Our recently acquired ES driven by my wife recently ran out of gas about 50 ft. from a gas station in a busy area of a "well to do town" (my fault for allowing the tank to get too low). Apart from her being extremely embarrassed, other drivers both male and female, yelled rude and disparaging comments at her. Even the gas station attendants when asked to push to car into the station said it would cost her plenty to push the car to the gas pumps. No one had any sympathy with her predicament. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced similar rude driver reaction if & when their Lexus became inoperable. I find this particular experience disturbing in that at another time with an older "American" vehicle having mechanical trouble, such outbursts didn't occur, in fact, other drivers fell all over themselves to help.
Disabled ES
Sep 01, 2006
7 Replies
Why is it your problem? Can't your wife read a gas gauge?
I've been driving Toyotas and Lexus since 1978 and have never had one disabled other than the occasional flat tire, so I wouldn't know about the stares and comments.
I don't think it had anything to do with the make being Lexus . People nowadays are more short tempered and rude than ever especially in metropolitan areas .
I've yet to run out of gas myself (could happen, though....), but the rudeness is mostly a function of the time of day, the amount of traffic in the area, and the psychology of the people who just happen to be around when it happens. The snob factor might be hurting the situation a little, since the prestige Lexus has these days seems to be going through the roof. I think the people who get the most sympathy are young, attractive women and teenagers.
horrendously bad things can happen to people whose cars break down for whatever reason. she's lucky nothing worse happened to her than rudeness.
I had a water pump freeze up and shred the timing belt on my 1988 Celica when it was 4.5 years old, though fortunately right behind my office. That can happen with any car.
Regarding the original poster's comments, there are definitely stereotyping attitudes out there. I drive a 2002 ES300, and it's kind of funny, because here in Georgia, I usually have an attitude with all the freaking dumb*ss pickup truck and oversized SUV drivers (Tahoe, Yukon, Excursion, Expedition, Hummer, etc.). We've lost over 2500 soldiers fighting in Iraq, mostly because we love middle eastern oil, and yet these SOB's recreationally drive
12mpg oversized SUVs, which deepens our "addiction to oil".Whew, now there's an attitude for ya...
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