Was approached at the gas station today by GM Suburban driver...

Well, the cost is more than the price.

Why, if fuel is a precious, limited resource, do people still have recreational snowmobiles, jet-skis or NASCAR races? Because we can still buy the gas for them.

 

I think the same about airline flights, too.

 

I don't get the flipping the bird thing. Some people drive lick crap, just don't let them get to you. Cutting them off and then trapping them in so that they get more pissed is a poor decision. A 30 second poor choice can lead to a long time of misery. I know from experience. A friend of mine had the road rage hit him with his family in the truck, he did the same thing flipped the bird, cut the nice person off, this happened for about 1 to 2 minutes. The nice person got ahead of my friend, did I mention his family was in the truck, and he slammed on his brakes thinking my buddy could stop on a dime I guess, my friend's truck hit the Jacka$$'s car at just under 70mph, of course the guy slammed on the brakes and then tried to get the hell out of the way. So it wasn't a dead stop hit at 70mph, but it was enough that my friend's daughter got a ride in the life flight helicopter. She has since undergone some 12 operations to her legs and hips. I can tell you that no one tried to fight after they got out of their cars. I can tell you from going to court that everyone is REAL SORRY! I can also tell you it doesn't matter how big you are body wise, it takes a bigger person to let it go! I can understand the reasoning that goes on in our own minds when someone pisses us off, just ask yourself how far are you willing to go to prove your point!

 

WOW. I thought NM was bad, but I've never had anything like that happen before, never even been flipped off in the Prius, but I've been flipped off in just about every other car before the Prius. I pay a lot more attention to my driving in the Prius, and to the perception of others. P&G when nobody else is around, speed and try to maintain the 99 mpg when people are behind me. Beat everybody else off the light and still get 60 mpg!! It's amazing what you can do in this car to get better mpg.

But, just in case, that hidden storage bin is just the right size for a small .40 cal pistol I've heard first-hand accounts of women here in their non-prius cars getting attacked by thugs with baseball bats. I usually tell them to get their concealed carry permit.

 

Haven't been asked to trade yet. Did have a new experience last week though. A guy came up to me at the pump and asked if I could spare a few bucks. He was not dirty. He was not homeless. He was not trying to tell a sad story and buy beer. His car was at the next pump on empty and he couldn't afford to put any gas in it I only had a buck, and watched him go in and give it to the cashier, and come out and put $1.00 in and drive off.

Rob

 

I've heard it called Pump Rage too. I've seen reports on other boards about the same thing. One guy blamed hybrids for the high price of gas , the loss of his job and breakup of his marriage.

I've seen many reports on TV "news" about how SUV's are dropping in resale/trade in value because of fuel prices. Is anyone really surprised?

I just never saw the need for an SUV to drive to the grocery store, work or errands. (I don't need to tow anything)

The auto companies really did a good job on making people think they HAVE to have one, but times have changed. People, gas isn't ever going to be under $3 again IMO.

I was at the Detroit Race for the Cure on Saturday. Ford is a big sponsor (which is great!) but they had a Pink Ribbon Mustang and the new Ford Flex (seats about 9?) on display. No MPG stickers on either one.

I have no doubts about my decision to get my Prius. I had heard about Ford having a hybrid version of the Fusion, but I couldn't wait that long.

 

No offense, but I doubt your doubt is correct. Folks who buy $100K+ cars are often business owners who know their business goes into the toilet when cheep enerygy spirals ever upward. It's not just cheep transportaion fuel that's going up ... it's everything, becauses everything's cost is based of the very fuel we've squandered for so many decades. So the giant middle class now has to pay the piper. I could, if our family was that wasteful, afford sporty / guzzlin transportation, but we don't ... knowing things will likely only get worse, and thus, so will our personal resources.

Still, there are folks who have guzzlers, and don't care ... at least not yet. Give it time. Mass transit ridership is up 25% nationwide, and so is biking to work. Everybody will have to do things differently.

Meanwhile, one of our acquaintences is buying a new Caddie Escalade (regardless of poor mpg's in the teens), even though they only want to offer him a paultry amount on his Excursion trade in. After spending a ton to buy the Excursion, its only the aspect of how little he's getting for tradein value that blows him away. THAT intrigues me.

