Prius Drivers Are Nuts

People Who Believe A Certain Type of Car Makes You A Poor Driver Are Nuts. For you safety and continued mental health stay clear of people who write about such absurd overgeneralizations.

Greg Ness
A Prius driver.

Could be a few things.

1. They’re more worried about killing the planet than the people that live on it.

2. They went out shopping for a car, but came home with a toy. It’s wrong to expect them to be smart enough to drive.

3. They’re furious that they actually fell for the hype and now they’re taking it out on other drivers that were smart enough to buy real cars.

4. They’re suicidal. Why else would anyone drive one of those in traffic where you’re surrounded by metal? It’s like going over Niagara Falls on a boogie board.

5. They’re just mad because everyone liked the episode of South Park that made fun of hybrid owners.

I agree that most Prius drievers are pretty horrible, however my sister owns one, and i noticed the blind spot is the most rediculous thing i have ever seen.

I have also been cut off by a woman in a prius, however at the next light when we were next to each other, she very politely apologized to me.

I think priuses do good things for the world and our environment…the just need to be redesigned with no outrageous blind spots!

Jason, please contact me regarding your blog.

Thank you! I just did a Google search about this and I found this site. I thought it was just a coincidence and since I’m not one to generalize I let it go. But the other day, when I nearly got run off the road by a prius driver who did not use his blinker and whose idea of a lane change is more of a gradual drift I decided it is really true. Prius drivers are the worst out there, worse even than BMW drivers who are also quite bad, but for different reasons. At least a BMW driver who cuts you off KNOWS he did so. My boss owns a prius and I noticed he just doesn’t really pay attention to the road. I also noticed that the more political bumper stickers the prius has, the worse the driver. Perhaps these guys are just preoccupied with everything. Who knows but it is true.

So they fell for the hype and came home with a toy instead of a car?
Yeah, Toyota did everyone a real disservice when they made the Prius. With gas at $4/gallon all the other companies are scrambling to do the same.
Prius drivers aren’t saints, they drive like everyone else, no better no worse. You notice them because they have become an icon. You will hate them even more when you fill up now.

I drive a 2008 Prius, and will be trading my second car, a 2007 Camry xle V6 for another Prius soon; if gas prices continue to go up.

I don’t understand the hype about Prius drivers being a problem. I have noticed that they drive slightly slower, but with the traffic like it is today, slower can only improve the situation, and save lives. This thread sounds like sour grapes to me. I see a Hummer go blasting be me, and I think look at that idiot, 6 mpg, and then I think here I am showing on my MFD 51.4 mpg , and I will most likely be at my destination before the Hummer. He can pass everything on the road but a gas station, and will shell out over a $ hundred bucks to fill up. I on the other hand will not stop for gas for a least 500 miles and I will only 10 gallons or less.

You have to own a Prius for over 5 years before you see any monetary benefits from the premium that you spent on the hybrid; so the whacked thinking that somehow you’re saving money is the same whacked thinking that makes Prius drivers whacked at driving as well. I have been cut off by more Prius than I care to remember, but my sweeping “generalazations” saved my life. I was riding my motorcycle and saw a prius at an intersection that had a stop sign and watched the Prius roll through the stop sign and cut me off. Luckily I knew the Prius was going to do that bone head move and had already prepared for this. If I would have not generalized, I would be in the hospital now.

Over the past 5-6 years, my last three cars were a 911 Turbo, S500 and an E55AMG which I recently traded for… a 2008 Prius as my daily drive – out of free choice.

I now see other road drivers from a very different perspective (rather than a rapidly diminshing spec in my rear view mirror).

Maybe it’s just my imagination… but (some) other non-Prius drivers really do behave aggressive contempt when they encounter a Prius.

If you want to experience the real thrill of ‘pack instinct’ at first hand on the streets, save your money on that Kenyan safari trip where you will just be a spectator, and drive a a Prius on the UK roads and be a participant!

Spare a kind thought

Prius drivers are consistently the worst on the road. They have become a stereotype, just as the Volvo driver in days gone bye.

So glad I’m not the only one thinking that,
Prius drivers drives me crazy, 95% of them driving 10mph under the speed limit!
slower is safer? Nope, because everybody gets pissed of around them and try to pass them creating more risks for accidents.
Got a prius ? great, just push on that pedale !!! or drive in the emergency lane with your flashers on !

