I saw one being really badly driven the other day, therefore I must tell you that all Prius drivers are evil people and are the root cause of all that is wrong with society today.

“i drive a prius – that’s a hybrid, you know”

smug t**t

Flashy, if the fact that many people believe your make of car is usually driven by idiots upsets you, it tends to suggest something.

Either you are an idiot, or you care that others may percieve you as such.

Which is it? 😀

BTW, I drive a Daewoo, which tells everyone that either:

a) I don’t judge myself or others on the make of car they drive.

or

b) I can’t afford an Audi. 🙂

Am certainly an idiot, old chap! 🙂

Are all [insert whatever car Flashy drives] drivers popmpous gits, who think they are superior to everyone else? 😉

I quite like Priuses. I like the idea that they use less fuel and create less emissions and stuff. I think the principle is a good one, and forward-looking.

They are a bit spooky quiet, though! Nearly been knocked over, ‘cos I din’t hear the bugger coming.

Are all [insert whatever car Flashy drives] drivers popmpous gits, who think they are superior to everyone else?

Yes. 😉

The Prius WAS forward looking, but then people realised that they look stupid, are filthy to build (in terms of carbon footprint etc) and aren’t all that efficient anyway. Fuel cells/hydrogen look more forward looking to me, like the Honda Clarity.

The only answer to making cars less environmentally damaging is make them smaller, lighter and more fuel efficient. If fuel was £20 a gallon how long till we had 100mpg cars?

the prius is a greenwash. Fuel cells just remove the pollution from the citys to the power stations. The prius is designed for meeting zero emissions / low emissions in cities. Total lifetime environmental penalty is not great – easily beaten by small light diesels

Yep tests have proven that the prius is far less efficient than small lightweight diesels. My work vehicle is a 1.3 td corsavan, avearage 60-65mpg and that’s with my leaden footed driving style, and carrying quite a lot of tools/junk/important work stuff in the back. IIRC the adjusted figure for the Prius (which includes miles traveled on battery power) is somewhere in the region of 45mpg, oh and if you drive with a lead foot, you’ll get nothing like that good!

Momo – another smug get Prius owner hater!

My Dad drives a Prius. He’s a bit mad but he ain’t the rest of the stuff you describe. He’s certainly a much better driver than me.

DezB – Member
My Dad drives a Prius. He’s a bit mad but he ain’t the rest of the stuff you describe. He’s certainly a much better driver than me.

there’s an exception to every rule 😉

Top gear did a thing where a Prius was driven as hard as possible round a race track, followed by an M3 which just had to keep up with it, but not overtake. The net economy for both cars showed that the M3 was by far more efficient for that type of driving. It was a Top Gear experiment, so there weren’t actually any figures produced bu the point being that if you drive any car (even a Prius) like a twit then you’ll get poor economy. I have a 2.0 petrol mondeo, pretty poor for economy but avoiding high revs and trying hard to avoid all the pitfalls definitely makes a difference.

On another point the carbon footprint for constructing a Prius is horrendous. Lots of parts being flown about the world for various things to get done to it before it can be finished. The chemicals in the batteries are also v. bad for the environment when it comes to disposal.

Yeah, the Prius is really good…

Actually, fair play for trying but there is somthing very smug and annoying about them – It has been suggested they should be called Toyota “Pious” (see what I’ve done there – feel free to laugh anytime)

Farting cows.
Thats what I blame.

Look out for me on “Dragons Den” with my Cows Arse Filtration System.

cfh – Well off-topic but did you see ‘Teasing Tina’ made an unplanned flight at the weekend?

The only answer to making cars less environmentally damaging is make them smaller, lighter and more fuel efficient. If fuel was £20 a gallon how long till we had 100mpg cars?

Yes, smaller + lighter seems like the way forward.

I also like the look of the Flybrid KERS system. I went to an I-MECH presentation by the guy who runs it.
It was a few months ago now but IIRC his normal A-road journey and in particular braking from 70mph to 0 for a roundabout generated enough kinetic energy in the flywheel to get the car nearly back up to speed with very little work from the engine. Impressive stuff, and no noxious chemicals needed in manufacture like electric based systems (+ it’s recyclable).

Fuel cells just remove the pollution from the citys to the power stations.

well good, I cant wait for the day when we look back on towns and cities full of internal combustion engine cars and think “how stupid were people”
the same way that our cities are now smoke free areas, domestic and industrial coal fires no longer causing an estimated 10+ deaths a day from respiratory problems

its so sad that before borris it looked like london was making a move toward getting rid of the most polluting cars, a whole new cycling inrastructure the benefits to health on so many levels would be amazing
but we are stuck in the tragic car mentality

non polluting cars would be great, no cars at all would be better!

Fuel cells just remove the pollution from the citys to the power stations

No it doesn’t as fuel cells run on hydrogen and are considered to be portable power stations. You could drive your car then plug it into your house and power that. You can even drink what comes out as waste.

