I Hate Prius Drivers

Unveiled this weekend at the Tokyo Auto Salon, this conversion turns the current Prius into a camping van of sorts, complete with convertible sofa-bed and overhead sleeping area. It’s made of fiber-reinforced plastic and boosts the car’s length to 196 inches and its height to 81.1, and comes complete with a skylight and a back door for slipping out un-noticed when people are gathered around the front gawking and laughing at what looks like a hybrid with a tumor.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.autoblog.com/2012/01/17/toyota-prius-camper-conversion-has-us-charging-for-the-woods/

BY JOEL JOHNSON JAN 5, 2012 12:00 PM 50,051

Electric cars are terrible. They just are. They’re a solution for a problem we don’t have. Or rather, they’re a solution for a problem we aren’t about to change: our sprawling, big-ass cities filled with things we can’t afford to buy yet must haul around. (Like kids.)

Modern electric cars make about as much sense as rooftop airports. They’re fairy tickets to a more-or-less inevitable future that hasn’t actually arrived. For most of the American market, the only advantage electric cars offer over gasoline-powered vehicles is the permission to daydream about a time when their decision to drive in the first place doesn’t hurt the environment.

Read the entire article at:
http://jalopnik.com/5873084/you-are-not-alone-america-hates-electric-cars

TOYOTA PRIUS
BY MIKE SPINELLI NOV 7, 2011 12:30 PM

Watch this ridiculously smug Prius driver yell at a pickup truck owner

I still say we shouldn’t fall for knee-jerk, lowest-common-denominator assumptions, but holy crap is this video not just the top dead center of expected outcomes? Shame on you for laughing anyway. (Thank you Reddit!)

Read the entire article at:
http://jalopnik.com/5857064/watch-this-ridiculously-smug-prius-driver-yell-at-a-pickup-truck-owner

It was 3:30 a.m., and Brian McCarthy was fast asleep when a bear took his 2002 Toyota Prius for a test drive. The Pleasanton man’s car had been parked in the driveway of his west Lake Tahoe cabin.

After wedging itself inside the car, the bear became stuck. Frustrated, hungry and mad, it kicked, scratched, bit and tore at the interior of the hybrid, trying to force a way out as easily as it found its way in.

In its behind-the-wheel rampage, the bear ripped open the seats, bit a chunk out of the steering wheel and damaged the Prius’ gear box, shifting the car into neutral.

From the safety of the cabin, the awakened family watched helplessly as the commandeered Prius slowly started rolling out of the driveway.

“Our son was the first one who woke up, and he was watching the bear through the window,” McCarthy said. “We were looking out of our bedroom window and from our view, you could look down and see the bear in the car, and its arms were just flailing all over the place, through the windows and everything.”

The driveway was slightly inclined, so the car began picking up speed. The Prius rolled across the street, hopped a small rock wall and finally came to a stop on the porch steps of a neighbor’s house.

The bear eventually found its way out of the car and escaped back into the woods, leaving behind a totaled Prius.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/pleasanton/ci_18826428

What is the plural of Prius? That’s a question that has been asked ever since the little hybrid hatchback hit the market, and the truth is that even Toyota doesn’t exactly know… but they do have some suggestions. It might be Prii, Priuses, Prium, Prien or just Prius. You can head over to the Prius web site and vote for your favorite. Voting ends on February 20, and as of this posting, the early leader is Prii. However, our own Chris Paukert suggested that a grouping of Prii should be referred to as a smug, and the rest of us tend to agree.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/01/12/video-toyota-asks-what-is-the-plural-of-prius/

OAKLAND — Incoming mayor and current Councilmember Jean Quan received an unwanted surprise Tuesday when she found a boot on the car she had parked in her reserved City Hall spot.

The car in question, a Toyota Prius, is registered to Quan’s husband, Floyd Huen. A police technician ran a check on the car and discovered that it had more than $1,000 worth of unpaid parking tickets, parking officials confirmed.

The tech then ordered workers to immobilize the car.

Quan said Wednesday evening that the couple had received the tickets during her campaign, which had kept her “extraordinarily busy.” Her husband, she said, handled the family’s bills for the past year and she thought they were reasonably current. “As soon as I found out, I paid them,” she said.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16703299?nclick_check=1

Voluntary Recall
If you own a Toyota Prius with a model year between 2004 and 2007, you should probably keep an eye on the mailbox for a letter from Toyota. The company has announced a voluntary recall of 650,000 Prius hybrids (about 390,000 are in North America, 180,000 in Japan and 70,000 in Europe, according to Toyota) to fix the cooling pump. This is a preventive measure; the pump could overheat and cause a loss of power, but so far there hasn’t been any reports of accidents or injuries caused by it.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/12/toyota-recalling-650000-prius-hybrid-2004-2007-coolant-pump.php

Toyota has announced that it will voluntarily repair 650,000 Prius models for a fault in the hybrid cooling system. According to Reuters, a glitch in the vehicle’s coolant pump could cause the vehicle to overheat and lose power, though no accidents or injuries have been reported in association with the problem to date. It’s worth noting that this isn’t an official recall in conjunction with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it’s a service action.

According to the report, the way the electric water pump is designed can allow air bubbles into the system, a development that can slow coolant circulation and increase the heat build-up in Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive components. if the overheating problem isn’t tended to in a timely fashion, it could trigger a warning light and cause the vehicle to slip into limp mode.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/11/30/toyota-to-repair-650-000-prius-models-globally-over-coolant-risk/

Air pollution from cars and trucks in Los Angeles and across California has dropped more than 85 percent since 1975 due to clean-air policies, according to a report issued today.

“Clean Cars in California: Four Decades of Progress in the Unfinished Battle to Clean Up Our Air” by Environment California Research & Policy Center documents how emissions policies have helped reduce smog in Los Angeles, San Diego and elsewhere.

Since 1980, peak smog levels have dropped by 70 percent in the Los Angeles area and 50 percent in the San Diego area, according to the study.

“California’s efforts to reduce air pollution from cars and trucks have made the state’s air cleaner than it has been in decades — and Californians are healthier as a result,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, clean energy advocate for Environment California. “The technologies found on new car lots today were practically unimaginable even 20 years ago, much less 40 years ago. Yet thanks to strong policies, California has pushed the auto industry to innovate and engineer a greener, cleaner car.”

Read the entire article at:
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_16629216?source=rss