Hi,

Why is it all hybrid owners are assumed to be 'green'? It is a curious prejudice and I'm starting to think about how to have a little fun with this prejudice.

Saturday I went through the safety training at a local do-it-yourself auto shop and took them out for a quick inspection of my hybrid. I pointed out the inverter radiator is separate from the combined engine and refrigerant radiator and the safety instructor then started discussing the different refrigerants they are qualified to work with. The last point he brought up with, "And you know the ozone hole has disappeared."

This weekend, some of the local USENET nuts started spouting all sorts of nonsense about rain in Atlanta meaning this has not been the driest year and a couple of other global warming skeptic claims. But this nonsense has been a pattern going on for quite sometime. Mostly I ignore it having grown up in Oklahoma where small talk is about the weather including every rain shower and thunderstorm in the past five years.

I was about to post an answer to the local USENET nuts when I realized there was a larger pattern going on . . . one that also colors the responses of some car companies and dealers. They act as if the only reason for having a hybrid is because we're trying to 'save the world' and have Green Peace tattooed on our butts.

It was funny that the safety instructor was the first one who spotted my vanity plate, "C52MPG," and got the message. A bright fellow, I think he will be the first to understand I'm there about the technology, not saving the planet. So I'm thinking about doing a little 'reality training' at the auto shop.

I've got some maintenance coming up and I'm thinking about posting an invitation to the other car enthusiasts to join me in a short talk followed by a 'go do'. The first one will be on hybrid transmissions, the Prius, and include my transmission oil studies. Then we'll go to the bay, lift it up; take oil samples; and replace the transmission oil.

Future discussions and maintenance will include: tires and alignment, exhaust systems, and hybrid traction battery theory and practice. I have no illusions about any 'road to Damascus' conversions. I'm just interested in them 'getting over' the newness and getting back to basics.

As for the USENET nuts, it really comes down to how much time do I have to waste on them? If they prefer to remain ignorant and believe propaganda instead of empirical data, why not let them wallow in their own ignorance? I pretty much feel the same way about the diesel and fool cell advocates.

Comments? Thoughts?

Bob Wilson

 

I can tell you that when I was shopping for my car, one of the salesmen made a comment that bothered me. He was trying to convince me that there's no reason for me to buy a hybrid, unless I was I was an anti-war activist or some sort of green nut. I thought the comment was uncalled-for, and said nothing to him about it.
I bought my hybrid from a different salesman who didn't try to sway me one way or another regarding which model car I wanted. I bought my hybrid from him because he actually had some knowledge about how the dang thing works.
Personally, yes I am definitely "green", having belonged to several environmental organizations since the 1970's. My reasons for choosing a hybrid certainly have something to do with my environmental convictions, but I also made the purchase because the car can save me a lot of money on gas, and I think the technology is wonderful and should be applied to a lot more cars.

 

I sometimes wonder just how much of it is GUILT. By refusing to acknowledge that there is an environmental problem, they can avoid public display of their attitude that prevailing social rules and responsible behaviour are only for others, and do not apply to them.

While it is admittedly a generalization, my own experience from direct observation seems to indicate that the same people that have aggressive attitutes towards hybrids are also the ones who drive aggressively and disregard common road courtesy or even traffic laws if they think they can get away with it.

In your own experience, how many times have you been cut-off or unsafely passed by a hybrid as compared to a large SUV or full-sized pickup with a single driver? How much of the "Anti-hybrid" aggression has come from drivers of other small sedans, hybrid or not? ... or from otherwise courteous drivers, irrespective of the vehicle type?

 

Interesting because one of the local anti-hybrid nuts in our USENET group remains 'outraged' that I would drive as slow as 32 miles per hour on a 40 miles per hour, four-lane with a center turning lane road. He seems to think that driving 32 miles per hour is all that it takes to get the mileage I'm getting. This in a town where the only time you don't make it through a light is if a funeral has the intersection blocked. It has been years since I last saw or was in a 'standing wave' like you see on the east and west coast roads.

For those who don't know what I mean, a 'standing wave' is when traffic on a highway mysteriously comes to a dead stop and then takes off again to the original speed.

I also mentioned in the past hitting my 'flashers' to help following traffic smoothly pass me and once again, 'outrage' that anyone would be so courteous as to help others pass them. I mean, you can't reason with these wing-nuts who are all but facsist/commisar in their insistence of just one way, their way.

