2010's Not Jumping Off the Lots Everywhere

I have heard a lot of negative comments about Prius owners in general but most of those involve parking their car in the far left lane and going 65mph.
Now I see a lot of makes of car doing that. What I do see and hear a lot is that many Prius drivers up here are also hypermilers and when you get stuck behind a hypermiler, you WILL be late for work. Many hypermilers are going 5-10 mph under the speed limit, super long coasting but I know the gas THEY are saving will come out of my tank, when I have to pass them, especially on twisty two lane rural roads with no passing lanes. If you want to save gas don't make the guy behind you have to use twice as much fuel to pass you. Go 35mph in a 35mph zone etc... Funny thing is only hypermilers are doing this, most other cars are going 5-10mph over the limit.
But 25mph in a 30-35 mph zone is just not good driving when people are backed up behind you.
In my city you can throw a rock and hit 4 Prius' in town, not all are hypermilers. I think the Power button is for passing hypermilers.
On roads with no one on them, who cares, hypermile away, but some of us have to get to work and for us taking an extra 10-15 mins to get to work isn't our idea of fun. So when it's busy speed up a bit conditions permitting.

 

While I understand what you are saying I cannot buy into the argument. The vast majority of people who will freak out over a 5mph difference (hypermiler vs. speed limit) are NOT traveling the speed limit themselves, they are generally traveling at a minimum of +10mph over the speed limit and would pass the Prius anyway regardless if the Prius was doing the speed limit.

I travel the speed limit or just over as a general practice. Rarely do I travel under the speed limit and I still have people flooring it to pass me because they just don't know how to drive slower or they use lame excusses like being late for work. If you are always in a hurry every day of the week then get your nice person out of bed earlier IMO (not directed at you Steve). I'm nearly always early for work and I drive slower than these idiots who lack self control.

As a rule of thumb I will never travel below the speed limit while others are following me. I will sometimes bump it up to +5mph just to be curteous but I'm damn sure not going to pull over and stop for them nor will I go more than +10mph just because they cannot control themselves.

 

I also noticed that the speed on the local freeways has creeped up to 82+ lately on 65mph speed limit with the gas price approaching $3 again.
Most of those are SUVs and big trucks.

 

I agree. To add, a major complaint I hear is that Prius drivers are always playing the MPG video game rather than keeping their eyes on the road.

 

That is so true ... which is why we are all dead. You have wandered into the "Prius Zone:"


The one stop shop for infinite miles per light year:


Bob Wilson

 

On all freeways from two-lanes up, there is no excuse to drive in the fast lane, unless you are traveling significantly faster than the flow of traffic, or need to pass a slower moving car in front of you.

If you are in the fast lane and a car comes up behind you at a higher speed you should move out of their way as soon as it is safe to do so. Preferably they shouldn't have to reduce speed.

Driving down I5 from San Jose to Los Angeles, there are always some number of people who refuse to move over from the fast lane as cars come up behind them. Totally inexcusable. Slower traffic should yield to faster traffic, even if the faster car is being a complete jackass and driving way too fast.

 

Indeed, although it was a bit unnerving to be driving 100 mph and have an Audi fly past as if I was standing still.

 

One of my highway pet peeves. Esp the ones that are behind a car in the right lane as you're approaching perhaps 10-15mph faster. The guy on the right just ahead pulls over to the left passing lane in front of you and does not speed up. Probably keeps the cruise on and doesn't know what their right foot could accomplish on the accelerator.
So we must take ours off cruise and brake waiting for him to crawl ahead of the guy on the right and finally move over to the right lane again.
I try to be nice (BTW I'm in FL....) but do glare at them when passing...no hand signals though.
BTW I'm not talking about Prius drivers here at all. Simply retired folks.

And I'm ALWAYS looking in the mirror if in the fast lane to check if there is a jackass approaching me quickly. I get over ASAP - you never know why they're in such a hurry. Whatever --- let 'em go. Heaven knows, that jackass could be me tomorrow with a sick puppy in the car.

 

In the U.S. lane usage is a mess: slow drivers avoid the right lane because roads are crappy and merging traffic doesn't behave, fast drivers blast by to the right to avoid radar speed traps, and most drivers are busy eating and talking on cell phones.

How about this scenario (one of my favorites): I am driving the speed limit in the right lane of a divided highway. Traffic merges from the right, but at a speed too low to keep up with traffic. I move to the left to give them room, since they fail to yield right of way, and I began to overtake them. Now that they are on the highway, the merging traffic decides to speed up, trapping me in the left lane. They slowly pass me to the right while faster traffic comes up from behind. If I am lucky I can get back into the right lane before the faster traffic begins to slingshot around me to the right.

If people would follow the rules it would be a lot easier. It's one of my pet peeves.

