Toyota Prius Owners Are Bad Drivers, Worse For Speeding Tickets Than Corvette Owners

actually, there were no facts whatsoever in that article.other than bmw's stop with a jerk.

 

There are a at least 3 reasons for this: 1.) We get tailgated by SUV drivers who are getting 10 mpg and therefore have a bad case of Prius envy. 2.) Prius owners never miss an opportunity to enjoy getting more than 47 mpg, while driving as fast as they used to, when they owned a Corvette. 3.) The Prius is a surprisingly road worthy car.

 

A professional truck driver friend of mine once told me that analog speedometers allow a driver to better judge speed versus digital speedos as in the prius(a reason why most analog speedometers have the average speed limit at the same place, top/halfway point on the speedometer). Perhaps that is a factor in prius driver speeding tendencies, poor judgement of actual speed, that's 'if' this article has any credibility(i never bothered to read it).

 

ya, there's nothing in there about speeding.

 

The only fact in the article was that Prius C owners tend to end up in the top 20 speeding ticket recipients.

I did a little googling around and found the source:
Ticket magnets: The cars with the most violations | Insurance.com

There's no mention of Prius or Prius V on the insurance.com report. My take on this article is that the author has an anti-prius agenda. I think a better title would be "Mercury Topaz Owners Are Bad Drivers, Worse For Speeding Tickets Than Corvette Owners."

Those Topaz drivers really chap my hide.

 

Up here a lot of Prius are in the hands of cabbies, and they drive like (no offense)... cabbies.

 

The factoid is specific to:

That means you posted to the wrong forum, as this factoid doesn't apply to Liftbacks, PiPs, or 'v's. Can you get this thread moved to a 'Prius c' forum?

As for what is wrong with that pictured driverless rear-wheel-drive Gen2 Prius non-c, see The begining of the end of the Prius - Time | Page 9 | PriusChat.

 

Interesting. I drive my Prius like I stole it. I do it because gas mileage is great!

 

Figures lie and lairs figure. Be careful where you get your "facts".

 

Information Displays That Change Driver Behavior :: UXmatters

 

LOL, every time I drive mine - petal to the metal, smoking those tires. OH, wait, I can't - TSC kicks in, oh well.

DBCassidy

 

Considering the number of times a local cop has tailgated me for MILES trying to catch me going over the speed limit, I'd say studies like there are nothing but hot air. A lot of local cops (at least around here) have a strong anti-Prius bias and harass any Prius that they can when they aren't otherwise occupied. When this happens to me, I just set the cruise control to 2mph under the speed limit and frustrate the #### out of them.

Bill the Engineer

 

from OP info
Your Vehicle Year:
Other Non-Hybrid
lots of people register on priuschat just to bash hybrids. this is really old news.

the typical tactic is prius drivers drive too slow or if that fails, prius drivers drive too fast, LOL.

 

I have NEVER seen a Prius pulled over and getting a ticket.

 

it's true that local cops target teenagers. my daughter got ticket in her yaris once for failure to use blinkers during line change. i was pulled once in my prius and given a warning, it wasn't so much for speeding (dense traffic), but for (suspiciously) quick lane changes, i did use blinkers though.

 

what data?

 

Purely subjective, personal experience here.

But I surprisingly got two speeding tickets within the first year of my Prius ownership. And as I age, I hadn't gotten a speeding ticket in AGES before the Prius.

Here is what I attribute it too...

#1. The obvious. In both cases I was going above the posted speed limit. There are extenuating circumstances....but...

#2. The Prius IMO is quiet...and is made to glide as much as possible. It took me a while when I first got the Prius, to realize that I could be going a lot faster than I thought. The Prius is designed to pick up momentum and sustain it as long as possible. I don't think you have the same auditory clues that you might have with a standard ICE that your engine is pushing. It took me a little while to adjust to "The Prius" and while no sports car speed demon...it is a vehicle designed to cut through the air, gain momentum...which can make yourself suddenly be moving a lot faster than you thought. This can lead to speeding tickets.

#3. I really believe this.
In the case of my first speeding ticket. The Police Officer was absolutely beaming with a perverse pride that he was "ticketing" a Prius. As in "Ha, Ha...can't wait to tell the guys at the precinct that I got me another Prius!". This ticket was a real judgment call, and he could of easily let me go with a warning, and I think he should of, and I think most officers would of....but I could tell within 5 seconds that this guy was so happy to be ticketing a Prius, there was no way I was going to talk my way out of it, or no way he was going to be a "nice guy" and let me go.

So no, I don't think "We" Prius Drivers are any worse a demographic of drivers than any other. But I do think there are reasons "Prius" may get more than their share of traffic tickets.

 

THAT'S GOTTA BE IT! I was pulled over for having a radar detector in my car a couple months after I purchased the car. It was a dashcam and I was in the lane next to the right lane. I was slightly under the speed limit but that was due to traffic. For the life of me, I could not understand why I was pulled over. Tons of people have dash cams, cell phones, and navigation devices attached to their windshield. What made my car special?

Anyway, if you read the article, it's an attention grabber headline. The point is Corvettes get few tickets. A Ford Focus probably gets more tickets than a Corvette. This has nothing to do with hybrids or Prius. It just makes for a catchier headline so you read the article.