Why I hate the Toyota Prius

Take this quick test to see whether the Toyota Prius is the car for you.

Does your car have three pedals?

Have you been to traffic school on numerous occasions?

Do you wish you could wake up to the smell of gasoline mixed with burnt rubber instead of coffee?

If you answered “no” to any of the previous questions, the Toyota Prius is not for you. So then, who is the lucky group who gets to cruise in this Japanese princess?

No one – absolutely no one should own a Toyota Prius.

Why do I have such disdain for the Prius?

Aside from its gaudy styling, the Prius is a fake. This “green” car is far from green.

It might have phenomenal gas mileage, but that’s not the whole picture. There are many factors that go into a car’s potential damage to the environment, starting from the production line.

Let’s look to the other end of the spectrum at a car just as gaudy as the Prius: the Hummer.

Antichrist to everything eco-fascist, the Hummer has been seen as an environmental terrorist for years now.

The simple fact is this isn’t true. Looking at all the production costs paints a totally different picture.

The Prius costs about $3.25 per mile and is expected to last about 100,000 miles.

The Hummer, with all the same factors accounted for, costs about $1.95 per mile and is expected to last about 300,000 miles.

Oh, my!

Maybe that’s because of the ridiculous production process the Prius must go through.
The battery for this hybrid is partially made of nickel from Canada.

Once mined, that nickel then hops over to Europe for some refinement. The Chinese help out by turning the nickel into foam. It heads to Japan for final assembly and then end ups back in the States.

I think anyone can see this is a lot of work, requiring a lot of cost and transportation.
If that’s not enough to change your mind about the Prius, maybe the factory where the nickel is smelted in Canada just might.

The factory, given the nickname “The Superstack,” has done so much environmental damage that NASA used the surrounding dead zone to test their moon rovers.

What now?

What will you do now that you can’t buy your ecogasmic Prius?

Simple: Be a better driver.

Keep your car tuned. Get the oil changed when you’re supposed to. Make sure your car is in tip-top shape for years to come. Don’t floor it from every red light.

Your car can only be as efficient as you let it be.

If you don’t take care of your car, it won’t take care of you.

If you really care about the environment, you’ll take the time to learn about your car instead of immediately thinking it’s more harmful than a Prius.

Being a better driver is bound to make your car more ecofriendly.