My first Prius rage

I heard you were out here Geoff. Nice to see you.

As you know, I own a 2002 Prius. I tried to get the Honda Civic Hybrid because I wanted a stickshift car, but when I went into one dealership, the salesmen were all over themselves to go to the young Asian men standing on the showroom floor. They practically bowled me and the Tiny Turk over in their efforts to help their chosen demographic. I finally buttonholed one guy and asked for a test drive. Apparently, my test drive consisted of buying a Honda Hybrid. TT and I went to another dealership, where two salesmen were in their office chatting over coffee, a third was reading a thick paperback, and the receptionist did not even say, "Hello".

We went to the Toyota dealership, where a large man named Bob greeted us within 10 seconds of our arrival and had us test driving a Smugmobile within 5 minutes. TT and I sat in the floor model later on, playing with the navigational system. I drove away with the floor model a few days later.

That said, the navigational system rocks, I still hate having an automatic, the car accelerates pretty slowly, and I do find myself in the center lane or right lane in high-speed traffic, because I am not a 'tard. In slow traffic, I gleefully head to the carpool lane. Moohawhaw. Someone said the engine is on 99% of the time. That would be true for freeway traffic, but when one is in a parking lot, or stuck in dead traffic, the engine goes off. Before I got the transponder, I would sit in bridge traffic and not be inhaling my car's fumes. I get 45 mpg, which means I buy gasoline half as often as I used to. One less errand.

As for the political commentary, we are all herd animals. Liberals dutifully go out and get hybrid cars and organic food, conservatives dutifully vote for George Bush, because to do so otherwise would be "unpatriotic".

Have a Crappy Day!

Enjoy your crummy job.

That's why I have a Supra and a Corolla GTS! I love that statement!

They aren't that expensive, all in all. We were selling them for $26,000. Nowhere near BMW pricing, by any means.

Nah, I'm at work using Outhouse Expressed...

I'd like to locate a Previa All-Trac to replace the Grand Voyager.

I gotta admit, though, I have had a Caravan and two Gr. V'gers, and I LIKE them!

All 1992's...

I'll Spell this one out: Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off! Liberal?!?! Greeny pants?!?!? Perhaps you might know me better as Hachiroku, yuou know, Scott's Protege? Liberal?!?!?!

And besides where I live, if you decide to drive the speed limit, somebody in a Big Ol' Ford or Dodge decides they can get to where they are going .000000000001 sec faster by staying 6 inches off your rear bumper.

And from the rhetoric the OP used in the original post he shure seemed to have his panties in a big bunch over basically nothing.

And, you don't think he was perhaps pushing the 'little fellow' along at all?

Tough s*it. Deal with it, instead of acting like an asshole. I don't like it either, but that's the way it goes. There are minimum speeds; on the highway it's 45, on a town street it's 25, on a two lane it's 35. If someone chooses the minimum, too bad. Pull over and wait or choose a different route. And I'll bet the slow poke will still get to the next intersection ahead of you.

Prius drivers are earthy-crunchy types so the idea of even seeing a GUN, let alone holding a GUN, gives them fits of the vapours.

Francois, hi Elaine!

From what I've read they typically get 80 miles to a gallon because most roads are posted 15 miles an hour. There isn't enough Prius' to go around so I commend you for doing your homework and deciding it isn't something you would want or could handle. mark_

My grammar is pathetic today. I meant to say "There aren't enough...." mark_

You never saw me with my old Browning, didja?

ER

And it still only had 161 HP with the supercharger?

Yup, and it also had 201 ft-lb torque at 3,600 RPM.

The normally aspirated version had 138 Hp and 154 ft-lb at 4,000 RPM.

The Previa was a great vehicle. It's main shortcomings were lack of power and a soft rear suspension that made it prone to bottoming out.

On the plus side, it was a mid-engine RWD or mid-engine AWD for very good handling, was very reliable and trouble free, and very roomy inside.

Don't you have one?

But I think where you live you probably benefit better than I would up here.

Yeah, funny you should mention that. Japanese speed limit signs are there strictly for decoration. I don't know of anyone who actually pays the slightest bit of attention to them, except when there's a (very rare) speed trap. They're set so ridiculously low that I regularly blow the speed limit away--on my bicycle.

The posted speed limit on Japanese highways is an absurd 60km/h. If you find anyone doing less than 120km/h on the Chuo Freeway, that generally means there's a traffic jam because of an accident.

--Dave

Honestly, the higher the price of gasoline, the less I'm interested in persuading. In other words, let the high price do it all.

Optional in '95, which is our year. But the one thing we've had trouble with, is people knowing how to service the S/C. Plus Toyota wants $36 for

Charles of Schaumburg

Yes, Mom had a bit of trouble riding in the back seat because the back end was soft. She'd get a bit car sick. I forget what shocks we put in the back

Charles of Schaumburg

Ours was a RWD LE. It bottomed out quite a bit when it was loaded with passengers and camping gear on the badly rutted roads at most Boy Scout camps. The Sequoia does a LOT better on those forays into the wild.