Stupid prius

[86FUBAR]

So i bought my wife a prius because she drives up to 70 miles a day and gas was killing us and all that . so when ever we travel somewhere we take the prius and because she is your typical femal driver and part of my job is being a "professional" driver if you will as i have a near perfect driving record along with having my C.D.L. ( I drive school buses sometimes) , I'm always aware of me and my suroundings , I'm good with directions and most of all i pay attention ........ Except when I'm driving the prius !!!! its like it has some vortex around it and when you enter it i turn in to just another boob on the road that dosnt know which way is up or down. I mostly end up missing our exit and the wife has to remind me where we are going , its like i set an auto pilot to nowhere . Well yesterday wasnt much better as we had to stop and get gas and i left the gas cap off and the door open (which iv only done once 15years ago) :doh: and to top it off we got stuck in trafic and people were honking at us to let us know .

Does anyone else ever have this problem or am i just loosing my edge?

[Comanche County]

Its understandable, I cringe to think how much my already limited mental capacity would shrink if I drove one of those. Just go drive your MJ and you'll feel better, you're muscles will grow and you'll also receive the normal ancillary benefit of a small testosterone boost just from looking at it.

[Geonovast]

Could be worse.

 

[MJRemi]

Yes, it could be much worse!

 

 

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[Alexia]

That is how I feel driving the original Grand Cherokee. It is like the designers purposely made it have blind spots to make your unaware. They were many bad blind spots in them too!

[Geonovast]

Yes, it could be much worse!

 

 

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I would totally drive one of those. I will not drive a Smart Car.

[AMCJeepMJ]

Monterey CA? Where's the Bentley?

[MJRemi]

Yes, it could be much worse!

 

 

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I would totally drive one of those. I will not drive a Smart Car.

 

Last week's Top Gear challenge was between the Smart, the Fiat 500, and the Scion IQ. The "loser" had to drive the Trident for a whole day in his hometown and Rutledge Wood drew short straw.

It was hilarious. :rotfl2:

[86customanche]

Yes, it could be much worse!

 

 

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I would totally drive one of those. I will not drive a Smart Car.

 

Last week's Top Gear challenge was between the Smart, the Fiat 500, and the Scion IQ. The "loser" had to drive the Trident for a whole day in his hometown and Rutledge Wood drew short straw.

It was hilarious. :rotfl2:

I saw that episode. Quite funny. I like how he drove it everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Into the coffe shop, grocery store, and even to his mother's living room.

I wouldn't be caught dead in a smart car

[Incommando]

I have no idea who would be stupid enough to drive a "Smart" car: poor mileage for the what you give up, worse than pedestrian performance, NO room, bizarre tranny, and high price tag for what you get.

 

So for $16,100 ( at least $8,000 less than the MSRP for a stripper Prius... they go as much as $37K or $21,000 higher) I have a loaded '12 Chevy Sonic Turbo that is a blast to drive, that gets a legitimate 42 MPG HWY, and I average 37 MPG in mixed driving while running the @$$ off of this thing ( hard acceleration and exceeding 100 MPH regularly). Honest prius owners report having trouble meeting Toy's MPG estimates in real world driving doing wild and crazy stuff like keeping up with traffic upon acclerating, driving on the highway at or near the flow of traffic, or having the audacity to go up hills or use the A/C... :D. Using $4 a gallon for gas and 20,000 miles a year of driving and the Prius actually reaching the 50 MPG estimate as a baseline shows that the $24,000 Prius "saves" $625/year in fuel. Even comparing a stripper Prius to my loaded Chevy that would mean it would take 12.8 YEARS (!!!!) to make up the difference in price in fuel savings. Add in replacing the battery pack ( Toyota lies their asses off in saying it will go 150,000 miles...again that pesky a/c usage, winter driving, hills... you know, stuff no car should be expected to have to endure... makes a difference) @$2500 plus labor a few times and the Prius buyer will NEVER save enough money on the Prius in the real world even if I replace the Sonic's engine.