My neighbour has just traded his old car in for one and close up I quite like the shape of it, not sure if I would own one though as it cost him quite a bit. But I have seen far worse looking cars out there.

There’s a green website that tested a Prius – emmisions were on a par with the small diesel Jeep in real world driving. A mate has one as a works car, gets about the same mpg as our Octavia diesel.

They only make any sort of sense for short urban driving, otherwise the cost of producing them and their batteries outweighs their benefit. But hopefully they will lead to other, better and greener alternatives.

Top gear did a thing … that was as far as I needed to read.

They only make any sort of sense for short urban driving,

Exactly, they only make sense for a journey which would be far better achieved on public trasnport, foot or on a bike.

Why are people still smug with driving a Prius?? It causes more environmental damage while building it than a Hummer (because of parts needed to ship from all over the world, etc). Plus it depends on the driving style to get low emissions. If you get somebody driving a Prius fast it will have more emissions than e.g BMW.

I think the important thing about the prius is that its proved a pretty ugly expensive car will sell well because people want to drive a car that doesnt contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and fill our cities with hideous asthamtic and carcingoenic particles

whether it really is as green as it claims is another matter
its just important in showing the big car companies that people will buy eco cars and this will slowly get the car companies to start making better and cleaner cars

obviously the oil industry is whole other hurdle

Exactly, they only make sense for a journey which would be far better achieved on public trasnport, foot or on a bike

Flashy for Mayor!

Can I be in charge of Culture and Freewheel Enforcement? PLEEEAAASSEE??!?!!?

owenfackrell – Member

Fuel cells just remove the pollution from the citys to the power stations

No it doesn’t as fuel cells run on hydrogen and are considered to be portable power stations. You could drive your car then plug it into your house and power that. You can even drink what comes out as waste.

And where do you think the hydrogen comes from? It is made by electrolysis of water. So electricity is needed to get the hydrogen. The same energy is needed to power the car – in fact probably more due to transmission losses and inefficiency in the electrolysis

I was overtaken the other day by a Prius being driven enthusiastically along a nice curvy bit of road. First reaction was WTF!?!?!?, second reaction was well done sir.

I’m still going to stick with my 11 year old diesel LR – 203,000 miles and sails through emissions tests, cleaner than some later cars. I wouldn’t buy a new car but if I trade it in I still start a chain of events that leads to a new car being built. I like my old car so I won’t bother.

The planet is however many billions of years old. The last Ice Age was some thousands of years ago only. We are still in recovery from a geologically very recent Ice Age and the odd V8 isn’t going to make a bit of difference, especially with the Indians and Chinese polluting with impunity in their attempts to build super-economies in a short space of time.

My solution is simple and ingenious:

Cow farts are a big culprit, bigger than my Discovery it turns out. So, if we all replace beef with fish/whale – problem solved. Less polutants and I figure as we fish the living bejesus out of the ocean, it stands to reason we are converting fish/whale to poo which will pile up on the land. The resultant drop in ocean levels (coupled with less cow farts) will be balanced by my V8 and the odd sunnier day.

prove me wrong…

I think the important thing about the prius is that its proved a pretty ugly expensive car will sell well because people want to drive a car that doesnt contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and fill our cities with hideous asthamtic and carcingoenic particles

Quite – as long as the pollution is somewhere else, it’s perfectly acceptable.

as long as the pollution is somewhere else, it’s perfectly acceptable.

well actually yeah
millions of people live in cities, power stations are in the middle of no where(mostly)

apparently we should all be eating kangaroo

same nutritional value as beef, they dont fart anywhere near as much CO2

I think my Dad bought it cos it’s lovely and quiet.
(Oh, and my brother sells Toyotas)

How much is it for a new set of batteries for a Prius? What’s the eco damage when these get disposed of?

£2500.99. The equivalent to the Hiroshima bomb.

One of our Engineers drives a Prius and is a danger to all other road users. He drove off a weighbridge with me as a passenger one day and we dropped about 18 inches back onto the road. He never even saw the change in height 😀

Above all else the car is FUGLY!

“the prius is that its proved a pretty ugly expensive car will sell well because people want to drive a car that doesnt contribute to greenhouse gas emissions”

But it does contribute to greenhouse emissions
It uses petrol in order to generate the electric in the first place?

The Pious is a joke. It’s bought by sanctimonious, smug idiots who can then lecture the rest of us on how they’re helping the environment. Crap. My ’51 Octavia is more fuel-efficient, has CO2 emissions not far off and will, if I could find a local source, happily run on cooking oil. A fast thrash up the M4 to Lunnun usually gets me 48mpg, while a steady A-road run gets me nearly 60. Plus I can get my bike in the back with it’s wheels on.

Is this a good time to mention my Range Rover Sport?