I not too long ago bought my Toyota Prius. It was a 2005, which was the second technology of Toyota’s seminal hybrid compact that sort of outlined the market phase for a decade or extra.
It served me effectively as a day by day driver–which, in my world of working from a house workplace, driving press vehicles and journal initiatives, actually means a couple-times-a-week driver–for over three years. The latest acquisition of a Hyundai Ioniq 5 as my “regular” automotive meant that the Prius needed to go.
After I purchased the Prius, I wrote a column about the way it felt like “the Miata of derpy cars.” It was simply so good at fulfilling its mission parameters that you just couldn’t assist however have some respect for it. It seems I wasn’t alone on this feeling.
I listed the Prius on the market on the GRM message board early on a Sunday afternoon. Thirty-four minutes later, I had a gross sales settlement for the automotive from certainly one of our board regulars who was changing his higher-mileage, second-gen Prius with my cleaner instance.
Just a few hours after that, he had a gross sales settlement for his automotive IN THE SAME THREAD. He additionally had curiosity on one other Prius he was going to have on the market quickly. (He’s sort of a second-gen Prius man and has a facet hustle engaged on the vehicles in his lakeside Ohio city.) In order that’s three Priuses, in a single thread, altering fingers in below 24 hours.
The observations carried over onto social media. In fact I promoted the sale on my private social media feed, and many people lamented that they missed out on the deal when it bought so rapidly on the GRM board.
Take into consideration what we’re speaking about right here: We’re a sports activities automotive journal, identified for our observe checks and competition-focused challenge vehicles, not Funds Used Prius Quarterly.
So why was there a lot curiosity in these Priuses, plus the fawning posts from of us who owned and raced precise cool vehicles about how superior second-gen Priuses are? Are all of us having a collective stroke?
A number of the feedback shed some gentle on the cognitive dissonance. Our pal Dale Lomas, who spends his days constructing trick suspension setups for quick vehicles at his new enterprise, For Racing Use Solely, situated on the Nürburgring so he’s received some road cred right here, summed it up properly: “If you happen to’re spending $$$$$ on racing, it is smart to reserve it on the streets.”
Adam Dawson adopted up with, “The Venn-diagram of ‘self funded racers’ and ‘I would like one thing easy that runs’ is a circle.” Extra stable gold.
Pithy feedback apart, the final sentiment in my posts concerning the expertise was certainly one of profound respect for the easy mission of the standard Prius and the effectiveness with which is fulfilled its design parameters. And that made me sort of mirror on my perspective on the concept of “automotive fanatics.”
We have a tendency to think about automotive enthusiasm as a love of efficiency vehicles, valuing pace and grip and response above all else. And whereas these metrics are thrilling, I feel the truth is we overlook the keenness created by one thing simply being tremendous efficient at fulfilling its mission. It’s completely okay to respect one thing for simply being good at being a automotive and doing its job with no pretension of anything except for brutal competence.
People are interested in vehicles for all kinds of causes. Myself and possibly most of you studying this actually bias towards the efficiency facet. I need to know lap occasions and equipment ratios and rotor sizes as that’s the stuff that will get me excited. However for 3 years, I drove this Prius and revered the hell out of it for being actually, actually good at fulfilling its mission. It was a hyper-useful area pod that requested for nothing besides a couple of gallons of 87 octane a month.
I see a few of this non-performance enthusiasm in my very own spouse. Though she was raised in SoCal hotrod tradition–her day by day in highschool was a Pontiac GTO that her dad constructed–she’s by no means actually been a automotive nerd. However when she received her Ioniq 5 final 12 months–her first EV–and began spending time speaking to different EV homeowners at charging stations, she discovered herself turning into and excited a couple of automotive as one thing apart from a instrument.
In the end, I’m down with anybody who sees vehicles as something apart from a burden. Whether or not your enthusiasm come from a spot of ardour or respect makes it no kind of actual, and on the finish of the day, we’re extra alike than we’re totally different. That reality solely took 34 minutes to turn into obvious to me.
Feedback
If Toyota nonetheless made the Prius V, it will be on the high of my “subsequent automotive” listing.
Even cooler could be a Toyota Prius truck. Wait a minute …
Somebody (okay, it might need been Tim) as soon as stated {that a} automobile ought to do no less than one factor effectively: set decrease lap occasions, safely get you to work, carry stuff, and so on.
In reply to Colin Wooden :
Looks as if I noticed a discussion board of Prius Dwell-A- Boards a couple of years in the past. I may in our V if it got here right down to it. Good central warmth and air. 
I simply purchased a used PriusV as a commute automotive to maintain the miles off my “good” automotive.
What are some vehicles that may match within the Circle Venn diagram as being each a cheap day by day driver and a race automotive?
In reply to rrrtiii :
That was aim with our Golf GTI challenge.
For some time, I solely had one automotive for each commuting and autocross: my 1.6L Miata. My SE-R, Rabbit GTI and CRX additionally served the identical roles, though I notice that was some time in the past.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
I used to be pleasantly stunned at how regular the GTI drove on the freeway. The suspension wasn’t tough in any respect and street noise was minimal. And did not it additionally return like 30+ mpg?
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