 

Now say we financed the purchase at 3.99% for 60 months while paying tax/title/etc...down. Going with the stripper Prius @ $24,000 gives us a payment of $478/ a month. A $16,100 Sonic would be $318. That is $160/month more for the Prius. Dividing that theoretical $625/yr in fuel savings of that stripper Prius over my Sonic gives us a difference of $52/month. So for the first FIVE YEARS we would lose $108/month in driving the Prius over the Sonic ($160 more a month for the payment minus $52/month fuel savings). Add in higher insurance costs and it is even worse. So adding the $108/month we lose by buying the prius X 60 ( the length of the note) to the $24,000 purchase price and the stripper Prius would be about $30,500 or $14,000 more than the Sonic! Using those corrected figure of $30,500 for a financed stripper Prius means an owner would have to drive that Prius for 24 years an 11 months to "save" enough money on fuel to make up for the the additional cost of buying the Prius ...And Hybrid owners go around congratulating themselves on how bright they are... :cheers:

 

Ever wonder why the ecoweenie hybrid drivers replace their hybrid with a conventional non-hybrid 65% of the time ( http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/20 ... echnology/ ) despite so many of them being obnoxious goofs on par with vegans? They abandon their soap boxes pretty often for SOME reason...

 

And the best part: I bought an AMERICAN built vehicle ( Orion Twp, Michigan) from an AMERICAN company and did not give aid and succor to a country that has been waging economic warfare on us for decades. The fact that the economics of my purchase makes me look like Einstein to a hybrid buyer's Gump is icing on the cake.

[aaronbtxnc]

I like my Toyota Yaris, no pesky batteries to worry about and I get 40 mpg all day every day around town delivering pizzas, oh yeah, it was only about 12K. Figured the extra for the Prius wasn't going to pay back nearly as quickly as the ever so slightly reduced mileage of the Yaris. Do I want to take it off road or dirve it around after armageddon, no, that's what my MJ's for!

[Incommando]

I like my Toyota Yaris, no pesky batteries to worry about and I get 40 mpg all day every day around town delivering pizzas, oh yeah, it was only about 12K. Figured the extra for the Prius wasn't going to pay back nearly as quickly as the ever so slightly reduced mileage of the Yaris. Do I want to take it off road or dirve it around after armageddon, no, that's what my MJ's for!

 

You are absolutely right. Had you bought a Corolla wagon ( Matrix) to equal the size & standard features of the Prius to make it more of an apples to apples comparison your numbers would be comparable with my Sonic's.

 

Other than ego or "bragging rights" at the juice bar there is no economic advantage in the hybrid proposition.

[dfreeman616]

I like my Toyota Yaris, no pesky batteries to worry about and I get 40 mpg all day every day around town delivering pizzas, oh yeah, it was only about 12K. Figured the extra for the Prius wasn't going to pay back nearly as quickly as the ever so slightly reduced mileage of the Yaris. Do I want to take it off road or dirve it around after armageddon, no, that's what my MJ's for!

 

You are absolutely right. Had you bought a Corolla wagon ( Matrix) to equal the size & standard features of the Prius to make it more of an apples to apples comparison your numbers would be comparable with my Sonic's.

 

Other than ego or "bragging rights" at the juice bar there is no economic advantage in the hybrid proposition.

As it is now, you're right. Hybrids don't save money, and the lifecycle environmental impact isn't much better. However, right now the benefit in hybrids is improving the technology and thus lowering the price so that in the future they many be a legitimate option. Until then, if that ever happens, I agree.

[Incommando]

If you remove the cubic millions our government has given even foreign entities to subsidize this technology and then force the manufacturers to sell them at an unsubsidized price that would include all of the R/D costs they will never be economically feasible IMHO.

 

Considering the higher average income of a hybrid buyer VS. the average buyer of a car in the same size class this means that all of the taxpayers are subsidizing the better off's so that they can clog our roads driving like idiots.