(first posted 10/10/2013) Eugene’s more militant Prius drivers have seized on a new tactic to immobilize the most egregious CO emitters in town: block them in front and back, and then ride off on their bicycles. They’ve certainly found a prime target here.
I hear that there’s a new smart-phone app for just this; folks spot a heavy sinner, tap in its location and identity, and the Prii descend like a swarm. I’m concerned that they might even be using CC to help them locate their targets. Or even target me as an enabler. Should I be worried?
I’ll take the gas-guzzling Mark V any day of the week over a Prius!
True Pious drivers
All the lincoln has to do is push that tree hugger out of its way
Yeah, my thoughts exactly! Lincoln could push the Prius down the road, with the Prius in park, and the emergency brake on, and not break a sweat
These people are jerks regardless of what car they drive. I drive a 2010 Prius and would never behave this way.
I believe the post is in jest … but I could be wrong.
I think it was just a coincidence…
Sorry, Paul, but you have this completely wrong. This is the new 21st century guilt-free way to enjoy an old Detroit luxobarge. All you need are two self-driving electric cars. The Prius will do in a pinch, but look for more Volts and Leafs (Leaves?) to be pressed into service. Then, with one in front (for brakes) and one in back (for propulsion), sit in your comfy leather sofa and glide to your destination with a near-zero carbon footprint. Brilliant!
Great idea! 2 of those goofy Google Prius’ with your choice of luxobarge in the middle, its like the modern equivalent of this.
Why do you think they called it a “sedan chair” ? 🙂
Excellent, guys, I like it.
The little window on the side qualifies this one as a Brougham Chair.
Ooooh, and I thought you were supposed to drive the electric car during the week and the gas guzzler on the weekend. Dangit, and I was just about to trade in my sensible daily driver for a bicycle and a complete barge.
Green is the new Red.
in new york city, we would squeeze another car between the black prius and the lincoln.
p.s. i noticed a smart car the other day parked next to a tiny strip of curb between the bike path and the crosswalk on the west side highway. a genius tactic because the d.o.t. didn’t think to put up parking signs there, creating, in effect, a free unrestricted spot (retail $600/month). will try to snap a picture of it…
While visiting Rome & Florence as a student back in the ’70s, I saw Fiat 500s parked perpendicular to the curb.
That was still the case when I was in Rome in June, except the bigger new 500s park normally and it’s the Smarts that are perpendicular. I’d never seen so many Smarts in my life!
They do that to this day. Except now the Smart car is the perpendicular parking car of choice.
“smart” car living up to its name!
The ability to squeeze into tight ubran spaces strikes me as the only place where the “Smart” car is actually a smart purchase.
Everywhere else in North America getting a smart car is just dumb.
You can now rent smart cars right off the streets in Brooklyn. Walk up, Fire up the app on your phone and the door unlocks. Ignition key is inside. Like a taxi you drive yourself. Meter runs as soon as you start your trip. Can be rented by the minute
And I still think the Smart car is dumb to drive anywhere in North America. I’ve seen Rome from a compact minivan and Manhattan from a Mercury Grand Marquis, and Manhattan still seemed like the easier challenge.
All electric?. All Euro ones are now and expensive and ugly. Renault’s Twingo is a Smart four with a gas engine for less than half Smart money.
Come, come, now. All this is, folks, is just an arrangement to get the Priuses over the hill – just like a helper locomotive assisting the smaller engines over a hill!
Y’know, I BRIEFLY toyed with the idea of looking at a Prius last summer when I was car-shopping. I sure am glad a certain Ashen Gray, 2012 Impala LTZ winked at me instead!
Besides, a Prius is a city commuter, not a highway cruiser, and wouldn’t reach its full fuel-saving potential for my daily drive.
Yeah, you’d be better off with a Passat TDI. Real world fuel economy of 45-50 mpg on the highway. 191 inches long with plenty of interior space too.
I think Zackman would prefer to enjoy driving his car… rather than gazing upon it affectionately through the window in a service department waiting lounge?
I see many Prius(es) and other hybrids-types plying the freeways of Houston at 65+ mph. I have to wonder if there is truly an advantage to driving one if the majority of driving is such as that.
One intelligent use of this vehicle I see is the City of Houston having several in its fleet (and has almost since the beginning of Prius(es) being sold in the U.S.) which are used by departments like building inspection. These cars see a lot of urban travel with frequent stops.
