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I feel like a target in my Prius

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by kayemarschke2, Oct 22, 2007.

  1. kayemarschke2

    kayemarschke2 New Member

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    Ok so I was almost hit twice today. I was sitting waiting on someone to pull out of a parking spot at the Costco and a hugh SUV starts backing out right beside me. I started honking and backed up as soon as the shock wore off. Then later in the day I was backing out of a parking spot when someone across from me started backing out right in to me. I put my car in drive and pulled back in as quick as I could. I have had my car hit 4 times. In fact I just got it back this week. I keep getting hit and my car is always parked minding its own business. Oh and BTW I don't even have 4000 miles on it yet.
     
  2. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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  3. onlynark

    onlynark Member

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    Your in tucson....nuff said.


    ps.... does your prius have any distinguish marks or plates? I'll wave next time I see ya. Look for a grey mazda 5 with 6 people in it swerving from lane to lane.
     
  4. partipilo

    partipilo Weirdo

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    It's quiet for sure. I have never used the horn so often in any other car; not to be rude but to just let people know that HEY WATCH OUT there is a 3000 lb car moving in your direction.
     
  5. ACORNBLUES

    ACORNBLUES New Member

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    I've been rear ended waiting at the traffic light. a week later, some one backed out of a parking spot and hit my parked prius. :( the 2nd one was a hit and run, but a good citizen saw the whole thing and wrote down the license plate.
     
  6. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    Glad I'm not a pedestrian where the OP lives. surely a Prius is big enough for people to see. Is your car the same colour as everything that isn't on the road there?
     
  7. Doc Willie

    Doc Willie Shuttlecraft Commander

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Oct 22 2007, 10:36 PM) [snapback]529111[/snapback]</div>
    [attachmentid=12179]

    Seriously, with this many incidents, a review of parking practices is in order. Some spaces are safer than others, and if you have a choice, you can decrease your risk by proper selection. They teach this in some defensive driving courses. Do a Google on defensive driving, and parking safety, and you may find something helpful.
     

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  8. rwhoyle

    rwhoyle Member

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    Paint a Bulls Eye on the hatchback so they will know where to aim.
     
  9. bogeybob513

    bogeybob513 rtc513

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(kayemarschke2 @ Oct 22 2007, 10:33 PM) [snapback]529106[/snapback]</div>
    I always try to either back in or just park front out in most shopping centers where they have double lanes. Saves a lot of problems although sometimes our hatchback is blocked by a head in parking in back of us.
     
  10. Prinux

    Prinux New Member

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    We seem to go through periods that this happens in our cars too... Not just our Prius... Our car before our ill-fated 04 Prius was a Hunter Green Saturn SL1 (did they make that model in anything BUT hunter green?)

    We went through a six month period... Got rearended by a Durango (their fault), hit a pole in a parking lot (whoops. Our bad.) and, best of all, we were parked in our shared driveway... My husband was opening the gate to let us into our half of the driveway... And the neighbor came out, saw us, got in the car with her little kid, backed up... AND TOOK OUR DOOR OFF WHILE WE WERE PARKED THERE. I mean, she didn't just knock the car gently. The door was all twisted and stuff.

    Our 04 Prius had a bit better luck, (although we were rearended a week after purchase, and then, a month ago, it was totaled. :( )

    It's odd how these things seem to happen in waves... We've just gotten first ding on our 07 Seaside Pearl. A hit and run... Probably from a door swinging open.


    Hope the target wears off your Prius soon!
     
  11. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

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    i kinda had a similiar incident at Costco (sense a pattern here??) got into car, saw a mother and child walking up. watched them, they stopped when my backup lights came on... i waited, they waited, so naturally we both start at the same time and i basically came within 3 feet of hitting the little girl.

    very scary. now wondering why the reverse beeper was not placed on the outside
     
  12. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    That's why I drift out of parking spaces *very* slowly and evenly,
    so people can see motion and judge relative rates accordingly.
    I've said it before, abruptness kills.
    .
    _H*
     
  13. partipilo

    partipilo Weirdo

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    I'm a very slow back-upper too. The rearward visibility in the Prius is rather poor. I could never live without the rearview camera. Though, isn't it ironic that we seem to be the ones getting targeted by other drivers?
     
  14. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    I have always taken my car out of reverse if I'm waiting for a pedestrian to walk past, would you walk in front of a loaded gun?
     
  15. Doc Willie

    Doc Willie Shuttlecraft Commander

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(patsparks @ Oct 24 2007, 06:35 AM) [snapback]529617[/snapback]</div>
    Apparently some will. Last week some folks walked in front of me while I was still moving forward into a parking space behind another car.
     
  16. PearlDriver

    PearlDriver Junior Member

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    I've had mySeaside Pearl for two and a half months approximately 7000 miles and it is in the body shop today--hit in a parking lot, minding its own business.

    Must be the color.
     
  17. Earthling

    Earthling New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(PearlDriver @ Oct 24 2007, 07:52 AM) [snapback]529624[/snapback]</div>
    My Seaside Pearl '07 got a horrendous ding in the front passenger door only two weeks after I picked it up from the dealers, in a parking lot. It cost me $250 to have it repaired. My deductible is higher than that, but I had no interest in seeing that ding for the next ten years, so I had it repaired. The body shop did a beautiful job and matched the paint perfectly.

    Now I park well away from whichever store I am going in, with empty spaces around the car. The extra walking does me good, and my car is safer.

    Harry
     
  18. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    I try to park between cars that look well looked after or are new and avoid parking beside a car with bumpers on the rear edges of the doors.
     
  19. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Prinux @ Oct 23 2007, 09:44 AM) [snapback]529245[/snapback]</div>
    I've driven in the Boston area - no mystery to me why your cars get banged up. :blink:

    Tom
     
  20. inventor00

    inventor00 Active Member

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    I always park away from others when possible. I use side moldings for those SUV's that just hit everything with their doors- and when driving around a parking lot at a college looking for a place- open windows - turn up radio- but they are talking on cell phone anyway and would not see me. I still have a few scratches from others though...

    Husband's VW camper van was like that- hit 4 times in about 3 years- either in parked or stopped (last was a drunk driver that hit him in the back going 45 mph when he was stopped behind a police car making a left turn...)..