 

I had to take a couple of defensive driving lessons as well. Speeding be damned, but it's hard to slow down to 65mph when you're used to over 100mph on the German Autobahn for years.

The thing that makes me laugh, in Chicago traffic you just can't win and people just don't get it. I stay in my right lane, so people can blast by me in the left lanes after they are done tailgating me and further ahead I see them slowed down to a crawl after they hit traffic spots, which always seem to appear out of nowhere for no appearant reason. As I cruise by them I can only think "What an idiot" to myself.

 

You mean your wallet, don't you?

 

I think the gas prices, combined with the high cost of groceries, are really scaring the crap out of people. And then to find out that they can't get rid of their gas guzzlers because they have no trade-in value must really be alarming. (I myself ended the lease on an SUV a few months early and took a hit--but at least I could do it.)

I just hope no one takes out their anger on my Prius.

 

Many businessmen will pass the additional cost on to us, I get reminded everytime I see a contractor driving a huge pickup truck with no trailer hitch, he doesn't care how much fuel costs because we pay for it for him! It's called inflation... along with the cost of shipping everything we buy including the fuel tankers transporting our $4/gal gasoline!

 

Please be careful. I have yet to hear of tattoos that can stop bullets. There have been a number of highway shootings in the San Francisco Bay area in the recent months.

April 3rd - Woman fatally shot on I-80 near Pinole.
April 9th - Man killed on I-280 with his young sons in the car.
May 24th - Hell's Angel associate shot on US 101 in Marin County.

 

Because they are great fun and let you see areas you wouldn't see otherwise I jetski in the summer and snowmobile in the winter. Snowmobiling has become a very social activity for my wife and I in Vermont. Jet skiing not so much as we go with mostly family and friends and not in big groups. I've been from All over Cape Code bay from the Canal to Provincetown. And on the ocean side, from Harwich to Monomoy and even Falmouth and the Vineyard!

I'm not looking forward to filling up either now though. It's definetely getting to be expensive! If only I could get a hybrid snowmobile, I'd be all set!

 

Most people don't. However there are plenty that do need it for something and can't afford to have a second vehicle for everything else.

If my Dad didn't have a truck I could borrow for towing I'm not sure I would have traded in my Jeep for the Prius. But that was the only thing I needed it for, so it made sense. Now, knowing the savings I get from the Prius and how much I love it, even if he didn't have a truck, it would have just made more sense for me to rent the few times a year I need to tow.

 

In Bay Area (Cali) a lot of the traffic in the right lanes moves a LOT faster than traffic in the left lane during rush hour. its knowing the timing of which lanes move faster when as opposed to switch from one lane to another and then back again.

 

NorCalRusty: I am sorry to hear about that. I wasn't cutting them off I just wasnt going to let them cut me off like they did the last couple cars.

And RobertG: I understand it is a terrible thing to do but I didn't think that a middle aged white man with his wife and son in the car would pull a pistol out on me in his brandy new lexus.

And I know I semi contribute to this but terrible drivers is a big reason why I would love to be an Undercover officer.

 

I would have said "it's not my fault your car guzzles gas while mine just sips it. It's a free country and anyone can buy a Prius, you know- even idiots like you!".

Of course, then she probably would have come over and tried to punch my lights out...or something else equally violent.

Geez, some people really don't know how to behave in public.

:target:

 

This would only work, if people would actually abide the rules and know how to drive. A law has been put in place here in Illinois that the left lane is for passing only. Yeah, that's it. That's going to safe the traffic from congestion. Nobody cares about the Rules of the Road, ya idi.. uhh lawmakers.

 

You're not kidding! My roomate (Citrus Heights PD) told me of a shooting involving 2 parolies(sp?) in one car and 2 other guys in another. They got into a argument (road rage) on the freeway so the "ex-cons" followed the other car off the freeway and while one guy was supposedly yelling crap to the ex-cons one of the ex-cons pulled out a gun and shot him in the head and wounded or killed the driver as well. I need to look up the info for better details as I just heard about it last night.