The rental Prius I drove was getting 45 mpg at 75mph. That’s a solid 12 mpg over my midsize sedan.
Since friction increases nonlinearly with speed, high speed is generally deterimental to efficiency, though it varies from car to car depending on gearing & tune. OTOH, I don’t hold up well over a 9-hour drive to CA, so exceeding 55mph *does* have its benefits (we can go 75 in rural AZ).
I had a ’97 Escort with a stick that easily got 44 mpg on the highway and it only cost me $200.00 🙂 .
2010 Prius, Portland – Salt Lake City. 65 in Oregon, 75 in Idaho and Utah. 48 mpg. Comfortable too.
Prii are not uncommon on the run between Portland and Salt Lake. They don’t seem to have any problem keeping up with the traffic.
Virtually every Prius I’ve seen on the interstate highways around here has been traveling at 70-75 mph…just like the majority of traffic.
Hell, I’ve seen lots of Prii driven quite aggressively, and inefficiently, in city traffic.
Al Gore’s son got a ticket for doing 103 in his Prius. Top speed is limited to 185km/h on the gen3s (112-113 mph).
The consensus at the Prius boards is that at an actual GPS-verified 75 mph (77 indicated) the Prius gets between 44-46 mpg.
I don’t doubt that, even at 75 mph, a Prius still records very good gas mileage. It has just been my experience that a Prius, at least around here, is not likely doubling as a rolling roadblock, given that most of them are going with the flow of traffic.
Avalons, on the other hand…
Step 1: Engage Drive
Step 2: Apply foot to accelerator. Wake up the old 460 under the hood.
Step 3: Put that massive front bumper to use 🙂
+1
If the Prius drivers’ intent really was to box in a gas-guzzler, then they being were both childish & foolish, for the Mark owner has a lot more steel, & less to lose.
The Mark & Prius have this in common: being popular means of social ostentation. I suppose it’s like this: the Mark says, “I’m rich & single;” the Prius says, “I’m a good Earth citizen.”
BTW some greens think the Prius is actually bad for the planet, with its batteries & all. For my part, I just think it’s a good way to save money for people who drive a lot or must pay a lot for gas.
Yup. Hello plastic Prius bumpers, meet 365 ft/lbs of battering ram.
@XR7Matt, and to think, some people can’t understand why many of us love torque down low in the RPM brand.
Paul can you not feed the trout Prius whoppers? It’s no fun when they rise to the bait so easily……
In Eugene you get up and look at your fellow citizens and, as a conservative, must feel like the last walleye in the Illinois river. Take heart, Paul, as political discussion is second only to Duck football as sport in your fair city. I love the footnote you applied to this picture story. Your imagination sure hasn’t dimmed.
This is but a temporary situation. All the eco-warriors I know eventually wound up with SUV’s when small cars became inconvenient.
When that Lincoln is boxed in by a pair of Sequoias it will be a more even match.
In Eugene, they move up to a Prius V.
That’s high on our “next car” list, for it has the useful space missing from many hybrids, but it may create tensions with our immediate neighbors, who aren’t rednecks but associate it with tiresome Gaia Botherers. I wish these cars hadn’t become politicized.
Same here. My 2013 4 cyl Altima has a blue badge on the back that says “Pure Drive”, Nissan’s take on Skyactiv branding or whatever, but it’s very reminiscent of Toyota’s Synergy Drive badge. I’ve been considering taking it off, because I don’t want someone here in Oklahoma thinking it’s a hybrid and vandalizing it.
If the Prius owners were playing such a prank, I doubt they would have left their windows open, for fear of the irate Lincoln owner going in the car looking for a creative way to move it.
The window frames would also make convenient hand-holds to begin rolling the Prius over onto its roof. 😉
Hilarious! Great pic. Great Title, funny caption. Poor Linky!
Was this staged!? if not, and it was me, i’d put put dog sh!t in their door handles!
Would Farago call out the National Guard over such antics?
Hmm, I’m sure he would be torn. Big Government vs Tree Huggers?
Now that’s what I call “Carbon Sequestration”!
Funny!
This makes me think of the scene in the Chick-Flick “Fried Green Tomatoes” where the young girls poach the parking spot Kathy Bates’ character has been patiently waiting for. They taunt her by saying “face it lady, we’re younger and faster!” She loses her cool and rams the convertible beetle repeatedly with her big Mercury(?) then calmly tells them “Face it Girls, I’m older and more heavily insured!”
