The Prius is too Big and Powerful

Maybe she hasn't got enough money to buy a new car, and is embarassed to admit it.

Otherwise, I'm hard-pressed to know why she isn't looking at a Honda Insight.

 

Another person in a so called position of influence making statements which lack logic, foundation, or merit.

 

There's no point buying a new vehicle when you have one that works well enough - the manufacturing process has an environmental cost and until the existing car is uneconomic to maintain, it's probably better to keep running it. Re-use is better than recycling is better than manufacture from new, as they say.

As to "boosting the car's performance", well, mpg is one aspect of performance, as is emissions. I'm fed up of hearing that performance is only about speed, power, and torque. All five of the above are important - but in different proportions to different people, depending on their needs and values. If a Prius is too big or too small for your needs, get something different, or stick with your current vehicle. Or wait a couple of years, when there will probably be a bit more choice of hybrid (and second-hand Prii will be cheaper - something us early adopters are resigned to).

On the unrelated footnote, "Firefighters are now being trained how to recognise hybrid electric-petrol cars, so they do not electrocute themselves by rushing to disconnect the batteries in emergencies." If they didn't know it's a hybrid, all they would disconnect would be the 12V auxilliary battery, wouldn't it? The only danger being that if the high-voltage cutoff hadn't worked (unlikely, I know), they may incorrectly assume they'd disconnected everything. I'm surprised they disconnect 12V batteries as a matter of course, given the risk of sparks where there may be fuel vapour.

 

Just out of curiosity, I checked the Honda New Zealand website. The Honda Insight does not seem to appear there. I wonder if the Insight is even available there. Although New Zealand is closer to Japan than we are, the fact that they are such a small market might limit the choices available to consumers there.

Unfortunately for the person interviewed for this article, it seems like most new hybrids coming out in the next couple of years are even bigger than the Prius. She might have to wait a long time before something she likes become available.

 

Ms. Fitzsimons, being a radical environmentalist, will want the smallest, most efficient, and yet clean car possible. Imagine the Insight, but with Toyota's HSD. The problem is that no car company, not even Toyota, makes cars to save the planet. They make cars to sell. And until more people adopt Ms. Fitzsimons's willingness to make do with less for the good of us all, the car she wants is not likely to be available.

The '04 Prius is such a smashing success because it is the greenest full-size sedan available, and yet it makes no compromises on space and power. Even the price is not a compromise, when you assess the features and the quality

Mea culpa! I could have bought an Insight. I call myself an environmentalist. I really do want to help the environment. And I could have gotten by okay with an Insight. I would not have been able to carry the things I sometimes need to carry, but I could have gotten by one way or another. But, I guess I am not that much of an environmentalist.

Too many people like me is why Ms. Fitzsimons cannot find the car she wants on her local car lot.

 

That's an excellent point -- I should have taken that into account before criticizing her. (As someone who has kept his car for 18 years, I'm a firm believer in that principal, too!)

There were a number of news reports (with a lot of misinformation in them) being distributed a month ago, playing up alleged worries by emergency personal about hybrid cars, particularly the Prius. Further articles showed that this was not a concern of most emergency response folks, but the initial articles got distributed widely.

Here's the PriusChat thread about those reports.

 

Actually, if they don't know the Prius well, wouldn't they pop the hood and not even be able to FIND the 12V to disconnect it?

 

"Better is the enemy of good." - Voltaire

 

no one that i know of drive the Prius purely for the gas mileage. we drive it because it is the cutting edge technology in the auto industry that is available TODAY. sure hydrogen is a better alternative. so go get one. but if you think the wait is long for a Prius, you aint see nothing yet!

As for loyalty to her car, all power to her! We need to get away from the right and wrongs of conservation here and focus on the results. She is driving a car that gets great gas mileage and that is what really matters. Sure an electric would be a better way to go, but the fact is, she is doing a hell of a lot more to preserve the environment that nearly everyone else in this country. Just because she was lucky enough to get a car that lasted should not be a reason to ridicule her decision. I know of a few people who were working as couriers in San Francisco that swore by the Chevy Sprints. (well i drove a few of them because i didnt have transportation at the time and i most swore AT them but to each his own.) I would never spend any of my money to buy one, but you have to admit, the 45 mpg was very attractive. and they held up very well in what i consider one the most toughest tests you can put an automobile through. (10-30 deliveries a day on the hills of SF)