Seriously, I drive with frequent attention to traffic coming up behind me. I've literally been followed for a mile by drivers who won't turn on their blinkers and pass me. So I've gotten adept at changing lanes so they can accelerate and pass me on the right and then I pull back into the slow lane.

Still the real problem is this over inflated view that hybrid drivers all 'green nuts' to the point that these skeptics aren't rational. They presume we don't know anything about engineering, mechanics and how things really work. So instead of telling us the truth, the facts and data, they 'green wash' a pile of 'dung' and think that is all it takes.

Bob Wilson

 

Around here, they get "outraged" when I do only, keeping with your example, 45 miles per hour in a 40 zone. And "outraged" is an understatement.

I get drivers using the center left-only turning lane as a passing lane, and when they are, blasting their horn at me all the way. Of course, once they get in front of me, they stop dead (the red light which I was regenning toward).

I will admit I did get a LOT of pleasure the other day when the dude who used the center left-only lane to pass me, only ended up having a cop with lights flashing on his tail within seconds.

In the residential and industrial parks areas around here, there are many roads with 15, 20, or 25 miles per hour limits. And yes, I stick to those limits and take advantage of running in EV mode only. And as I mentioned, I actually do 20 in the 15 zone, and even that "outrages" people to no end, who end up being 20 seconds later to work.

 

I think most people that bad-mouth hybrid technology are just showing their ignorance of the subject. Jealousy also does play a part. I mean.........just as there are many reasons to purchase ANY new car or truck, people have many different reasons for buying a hybrid vehicle. Most people just (like most other things in life) try and stereotype hybrid owners into a group consisting of "Green Freaks" or "Liberal Looneys". Trying to fit all hybrid owners into any specific group other than people who made a decision.............for whatever reason.......to purchase a hybrid does not work!! Hopefully after a decade of hybrid the technology being available some of that nonsense will fade away.

 

Are you saying that you're better than a USENET nut? I'm not making a judgement either way, but I will point out the contradiction: Posting in newsgroups or forums is as much about self-admiration and ego as it is about the exchange of ideas. By putting the message in a vanity plate -- and underlining that fact at various opportunities -- you are saying to the world that you want to get noticed and appreciated for your ideas. The actual message is no longer significant.

 

The vanity plate is mostly to answer hybrid skeptics who even today are willing to claim we don't get better mileage. But then I came from 'old school' EPA days when you really had to drive as if it were 1970 to get the EPA claimed mileage . . . Did I mention you had to do it bare foot through the snow, up hill, both ways, in a blizzard?

I realize I'm a little nutty, which is why I try to sprinkle facts in my postings. If I don't offer some technical bit of data, something beyond slamming egos, I'll often not post. But in this case, it was an accumulation of observations about how hybrid owners are perceived as evident in the type of commercials and sales approaches being used. For example, the Toyota 'sticks and twigs' commercial.

In this commercial, some native people 'build a Prius' using sticks and twigs on a bluff overlooking a beautiful mountain body of water. The camera pans around it as the car takes shape and then decays back into a few forlorn branches and sticks.

What I'd rather see would be something about the advanced network of computers and simplified transmission that make Prius magic happen. Better still, the quiet and power of electric motion or the superior fuel economy. I don't need a sticks and twigs commercial when the Prius technology is as far removed from CNW Marketing's Chevy Aveo as the Aveo is from stone age technology.

Bob Wilson

 

"Green" was never part of the equation for me.

1) I needed (badly) to get MUCH better fuel economy than 23.3mpg in my 73 mile daily commute. AND it had to be in a "nice" car, not an econobox.
2) I also strongly disagree with sending hundreds of billions of dollars to countries whose populations hate us and want to see us DIE. I'd much rather do business with the Japanese; a people with whom we have been at peace for over 60 years.

"Green" is nice, but not one of my own pet issues.

 

Those are probably my top two reasons, as well (I have a 75-mile roundtrip commute).

I'm all for most of the green stuff too, and have "reduced, reused, and recycled" for 25+ years. But it's not THE reason I got a hybrid - only a bonus.

STOP terrorism - Drive a HYBRID

If everyone did this ^^^^^^^^, we'd be close to my hope for this country - Energy Independence.