It’s an LTD Crown Vic. Too bad about the VW but it was worth it.
“chick-flick” that you watched this weekend. was it A&E?
that Lincoln is one sweet ride.I wonder where those yotas will be in 30 years???
Recycled into Kias just like the Lincoln.
Wow! If this is serious, it’s really awful. Funny how pious some people can be, and they probably have some wasteful habits of their own.
I heard a comment once that any car already built represents a huge expenditure of energy and resources, and keeping the old one going is less wasteful then replacing it with a new one. I don’t know if this is fully true, but it would seem that the Pious Prius brigade that encouraged the Toyota factory to belch out another car may have their thinking backwards.
And the batteries, as mentioned, seem to be mess to be dealt with soon unless there is a sold recycling system in place.
I hope this is in fun but then it’s not April 1st…
I know my vintage Mustang pollutes more sitting still (with the gasoline that evaporates from the system not being sealed) than my wife’s Vibe does at 85 mph but seriously folks? How many 30+ year old vehicles are daily driven?
Besides how many resources would be used to build a Prius for the Lincoln driver? How much strip mining for precious metals?
principaldan
I’m not sure if I’m the first to ask but…
You keep talking about this mustang, but I don’t believe you’ve shared any pictures…I think it’s time son.
Did you miss his post from three days ago? https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1967-mustang-convertible-the-adoption-care-and-feeding-of-a-cc/
oops double post… 😛
Perhaps Paul there should be a “COAL” link at the top for all the COALs in chronological order. I think Phil has been out for a while – of course let me remind the Commentariat that if you like an author (such as moi) you can click on the authors name at the start of an article and read everything that person has written as a contributor.
I never knew that about clicking the author’s name (thanks). I’ll have to check out this Moi character sometime 😛
Sorry Fellas
I did miss that post.
Once every couple of days, after something is posted such as the European GM stories I am unable to get any other posted stories for the rest of the day. Its like the day ends with that story and doesn’t allow me access to anything else…weird.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1967-mustang-convertible-the-adoption-care-and-feeding-of-a-cc/
All I see are 2 Chinese lead acid battery pits and 1 Lincoln…..
Wearing your lead-tinted glasses? 🙂
Finest lead crystal,Paul!
Do this to the average seventies land yacht owner here and you’ll end up toothless.
And wearing a one-off necklace, formerly known as a “Prius steering wheel”.
There was that car insurance commercial about 10 years ago that had a B-Body Caprice “creating” a parking space between two compacts….
There is a discount insurance one that has a 61-62 Cadillac parallel parking between 2 Miatas and smashing the crap out of them.
Oh, the Humanity!
That one makes me cringe.
It’s strange how big the Prius looks compared to the Lincoln! They almost look like they have the same wheelbase!
The Prius almost looks bigger than the Mark V. Certainly much taller.
Mark V: 120″ wb, 230″ long, 53″ high. Its overhang is nearly half its wheelbase!
2nd-gen Prius: 106″ wb, 175″ long, 59″ high. Yes it’s taller but far shorter.
You put your finger on the effect of photo perspective. I’m not even convinced the Mark is even that parked in, it just looks that way. I think Paul’s just jerking our chains after all that hybrid blather yesterday.
If it is parked in then they’ll be well Marked on their plastic bumper, as well they should be. Prius shape means you can’t see the corners at all, and their flimsy bumpers take the hits. But that’s no excuse, just further motivation to park politely.
PS: How to you know it wasn’t the Mark that parked last?
Is that legal – a Camry dent in a Prius?
Nice try. That Mark, with its hefty, triple-chrome plated bumpers, can easily push those golf carts out of the way–with nary a scratch. The Toyotas? Um, they might get a little banged up…
It could partly be due to the angle of the shot. In my New Yorker post yesterday, the Fifth Avenue looks much closer to the Tahoe in this shot than in others. There was actually about ten feet between the two.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the owner of the Lincoln also owns one of the Prii. After all, this is Eugene, Oregon that we’re talking about.
Heck, maybe the same couple owns all three cars, his and hers daily-drivers plus something interesting and older for the weekends.
It wouldn’t surprise me, either. The first Prius owner I ever talked to was a professor of mathematics at a local college. He spent most of the time talking up the engineering that had gone into the car. Any environmental benefits were secondary in his decision to buy the car.
