggest factors in car safety is driving habbits: I've never felt worried driving a Prius. If I'm near a large vehicle that's swerving into my lane, I just give them a wide berth. If I'm tailgated by some truck or SUV, then I will give myself a larger stopping distance.

 

There's the option of buying a used SUV (perhaps one with a bad engine and/or transmission) and converting it into an EV. I read that some Nissan Pathfinders are infamous for transmission failures (I have seen two break down on the side of the road in the same week!) meaning that you can probably find one for extra cheap.

 

The biggest cult EV SUV crowd that I'm aware of is the Toyota RAV group. I would think that one of the better advantages of the RAV is that it's a pretty small SUV. Since the Hummer is notorious for having bad mpgs, I can't believe you'd be able to get very far on one charge.

 

Pretty sure if you're looking for the best HP, you should be lusting after a sports car

 

I gritted my teeth and ventured into the Hummer forum.

One of the respondents made a very sensible suggestion: a Toureg. That'd give you the size you need, but you wouldn't look like someone driving a Hummer. And you'd have decent performance - Hummers are, after all, very, very slow, which is a safety issue in itself in a town full of psychos with guns.

And if you got a turbodiesel Touareg, you'd get decent mpg too.

Or there are plenty of other big diesel SUVs with passable MPG and performance - an X5 (although, much as a Hummer will make you look like a Hummer driver, an X5 will make you look like an X5 driver), an ML, or a LandCruiser, for example.

Also, if you have a Hummer in Miami, everyone will think you are the ginger bloke out of CSI Miami, and you'll have to solve crimes while meaningfully looking slightly to the left of the camera all the time. This will have a severe impact on your commuting time. And he gets shot at a lot, which makes the whole safety question moot, really. But he did sleep with a drug-lord's girlfriend or something if I recall correctly, so that might have been the problem. So avoid sleeping with any drug lords' girlfriends.

Yes. Moving sounds like a good plan to me. It's a long time since I've been to Miami, but I strongly disliked it when I was there. And I like big cities.

 

Hummer H3 is junk. Save your money and get this for when you go ino the city. Kimber America | Stainless Ultra TLE II (LG)

Speak softly and carry a big stick.

 

The high HP isn't so much the issue as the horrible fuel economy. For me, the issue is more along the lines of being a danger to others on the road (high curb weight, the H2 being 6400+ lbs.) coupled w/horrific accident avoidance capabilities in the form of terrible handling (partly due to high weight and being top-heavy) and terrible brakes and our dependence on foreign oil, about half of which we import, most of which resides in volatile regions of the world.

At current oil prices, about $810 million/day flows out of our country to pay for foreign oil. Some of ends up finding its way into the hands of terrorists and regimes which don't like us.

The above points are indisputable and I bring this up instead of climate change (and its set of naysayers). I suspect the naysayers don't understand the magnitude. Example: Even a 2nd gen Prius, if driven 15K miles/year and getting EPA combined mileage would cause 3.2 tons/year of greenhouse gases to be emitted. This is just a single car. for an 08 Hummer H3 w/5.3L engine and 4AT: 10.5 tons.

Unfortunately, in the only year that Consumer Reports has reliability data on the Touareg, it had a *HORRIBLE* reliability record. VWs have a mostly not so good reliability record by the T-reg was especially bad, even for VW. I think one would be nuts to buy one. I sorta laugh inside each time I see one (not often) parked. Tells me they didn't bother to look at reliability ratings before being (or don't want to believe them). I even posted about one w/taped windows at http://priuschat.com/forums/other-cars/91942-honk-if-you-want-stop-your-vw-jetta.html#post1295249.

Check out http://web.archive.org/web/20051123071545/http://www.badtouareg.com/. Too bad the page is gone but fortunately, an old copy lives on... I found a story at http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthre...ience-here&p=14867953&viewfull=1#post14867953 and there are a bunch more there.

 

Hi Ray66--

+1 on massparanoia's comment about getting a gun. Especially if you're already gone to the trouble of getting a CCW permit. It's an unfortunate reality that you may have to keep one on you if the other drivers are that bad. I had to do the same myself about a year ago (although I'd driven another small car at the time), and mercifully I've never had to use it.

(I was forced to pull it out once, but that's another story, for another day. Long and short of it is that the driver in a V8 truck that forced me off the road decided to high-tail it. A 911 call quickly followed but nothing ever became of it.)

