I get the Prius. I’m good with the Prius. I am in favor of the Prius and other hybrid vehicles. Don’t talk to me about the price differential and how the extra money you pay for one will never be made back in gas cost. Despite the practical merits of that argument, it just doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. First of all, maybe the numbers don’t add up at current gas prices, but what about a year from now, or two or three? Would you have thought five years ago that gas would be over three bucks a gallon in 2007? What’s it going to be in 2010? But more important, the people who buy hybrids are doing something. Whether it makes the most practical sense or not, each one of them is putting less crap into the air than if they were driving something else.
But here’s what I don’t get; this evening on my way home I saw a guy in a Prius doing the best he could to burn rubber away from a stoplight. On a trip to DC a few weeks ago, me and The Mrs. were passed by three or four Prii doing 90+ and weaving in and out of traffic like the other murderous idiots on I-95. Now that I don’t understand. If you’re going to buy a Prius and drive it like a leadfoot jerk, then you might as well buy a Corolla and spend the extra money on carbon offsets.
Now, if you really want to hear a radical idea, consider the one proposed by my cousin-in-law Brett when we were having this same conversation over the July 4th holiday. If you truly want to buy a car that has the least impact on the environment, buy a used car instead of a new one.