Prius driver act like their choice in a car purchase entitles them to drive poorly & act Selfish & pompous (prius drivers are saving the world and rest of us are evil oil whores).
From all of the hope and change bumper stickers on the Prius, I can see that the drivers react with emotion rather than logic: Never a sound choice.

I’ve never blogged before but I feel really strongly about Prius drivers being complete morons. In my 20 years of having my drivers license, I’m sure we have seen our fair share of idiots on the road. But Prius drivers take the cake. I’m glad that Prius drivers are doing their share of saving the environment, but the battery I’m told needs to be replaced after 5 years and can be quite pricey. The equivalent of owning and driving an Ford Excursion in gas over 5 years. Back to the point, I have not had a moving violation in 19 years. I drive an SUV in the middle to slow lane and am getting passed and rudely cut off by the majority of Prius drivers. Most of the time if someone signals and looks over their shoulder, I gladly let them in. Prius drivers drive like their driving someone to the emergency room. I know that this is one broad stereotype but I drive roughly a 25K square mile area for work and I’m pretty sure that the one Prius driver that cuts me off is not the same person all over the place so what gives Prius drivers a right to cut people off, drive erratically, and pretty much take over the road? If you are a Prius driver, take note of how you are driving next and don’t give yourselves a bad name. Also, just know what if your car catches fire, most fire departments are scared out of their mind to put out your car with water and are not foam equipped like Airport Firetrucks.

its such a shame that these people are so concerned with hugging trees and saving the environment that they cant even make an effort to keep the rest of us out of the hospital. save people before you save the environment.

This entry is a huge generalization and not fair to all the Prius drivers out there.

But damnit, overall it has to be statistically true.

I now watch out for these drivers and stay away from them, especially when on foot or bike (I think they get offended when people use ZERO EMISSIONS forms of transportation).

Here are my recent experiences with Priuses:

1.) I’ve had three of my friends get hit as PEDESTRIANS IN CROSSWALKS over the last year. ALL of them were hit by Prius drivers who said they “weren’t paying attention”

2.) My monthly “I Don’t Give a Rat’s Ass Parking Job Award” used to go to the Hummer driver nearly every month. Okay, understandable, you bought a friggin HUGE ass monster truck of a car. Lately, it’s almost ALWAYS gone to a Prius. Funny, those little things? I’m sure it’s not that you can’t park it correctly.

3.) I catch motorists doing things that are completely stupid, moronic, or that show a general disregard for anyone around them just about every day. if I kept a tally, I’d say about 7/10 of those have been Prius drivers.

I just rented a Prius this past weekend, and will not be choosing that car again, ever. Compared to every other car I’ve ever driven, the Prius has the largest blind spots, by far. Chances are when you see a Prius behaving poorly, the driver either can’t see you or has taken his eyes off the road to see what’s around him, since the mirrors are so useless.

I am 63. I have driven over 1 1/2 million miles in cars and on motorcycles. I have noticed in the last year that prius drivers should not be licensed to drive on public roads. Due to inattention, speed variations, and disregard for traffic flow. I don’t think it is the car, I think it is the menality of the people who buy these cars. They would ruin the road in a regular gas powered car because of their ineptity at driving. It’s not the car, it’s the buyer who can’t drive decently anyway.

Follow-up on my Nov 2008 posting on this site – just for light hearted fun!

After 2 years I recently waved goodbye to my Prius… it wasn’t my only car but I had racked up 70k miles on it in under 24 months and it deserved kinder owner in retirement.

When it came to choosing a replacement it took less than 1 second… my old aged (49 yrs) and morbidly obese carcass is now back where it belongs in the air conditioned nappa leather comfort seat of an S class. I drive in exactly the same style and if anything at slightly slower speeds (lwb S’s best do corners sedately on the comfort setting) and I do not get any of the grief I got in the Prius from other road users.

Lesson learnt: “You gotta be brave to be green!”

But hey, wait a minute… I figure there’s no need to be green anymore, thanks to the coalition of the willing (or dependent upon your integrity: those war criminals dubbya & the poodle) and not least the spilt blood of a couple of three thousand of our brave boys and girls and a million or so Iraqis… we own Iraq and Iran is next – ain’t it?
Drive on my friends, drive on… democracy is great!