Tom

 

I give myself 25-30 minutes to drive 8 miles! I've been late more than a few times because of hypermilers. 5 miles of that is rural roads with no passing lanes and if there is any traffic you are stuck behind them at 5-10mph under the limit.
This is one major complaint about Prius owners. I don't drive like a maniac but half an hour to get 8 miles because some bozo wants to get .004 mpg difference?!
Lots of people want to drive slow but when people can't pass why not let them go?
When my wife had to work quite far from home and I had to drop her off then go to work then pick her up again. It was on a long rural road with only a few passing areas.
Sometimes I'd be the only car in the AM and I didn't want to go above the 40mph speed limit, so I'd wave them ahead or pull over enough so they could pass. It's a courtesy. Sure I had the RIGHT to block them for miles as I was going the speed limit but why get someone all riled up?
People have a lot of things going on in their lives if you aren't in a hurry, let them pass. Too much road rage up here as it is. Let them go and it all works out.

 

Hmmm, seems like you could smell the 'advertising' BS right from the get go. Any time an ad says "better hurry before 'they' are all gone" I know 'they' aren't selling and there is no hurry. Anyone else get those "Amish heater" flyers in the paper? SPECIAL deal but you have to call TODAY. Same ad week after week, month after month. Yawn.

 

Re: status quo = NO!

Glad to see it. All the "I'm important because I drive a (name your over priced commuter vehicle)" shows just how shallow people are. We are all better off if they 'go green' whether they have a financial need or not And the more Prii sold, the more likely the U.S. plant will be built. More REAL jobs for Americans, unlike the 'buy American' cars built anywhere BUT the U.S..

 

I saw my first new Insight on the freeway Friday. Never have seen a 2010 Prius so far, except at the pre-intro preview. Not on dealer lots either thet I have seen in LA.

 

Sell it privately. You will NEVER get as much from a dealer on a trade in (if you do, it is because they don't come down on the new vehicle). Your '08 is no junker, should be easy to sell to someone who can't afford the minimum $22K for a new one.

 

Re: status quo = NO!

My sister's '05 (bought new) is the cheapest car she ever owned post college. And it wasn't because it was all they could afford. Brother-in-law had his Beemer, the kids drove the aging Volvo and the behemoth (Suburban) got 14 MPG whether or not it was pulling the 28' camping trailer. It sits in the driveway waiting for summer trips, she drives the Prius, car of choice.

 

Especially since they did (stupid) things like move the shifter off the dash into a 'more normal position' on the arch to make it more 'acceptable' to the average car buyer. They should market it to Jane and Joe car buyer, whoever they might be. Peppy (not a dragster) midsized car, flexible for the family, kind of sporty looking for those that care, needs little in the way of maintenance. Oh, by the way, it gets GREAT mileage and pollutes less than almost anything else for sale.

I think by now, those that notice, already know the Prius gets good mileage, time to sell the 'regular car' features. The more Prii sold, the fewer low mileage (anything under 40 MPG ) vehicles being sold.

PLUS! The more the other companies will finally see that they can and SHOULD build high MPG mid sized cars instead of thinking they can save their sorry backsides by selling sub-compacts that get decent mileage.

 

I love those ads. Or how about the ones with a picture included. That has snow in the background when it is 90 degrees outside. You call and the salesman says, "Yeah, that car just came in.."

 

Agreed, if you are holding a line of cars up, there are laws written requiring you to pull over and let them pass (at appropriate/safe places to pull over).

Help me out with the math here.....

5 mile long rural road with a speed limit of 35 mph - assume no stop signs.

F8L's observed drivers = +10 mph = 45 mph = 6 min 40 seconds to drive 5 miles.

"Typical" driver = + 5 mph over limit = 40 mph = 7 min 30 sec.

Speed limit drivers (Steve, we'll put you here) = 35 mph = 8 min 34 sec.

Slower but close to the speed limit (- 5 mph) = 30 mph = 10 min even.

Slow poke Joe who is hypermiling at 25 mph and won't pull over = 12 minutes even.

So, in your worst case scenario, a driver who wants to drive 45 mph in a 35 mph zone and gets stuck behind a person (inexplicably) driving 25 mph for the entire 5 miles with no ability to pass would take 5 min 20 seconds longer to complete the journey.

And a more likely scenario is the 40 mph vs 30 mph and that is a whopping 2.5 minutes.

Time seems to stretch longer when one is impatient.....

 

I would only think the last one Most H2s (at least around here) never leave the same roads as any other commuter vehicle. Those who buy them think those who don't are jealous because they can't afford them. They look in the mirror and see 'macho'. Most non H2 owners see something completely different. Macho isn't on the list of the things I think when I see an H2.