Ditto with my brother, the nuclear sub driver.
here’s an idea, reach in that POS prius and put it in gear. watch it roll down the hill. stupid POS tin-can garbage shitbox. tin-can hunk of crap. now let all the hippie “it gets good mileage!” comments roll!
You’re in a hole – stop digging.
Just got back from Yellowstone, a week ago. The place is LOUSY with Priuii…you’d think we’d been taken over from invaders from outer space. They wear Habitat For Humanity tee-shirts and vacant stares, and drive these weird-shaped cars…
I don’t get it. If a car is such a risk to Earth Mother…why not just stay home? Keep your poisonous carbon dioxide close to home. And don’t sully the beauty of the National Parks by imposing your Prius on moose and buffalo.
FWIW, I went there a MORE environmentally-friendly way: On two wheels, on my Burgman 650. Better mileage than the Prius, and none of the Chinese lead and acid. Faster acceleration, too…
My father’s friend has a brand-new Prius. We rode in it to Philadelphia, via the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The bottom line is that the Prius succeeds as a CAR. It’s roomy, reasonably comfortable at highway speeds and versatile. Of course, it also gets great gas mileage. The styling isn’t my cup of tea, but I can see why people buy them.
I prefer the Honda Civic Hybrid myself, but the last generation had trouble with premature battery failure. When Honda reflashed the software to solve the problem, fuel economy fell to near the level of a regular Civic, which negated the entire point of buying the Hybrid version in the first place.
In 2009, we concluded that the Civic Hybrid’s EPA economy, if accurate, didn’t justify the price difference (& loss of trunk space), so we got an LX instead. And the Insight was/is a poor alternative to the Prius.
Interesting that Honda had to fix it in software. How many times have I heard that line! To paraphrase the character in Jurassic Park: “God help us, we’re in the hands of programmers.” Many people don’t realize that software is deceptive, in that it’s as easy to write as it’s hard to get right. Logic errors can lie dormant for years before they get detected & fixed, for software can fail in incredibly subtle & insidious ways. It’s a humbling line of work for anyone with a functioning conscience.
You’re 100% right; you don’t get it, along with so many other things. So why keep advertising your cluelessness?
is it time for a little Celebrity Deathmatch you two?
Someone has to evenutally take their baseball and go home.
Oh, I don’t know. I thought the thread gave a quick season-opening on Priuii. Thought I’d take a pot-shot and leave…
Shoulda known it was a trap. Like Road-Runner being enticed by the Coyote’s sign, “FREE BIRD SEED.”
Beep-Beep!!
Hey, JPT, we often disagree obviously, and neither of us gets our facts straight 100% of the time (Prius is lead-free of course, the batteries are nickel, I apparently can’t recognize a ’55 Chevy when it’s right in front of me) and I do get carried away about any car with an electric motor.
But I’m sure glad you post here, I appreciate it. Your powerful comments last month on what you and yours have had to experience due to idiots fooling around on the tracks left me literally speechless.
Those Prius-driving turds wouldn’t dare do that to me… the only thing they’d find of their precious appliances would be a lug nut or two…
🙂
Well, I have to agree – I think we’re being “pranked” with the story that this is some type of “tree-hugger terrorism”……
And I have owned a Mark V previously and am a member of the Lincoln Continental and Owners Club – I love all Lincolns (well, we can make an exception for the Versailles…..)
And while I don’t own a Prius, I recognize and appreciate their sophistication, and admire Toyota for having taking the risk to build it (for three generations with a forth coming soon).
Whether your passion and respect for your vehicle runs thru your “left brain” or “right brain” seems irrelevant to me, we’re all still “car guys” (and gals).
I wonder if one(or both) of these Prii are running around with the mythical Camry dents 4 years later?
A Lincoln and a Prius playing bumpem’? Put your money on the steel bumpered Lincoln everytime.
Between the bottom end torque of that Marks engine and it’s battering ram bumpers & rub strips those plastic Priuses could be damaged easily and expensively.
I think the Prius has more rear legroom.
Eugene being Eugene I wouldn’t be too sure they’re not all owned by the same household so the Lincoln owner would just bring two sets of keys – maybe on the same ring, daily driver and weekend toy – to move it.