Just make damned sure you know Florida's laws (and whatever other states you travel to)'s laws with regards to the use of force. And remember that 95% of the time it's preferable to simply drive away. A busted window from an angry bum is still better than weeks of litigation in a courtroom plus attorney's fees even if the stand-your-ground law does apply in that particular situation.

 

Repeating because my gut feeling is there are other metro areas you would feel this way

....and the real issue is you deciding not to let other drivers get to you.

Are there other Prius drivers in Miami? If so, have any of you considered swapping for a vehicle you would get "respect?"

 

The Hummer is the George W Bush of the automotive world. Hasn't been around for years. Blamed for everything bad on the planet from high gas prices to wars in the Middle East.

If you're that intimidated on the road by other traffic....you really shouldn't be driving. You're just not up to it. Pun unintended. Me? I drive motorcycles, trucks, and a Prius. I see just as many asshats in the truck as I do on the motorcycles.
That's just life.
If you must live in a large city (I've driven in most) learn how to drive. Move to Naples for a year, and then move back to Miami. It'll be like Heaven on Earth...trust me.

Funny thing. The Italians don't feel the need to drive large Mastodons...

 

I honestly thought that you recommended moving to the other coast of Florida when I first read that.

 

Oops....I guess a Floridian would make that presumption!!!

I've always marveled at the fact that Europeans can fit 8 lanes of traffic through a four lane highway. They have traffic densities that make SOCAL look like Deadwood, AZ and a legitimate parking space over there is about three coats of paint larger than the car that's intended to park there.

And yet.....they're able to pull it all off in much smaller vehicles and still have some roads with proper speed limits....AND they have far fewer accident/incident rates than we do in America.

Kinda makes you wonder...doesn't it?

 

+1. Also, maybe some cool wheels.

When in Rome do as the Romans. In other words: Pimp up your ride, dude!!

 

This guy is brilliant.. he trolled two websites at once!

 

OP has a point, there isn't a person here who'd rather be in a Prius than an H3 in a typical car-on-car accident. They do breed some extra confidence (some warranted, some not)

However, I think he probably is imagining a lot of the angst about his Prius. I believe that most people simply do not care about it.

That said, there are better choices than an H3. I think there are other similarly sized vehicles perhaps a bit better on gas, or at least safer (Honda Pilot would be good, as would minivans I think which do well in accidents). Also, even though it is an H3 and not an H2, it's still a "hummer", so he will avoid the Prius-haters but maybe the "enviro-whackos" will want to run him over now instead

For those well endowed, there is of course the granddaddy of SUVs, the Knight XV: http://www.conquestvehicles.com/knight-xv.html

Nobody will mess with you in this, and even an H1 Hummer driver will feel like a wimp around you.

 

Ha! For 25 years, in North Dakota, I lived halfway between a town of 400 people and a town of 80.

I wonder if that might be partly because Hummers are harder to maneuver and take longer to stop.

I'm still a Prius owner, but my daily driver has a very small engine that creates a lot of HP. Electric motors have high power to weight ratio.

For half a year of my year and a half living in Spain, my window overlooked a street where parking was very crowded. I repeatedly watched people parking in those kinds of spaces. And they usually did it in one pass. Back in, pull forward. Period. It was amazing. Literally a few inches longer than the car was enough for them.

And lots of mopeds/scooters weaving among the cars. I didn't drive there. I could walk almost anywhere I wanted to go, and if I couldn't walk I took a cab or a bus.

 

So the thread starter did this "woe is me" at another site?

I have learned to get a thicker skin on the road in a 2000 Honda Insight - essentially a shrunk Prius as far as other drivers are concerned...if I can take it anyone can.

Check out the book or commentaries online on The High and the Mighty by Keith Bradsher - on the mind games selling pickups and SUVs. These vehicles in some case are less safe from a scientific standpoint, but marketers did a great job of making people feel safer. That French-American marketer Mr. R (C Rapetielle?) did a great job of subliminal job of appealing to manhood, respect, power in pickups / SUVs .... loved the appeal of the H2 as an FUV - read his stuff and you will know I'm understating his outrageous comments.

I'm confident I could deal with Miami driver in a Prius or Honda Insight....pick better times and routes to moderate the roadway insanity.

If the starter of this thread honestly need a hulking vehicle for "respect" - it's his loss to pay 3x the money at the pump in an economy where good jobs are more uncertain than ever.