Poll: Why are we hated?

That's the rub. Prius has become a regular car.

I see those saying that stuff also waving the flag, close-minded to anything not American... even if their Detroit vehicle has parts from overseas and was assembled outside of the United States, it's still better than what we drive. Neither vehicle price nor emissions matter to them. It's all about bragging rights, size, power, etc.

Someday we'll get past all that. The next generation of Prius will help push that change along, reaching more and more everyday consumers.

 

You nailed that one well John

Mike

 

LOL!

How many times have heard that the Prius is a 'style' car?

There are folks who see a car as an accessory, CNW Marketing and Bob Lutz come to mind. But the delusions of these skeptics disappear at the pump.

Bob Wilson

 

Well it is a "style" car for some. For that matter, a F-250 with a Powerstroke is a style car too for quite a few owners. It is just the opposite ends of the spectrum.

Some people want a Prius because it is the "it" green car. I drive one because I have a long commute and like getting 48 mpg.

Some F-250 drivers never utilize any capability of their truck and just want a big diesel truck. Others haul trailers around regularly TV that weigh 10k lbs.

 

Over on the TDI club, there's a thread about road rage against TDIs.

 

FWIW, this isn't specific to TDIs, but I've noticed that younger male VW drivers w/darkened taillights or those driving hatchback VWs (e.g. Golfs) have a pretty high likelihood of being asshat drivers, judging by their actions on the road.

It seems similar to the "rice boy racer" types w/the coffee can exhaust or those w/mammoth lifted trucks.

 

Three letters, GTI.

 

Thou usest phrases unfamiliar to me, Kemo Sabe!
I am totally bamfoozled by "rice boy racer", maybe we don't have them in Virginia.
But I think I get "asshat drivers" and it reminds me of a German joke about the difference between a real snake and a traffic "snake" on the Autobahn where a line of traffic is being held up by a slow driver in the leftmost lane (passing on the right is totally forbidden in Germany so there is literally no way to get around those slow left-lane drivers.).
Punch line: "The real snake has the a$$hole at the rear!"

 

Perhaps some people have too much free time on their hands? So, they resort to this type of behavior?

How sad.


DBCassidy

 

Behold.

 

Funny thread!

clean cut redneck here, (once called that by a college female friend, many, many moons ago) In '08 wife decided on a Prius. Her choice. Have had people scream "green idiot" at me. I say yea, green in my pocket!! Her job required a newer car, and bought a '12 Prius. I took over the '08. It's funny to hear the stuff said. I just laugh and write it off. She get's 50mpg, I'm about 45mpg. lol
Yea, I'm green lol

183k miles on the '08, a new water pump and squirrels eating wires is the only thing besides regular maintenance.
Pushing 150k miles on the '12, no problems. regular maintenance.

best car I ever owned was a 1994 4-Runner- at 350k miles, sold to my godson at a price he could afford, he got another 50k out of it before a deer strike and very quick ditch stop with the deer. bad for the deer and 4-runner, he was ok.

 

Tesla for showoffs, Prius for cheapskates, bus pass for greenies.

 

Bicycle.....

 

have family in other towns? Hard to see them via busses and bikes. I'll rest comfortably knowing my Tesla is the absolute greenest way I can take a road trip.

 

Curiously, using bicycle to visit family in other towns is quite feasible in Europe, more specifically our experience is Germany and Denmark, where almost all buses, metro systems, and inter-city trains carry bicycles. Thus to take your bicycle on mass transit and then use it to go the “final mile” to visit distant family and friends, is easy and results in a low carbon footprint.

 

for athletic showoffs

Walking shoes for cheapskates, teleconference for greenies.

 

Leadfoot, in China and northern Europe, electric bicycles such as these (I built in the US) make bicycle commuting or trips easy for even us 70+ folks. The major auto manufacturers are so worried about e-bikes replacing cars that they funded survey research about the actual use of such bicycles versus automobiles in Germany. The survey results were that e-bikes did not replace walking for errands if the distance was less than 2 kilometers, but the e-bikes did in fact replace automobile driving for many trips between 4 and 10 kilometers, IIRC. (Partly due to fact that these bikes can be parked anywbere for free, and car parking in contrast is limited, awkward, and expensive.)
I have a measured kilowatt charger, and both of these mid-drive e-bikes get 3,000 MPGe in actual use by us old folks (folks pedaling more vigorously would achieve higher mileage numbers, of course). Range anxiety does not exist because us old folks cannot physically ride a bicycle more than about 5 hours a day at an average speed of about 10 miles per hour, and the batteries are good for 60 miles or more. Plus, there is a network of free bicycle charging stations on the Northern coast of Germany which is gradually being extended. My nephew in Hamburg was commuting to work using my German e-bike for several years, but has now purchased his own.
The future is electric, but it may not turn out to be an electric automobile.

 

I don't doubt it!

Please understand that many of my comments are for humor's sake.

In 2003 I built a similar rig myself. I bought a kit from the Golden Motor Company of China with a bicycle front wheel that had an integrated brushless motor. Felt pretty weird ordering direct from mainland china back then, even though it's commonplace now.

The kit came with a controller, charger, twist grip throttle and an 80lb lead-acid battery. I lived in NYC at the time and had a blast riding it around. Nobody knew what it was, nobody else had anything like it at the time. Great for starting conversations with girls. Got me through the subway strike of 2005 but it also taught me that I'm not a good enough rider to share roads with cars.

Eventually the control hardware broke, it was very lightweight. Then the charger caught fire one day. I dumped the remaining partsbike at a yard sale 4 years ago.

I'm optimistic about where e-bikes are going- in the meantime I'm happy to see others are getting into it as well.

EDIT: link added

 

Related question: Why have none of the cordless tool makers not done an ebike? I would love to use my Ryobi or EGO batteries on an ebike.