I am based in Beirut LEBANON. Its a small country in area with increasing population V badly maintained and congested roads in general. I do have private collection of classic cars All American exept 79 Mercedes 460SEL 6.9 . I am also an avid old movie and Tv series collector I am nostalgic like the past. I am 45 I grew up late 70s and 80s but I also like 60s lots 60s movies and Tv series. My point being even in 2017 I admit none my classics are daily drivers ( most are v low mile original hate almost garage queens ) I personaly prefer them over any newer vehicle its v different and more enjoyable my opinion. I know argument is a Toyota Prius and old Lincoln but my daily drivers are 2001 Mercedes ML55 AMG & 2009 Porsche Cayenne GTS.
Sun Tzu — ‘If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him.’ I’m pretty sure he also designed the Prius ?. Nice trolling, Paul!
I’ve never seen one word (at least in the automotive realm) create such a predictable Pavlovian response, although the effect seems to have died down some in the last few years. Now it’s “Tesla”.
I missed the real irony here the first go round. That is that Ford’s first experimentation with Hybrid vehicles consisted of a E300 and Lincoln Mark IV. It was a post transmission design much like the XLHybrid’s conversions. For the Lincoln they yanked the 460 and mounted up the new Pinto 2.3l. The problem was that due to the use of flooded lead acid batteries and the computers to run the system as well as monitor the performance meant that it was pretty much a 1 seat car. The Econoline still had some useable cargo room, the floor was just raised significantly. While the fuel economy improvements were significant the technology wasn’t there to make it something marketable at that time.
While I love big cars, trucks and the V8 engine fact is I just picked up the 3rd Hybrid we have owned, a C-Max. It has slotted right in where the last one left off as the most used vehicle in the fleet. At this point I won’t consider a non-Hybrid as our main family car.
Try that here in New Jersey, and there’d be nothing left of the Prii, but 2 burned out hulks & the metallic sound of a hubcap spinning down on concrete.
Love my Prius of 10 years ….. and wishing it did have hubcaps !
My Dad would have let the air out of their tires. He knew how to quickly wedge a Stimudent toothpick into a tire valve . . . pssssssssssssssssssssssssss.
The sad thing is that, knowing the nature of Oregon, this might be true. Ironic.
If that was not a staged picture as other have suggested with Bumpers like that I would just ram way out.
I can attest to the strength of those federal bumpers when in the 90s in Cardiff a tail gating BMW impaled itself on the back of a 78 Fleetwood I was driving, the front and lights were caved in and barely a scratch on the Fleetwood.
In the UK its a certain type of cyclist who are our equivalent, they want to make a statement and block the road for car drivers, imagine riding 2 abreast on
single carriageway roads where the speed limit is 60mph, you have to brake hard to avoid them.
I saw one riding up the high street and he went straight into the back of a parked car , landed on the roof and slid off the side, I laughed so much I had to stop driving
I assure it was not staged. And I assure you that you’ve fallen for the trap. 🙂
Ah, Oregon. I have roots there going back to the 1870s. But the place makes me crazy, and I can’t face living there.
Just detoured to watch Prius drag cars on Youtube. There’s one running an STR8 Hellcat motor.
Normal CC service will now resume in 3… 2… 1….
I never got Prius hate, or EV hate for that matter. I mean, why would anyone be upset about what car another person buys? Nobody is telling you that you have to buy a Prius. You can buy whatever you want.
Indeed, there’s great irony in a gas-guzzler hating on an EV, since it’s precisely the EV that’s keeping the price of gasoline down, i.e., the simple principle of supply and demand. EVs create less of a demand for gasoline, supply increases, and the price goes down.
I haven’t seen gasoline prices go down recently but I have seen the number of EVs go waaaaay up.
“You can buy whatever you want.”
NO. Government mandates require new cars to be loaded with heaps of bullshit that I don’t want, and won’t pay for. I cannot buy what I want. Haven’t been able to for thirty years or more.
The whole point of Government mandates is to force people to buy crap they DON’T want, ’cause if they wanted it, they wouldn’t have to be forced.
Then buy a used car without all that stuff you profess to hate.
Here is a really cool 1978 Buick Park Avenue.
https://vancouver.craigslist.org/van/cto/d/vancouver-1978-buick-regal-park-ave/7322338204.html
He’s been trying to sell it for months. Not much love for four door cars sadly. His loss is your gain.
“I cannot buy what I want. Haven’t been able to for thirty years or more.”
So what are you driving, then?
My newest vehicle is a 2003 Trailblazer with the damned DRL disabled, and attempts at killing OnStar. I’d like to disable the spyware in the onboard computer, but that’s beyond my skills. Still runs and drives great at a quarter-million miles.
