Have you ever had your car spat upon??

Yeah, that seems overly simplistic/dumb. Hard to believe, but there probably are just as many people who drive a Prius just because its has great mpg & is practical, and could care less about the environment. I don't get where this "all Prius drivers are liberal and green" stereotype came from. My only guess is that a few extremists (those who brag about their car's greenness) are the ones who make it bad for everyone. Its just dumb.

 

Probably more.

 

This was a fun discussion! In the 10 months I've had my Prius I haven't had any problems with other people. We live in a small (2200) town--next door is our shopping town (7800). Rural area with farms. More pickups than cars. Surprising amount of Prii for a small area. I'm a Republican, nearly 70, not a greenie--and I guess it helps to have an Oregon Hunters Association sticker on one side of the small rear window and a Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation sticker on the other. Maybe I should have our Life Member NRA sticker back there also? I drive a Prius because I like the mileage and absolutely love the car--comfortable, roomy, and it handles like a sports car compared to my Outback. It also improves our fleet mileage--my husband drives a one ton Dodge Cummins Diesel truck!

 

I'll be sure to put a USAF Reserve sticker on the hatch as soon as I take delivery (in a couple weeks, can't wait). It can go right above the Darwin Fish . . .

 

I grew up in Detroit. Used to see bumper stickers that said

Hungry? Out of Work? Eat Your Toyota!

 

Are very many in Detroit honest enough to see Toyota for years made the small cars/hybrids Detroit said they couldn't make a profit on?

Probably not.

 

I sure wish the Prius was made here(USA). I wonder if they ever would begin to build them here if the sales volume was large enough?

Craig

 

I currently live in a northern suburb of Detroit and see the variation on this every day. "Out of Work Yet? Keep buying Foreign!"

I have not been the recipient of vandalism (yet) but I have received the very emphatic "bird" from another driver on the road. He was in the oncoming lane and traffic was very slow (crawling) and he was shaking his first with the bird as I passed by. He either didn't like the Toyota, the Prius, or it could have been both.

I have two neighbors that are very close geographically to me, one with a gen II and the other with a gen III. I see Prii daily around here but not nearly as many as when I visit So Cal.

 

Angry bird man was probably driving a big-3 car made in Canada or Mexico anyways...

 

The US and Canadian auto industries are so tightly interwoven that it makes little sense to separate them, or to categorize Canadian production as foreign. Besides, ancient treaty obligations force an auto industry trade balance across this border.

But I wouldn't be surprised if angry bird man was driving a GM made in Korea, with only 2% of the domestic content of my Honda and Subaru.

 

I wonder if there's a correlation between arguing by pulling rank and blithe disregard for statistical significance.

 

That was a little joke; I don't actually wonder whether a proclivity for one intellectually disreputable practice correlates with the other.

 

I had this happen shorty after I bought my Prius. I notices long brown trails alongthe passenger side which was basically tobacco spit. There was also what appeared to be orange juice or some kind of juice dumped on the passenger side. Fortunately they were able to just be washed off. I have since gotten a garage. The place I live randomly gets cars messed with.


That is largely why I don't want to ever own a nice car because at some point some idiot who is jealous will key it or something. Eventually this happens.


Re: Ford, Chrysler, gm plants. I have been to all of them for doing inspections as part of my work. They will vandalize any foreign car if you park in their parking lot. They do not hide that fact either. It's a closed minded mentality but then again American autoworkers are also some of the most arrogant people I deal with.

 

I was chastised on an HHR board for trading it for a Prius and a 2nd one no less.

What I have found is some people just hate some cars/manufacturers. Be it Chevy or Toyota people, some of them hate the other. I'm fairly certain that if GM had made the Prius, the HHR guys would have though it an ok or good trade but alas, they are GM guys.

I just buy cars I like. Right now I have 2 Prius's and 1 Pontiac. The Pontiac still being my favorite and my car love.....

And some people simply wonder how on earth I can go from a 330 HP muscle car to a Hybrid! It's easy, I get in and drive. :rockon:

 

Holy crap - I rented an HHR once - had one of the worst auto transmissions I've ever driven - doesn't even come close to the Prius!

 

I went there in late 2007 and early 2008 so this was before the bankruptcies and crisis. Although seeing how they did not want to make concessions in lieu of bankruptcy, I cannot imagine much have changed since. There needs to be a change in the overall culture that I do not expect to ever happen, and still a sense of 'entitlement' which has been somewhat reinforced by the Obama administration, but that's a different story. A guy who drives a forklift truck makes $100,000 barely getting a highschool diploma, and the security guard without a highschool diploma makes $70,000. That's the ego there.
One of my professors said his brother used to be a manager for one of the suppliers for GM for a long time, and since the 70s or something. If GM wanted to cut back or save money they would come in an tell the suppliers "I want part # for this much $." If the suppliers did not give them the parts at the price, then they'd pull the contract for it and give it to someone else and bullied all their suppliers like that. The Big 3 in general did that. It was a common practice.