LOL!! I have no idea what’s up with prius drivers, most but not all of the prius drivers I see are doing well over the speed limit.. 80+mph on the interstates. Is it that they save so much on gas they can afford a speeding ticket?? Coming back from Pittsburgh a few weeks back I encountered three of them speeding like they are on their way to give birth! I was doing 75mph and all three (not at the same time) passed me like I was sitting still.. I wonder since the car is so small and ugly if the are stealth to radar.

My anecdotes are based on what I have seen in suburban Boston. A large number of current Prius owners owned Volvos in the 1980s and early 1990s and various SUVs during the 1990s. A stereotype is a stereotype, but many of these yuppie drivers, whether in a Volvo, Land Rover, or Prius, have a dual sense of invincibility and smugness.

As with Volvo drivers, circa 1990 (at least in Massachusetts), there are two conspicuous driving styles of Prius drivers. The first is, I will cut off oncoming traffic and speed up at a cement mixer’s pace, oblivious to other motorists around me. The second is, I will pretend my Prius (or Volvo) is really an Audi S4 [I've actually see quite a few Audi S4 drivers, and they do not drive like jerks, in spite, or perhaps because, of that car's superior performance and handling] and tear away from traffic lights as if I am in the Indy 500 and will scoot around motorists already going 20 mph over the speed limit, even if my exit is only 300 feet away, and then abruptly whip back into the right lane to exit the highway, sans turn signal, of course.

It is the drivers who drive their Prius (and, although less conspicuous, Civic Hybrid) as a NASCAR driver wannabe who angrily state that their vehicles get “only” 30 mpg. I drive a Subaru Legacy, a fairly heavy AWD sedan (albeit with a 4-cylinder engine) and get 32-34 mpg on the highway. How do I do it? I keep my speeds below 70 mph; I do not abruptly pull away from traffic lights (although if I have to merge onto a highway, I will give my car some “juice”), and take advantage of gravity and switch to a lower gear (my car has an automatic transmission) to coast downhill.

Another anecdote. Many driveways in my area have a Prius parked next to a Grand Cherokee, 4Runner, or similar gas-guzzling SUV. Thank you for reading.

Got a speeding ticket in my work car Prius, it seemed that it was going to slow so I sped up. But the car has no power so the officer said I was doing 80, but I was doing 74… I was over the limit I admit, but not 15miles, only 9miles. Anyway you can’t take your eyes off the road for a half a second, or you will swerve. You can’t touch the steering wheel rough by accident or on purpose or you will swerve. Most of the times we can blame the driver, but this car has some defects….

I drive the LA freeways from LAX to Burbank every day. I just googled Prius blind spots and ended up here. I was side swiped by a Prius today and it sounds like the Prius has some pretty horrendous blind spots from reading here. Dude just drifted into my lane driving aggressive and all I had to my left was a concrete divider and no shoulder so he bounced right off my passenger side. Probably a couple Gs in damage. I’m on the freeway for several hours a day and almost every Prius I see is either speeding or driving erratic. Especially the men who I think are angry because their wives made them buy one. I will avoid them at all costs in the future. I know not all Prius drivers are bad ones but it’s just been my observation.

I have been driving for 20 years, Prius drive fine. I smoked some kid in a nissan today on the 5 south in washington. I smoked by him, let him catch up and even motioned for him to pass. Let him get a head a bit, then kicked it into high gear and pulled next to him leaving him with an expression of (Whaa, how is this possible?) on his face and then proceeded to blast by him never to see him again. It isn’t the car, it’s the driver. don’t forget that.

Bro I could not agree with you more, In my America I would make the Prius Illegal to own, and drive, and in my “Barbaria” I would have these idiots beheaded, seiously, I ride a motorcycle, I am much faster than these guys, I accelerate quicker, have greater top speed and still get 20-25mpg more than the prius (estiamted 75mpg) Here in Cali, I can also use the Carpool lane or the (HOV) in some states, I see no point in buying or driving a prius, I don’t have a car and almost everyday I manage to almost get hit by one of these Prii drivers, changing lanes without indicating, doing a ridiculous blurring speed of 35mph on the fast lane, crossing double yellows, waiting till the light turns red to make a left, you name it, I’ve seen it, I still don’t get what the big idea is , Believe it or not, my buddy also on a m/c got hit by a prius, and I actually managed to fit a horn that came off a For F150 just for the Californian Prii drivers….