I don’t know what I’m gonna do when it finally becomes unusable. Probably try to find another Trailblazer in better condition. In the meantime, I bought an ’03 Trailblazer EXT as a “parts car”. No title, doesn’t run (yet.)
There’s a half-dozen older vehicles, modified to eliminate at least some of their designed-in crap (or so old that they don’t have any.)
I can understand when people think they always can emergency brake better than an ABS system or think they are able to control a car that’s sliding backwards into oncoming traffic better than Stability Control or find it safer to be thrown clear in a wreck than be strangled by a seatbelt, but I am curious what it is about a Daytime Running Light that is so objectionable, that’s a new one to me? Is it the feeling of invisibility to drivers turning ahead of you without them on or something else that I’m not considering?
What’s the point of disabling the stuff? It’ll eventually break anyway saving you the trouble.
If this actually happens, it reminds me of pictures I’ve seen where big 4 x 4 brodozers are parked in front of and blocking EV charging stations.
A jerk is a jerk is a jerk. Whether it’s a smug Prius driver or a moron who drives 3/4 ton diesel 4 x 4.
The streets are thick with Prii here in Vancouver. They are driven by normal people who are looking for a roomy, versatile car that is both cheap to buy and run. I’ve never met anyone who has been a jerk about owning a Prius. Most are just not car people and in fact, not many are, or taxi operators, which love them.
It’s a troll. No worries. 🙂
I do have to admire those Prius drivers who have a sense of humor about their own cars. 🙂
My 2008 Prius was vandalized by someone seeking to profit from the highly valuable Rhodium in its catalytic converter.
Replaced the Prius with a 2018 Corolla iM ….
…. which gets 50 mpg on highway with CVT — and is way sharper than the Prius.
And people get nostalgic for the old Geo Prizms & 3 cylinder Metro’s that got high mileage like this, but were buzzing death traps with no perks.
Isn’t the advance of technology & mechanics wonderful?
There are still a lot of those Prizms and Metros out there and some of them are over 30 years old. Let’s see your planned obsolescence mobile last that long.
A 30 year old buzzing death trap is still a buzzing deathtrap.
And since when is a Corolla with the long-serving low-tech ZR engine considered planned obsolescence?
The engine may be “low tech” by modern standards, the rest of the car isn’t. All of those sensors and other electrical stuff are going to be torture one day.
A Geo Prizm IS in fact a Toyota Corolla.
That’s a common mythunderstanding. There are many similarities, but also many differences. The closer you look, the more differences there are to be found. The Prizm was built to lower specifications. There’s a different brand of a cheaper alternator on the Prizm, for example, and a lower standard of corrosion protection (bolts, brackets, and hardware on the Prizm got cheaper, less-resistant surface treatment, for example). Look more, find more. Look still more, find still more.
Those sound like minor differences found in lots of vehicles, typically due to variations in supplier-sourced components or regional availability rather than intentional significant cost cutting.
For example, some plating process may no longer be available in some country while it’s still common in another. Mexico casting with more iron than U.S., etc
Reminds me that there was an electrical circuitry issue with Toyota/Chevrolet sisters that caused mechanics to pull their hair out. Eventually it was learned that the cause of the frustration was that it was easier/cheaper at the manufacturing level to just leave unneeded wiring and switch in the vehicle that didn’t use it.
These I mention weren’t supply-line or process-availability issues, they were deliberate, intentional specification differences.
Do you happen to have a link that substantiates that?
I obviously wasn’t there at the time but it seems unlikely that for two essentially identical cars running down the exact same production line with the same powertrain that when the worker installs as an example the radiator for the Corolla he pulls 10mm bolts out of the high quality bucket but then when the next car is a Prizm he uses 10mm bolts out of the cheap bucket. Toyota managed the plant, I’d think they would be way too concerned that the worker used the “bad” bolts on a Corolla by mistake. The incremental production cost for the option would likely be more than the cost difference of the part.
Were the cars different spec? Yes, that I can believe, perhaps the base Corolla got fabric covered sunvisors while the base Prizm got vinyl covered ones etc. Or one got hubcaps while the other didn’t. Or the Prizm got a lower power rated alternator, perhaps from Delco instead of Denso if it didn’t come with as many power accessories as the Corolla.
I know nothing at all about Corolla/Prism manufacturing differences.
But I’ve worked in many manufacturing environments where groups of people have meetings every day to find ways to shave pennies off of this or that, going well beyond it making a negative impact on quality and safety. Always using the customer to Beta-test how far they can go. They remove pieces of the system until something falls apart, and then put one part back. My current employer goes further, removing stuff until it breaks, then removing more pieces. And they make just a smidge more profit from it. Much goes out the door out of spec. They get to regulate themselves for the most part. Nothing to see here!
Its called lying and it hapoens more than people would believe.
So using substandard whatever in any situation doesn’t shock me one bit. For every shortcut caught, in my opinion, there are 20 that weren’t.
My experience covers quite a few chemical companies over 30 years, so I have some street-cred. Of course, you’d have to take my word for it. I’m not comfy with naming names, but some bad crap is often in your food, in your car, fed to your pets and on your clothes.
They used to pay a little more to keep you quiet.
Then they paid a little less.
Now they just use temps and undocumented immigrants to cheat on the cheap.
Nothing against those wanting to work.
That’s not at all what this is about.
They just make sure their workforce is scared, ignorant or both.
In fact the workers are the reason I have never reported anyone to the Feds for anything.
But having a conscience and acting ethically has cost me a lot.
Promotions, money. “Fitting in” with the top brass. They love me right up until I try to do the right thing. Then I am an alien.
These days I am as conformist as I can be. I’m too old to keep starting over. Hopefully I have built up some good karma or something.
I put nothing past the people who place profit over everything else.
Not a damn thing.
Man, I’m pretty chatty these last couple of comments.
Gotta reply to my own comment:
Damn, I sure can be a drag sometimes.
Sorry about that.
A little too real.
When the comment vanished I sort of wished it would stay gone.
I have more fun just talking about ugly car grilles and what not.
Jim, it’ll have to be a believe-it-or-don’t. I try not to get in citation squabbles on the net; that way lies chaos. My source for the info is an engineer who was in a position to know what he was talking about on the matter. He didn’t put out a book (…website, blog, podcast).
As to this what you have trouble believing about car construction, it happens all day and every day on assembly lines—they don’t build all the cars with plain glass on one day and all the ones with tinted glass on another day; they don’t build all the US-spec cars one day, the Canada-spec cars another day, the Mexico-spec cars another day, the Europe-spec ones still another day, etc. This is no different to that—some years ago I got a really nice first-row look at how different-spec cars are assembled on a line.
I saw a Mark V in that color (next to an 80’s S class) this morning on my way home from my second jab. It has been parked outside at the same house for decades but wasn’t there the last time I went by, so I was happy to see it.
Good troll. The picture and premise are highly believable and the knee-jerk reaction in the comments is exactly as expected. To be honest, my first impression also was “someone’s gonna get their Prius shoved up on the curb by that chrome bumpered beast” until I gave it a bit of thought.
My goodness, these comments made me think I’d logged onto the other site. Shame… sounds like a bunch of cranky babies expressing indignation at what could be a typical parking scene in LA or NYC.
They all basically read to me as “HOW DARE THESE MODERN MARVELS OF TECHNOLOGY SHARE SPACE WITH MY ANTIQUATED MONUMENT TO OBSOLESCENCE”
Folks irresponsible/inconsiderate enough to deliberately block-in a vehicle by parking too close deserve what they get.
While it doesn’t apply in this situation, we can also freely blame Government Intrusion for a certain amount of parking problems–The Government tells businesses that they have to have a certain number of “Handicap” parking spaces. Invariably, the number of “Handicap” spaces is too large–I never see ALL the “Handicap” spaces filled; not even at our local hospital.
There’s also regulations about businesses and apartment buildings having a certain number of parking spaces based on the size of their business. So those businesses divide-up their too-small parking lot into too-many, too-small parking spaces even though there’s never been a greater number of large pickups and SUVs driven by the general population. They have the right “number” of spaces, but they’re unusable.
Motorists are used to being scr ewed by Government; now we’re seeing signs of Motorists getting abused by eco-jerkoffs. Expect more reasonable people to be aggravated by trends inflicted by our rulers and our nutjobs. Political Correctness is more important than anything, including the Constitution.
You really need to turn off the TV and enjoy the world around you. No government has ever kept me from doing anything I wanted. I am/was responsible for everything that has happened to me in my adult life. I have always refused to be a crybaby and that has done me well.
Your nonsense doesn’t belong on CC.
If you were see all the handicap spaces filled, then there are one too few of them. Hopefully you will never personally have the need to legitimately make use of one of them, be happy for that.