I Don’t Want to Pay for your Wussie Car

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Toyota has gone to great lengths to make their flagship hybrid conspicuously ugly.

Don’t worry, we will all notice you if you buy one but it will take you years to make up the difference in price versus a similar mileage compact car and hybrids are widely known to come nowhere near stated EPA mileage estimates.

So if you want to buy a Toyota Prius to make some sort of “look at me I’m greenier than you” statement, go right ahead.

…but don’t ask the rest of us to pay for it.

David Sandalow, the Department of Energy’s assistant secretary for policy and international affairs, said that changes will be made in order that the current credit can be claimed by dealers or others. He said that the consumers will be made to benefit from the credit, saying that this incentive will be more effective this way than if it is applied against income tax returns (which may mean waiting up to a year).

Cash for Clunkers and Cash for Your Fridge were both busts. Cash for Ugly Cars is a bad idea too.

Please Mr. President, don’t incent others to uglify the environment with those homely little loafs and get back to work creating jobs so more people can buy new cars.

36 thoughts on “I Don’t Want to Pay for your Wussie Car”

  1. Actually, when you count the interest cost on the extra money for a wussie car, one can never break even with a Prius. By the time you put enough miles on it to break even in terms of gas, you wear out the battery.

    “oops.”

  3. Hate to break it to you, JR, but not only do you have to pay for the wussie car, you’re getting an invoice for the “Coexist” bumper sticker, too.

  5. This could be a fun list!!! Ugliest car ever made:
    AMC Pacer (a friend had one, it looked like he was driving a TV)
    Yugo
    Many older Saabs
    Anything French

  6. What about a lot of those boxes from the 1970s?

    And call me weird, but I like the PT Cruiser. Except for the fact that it’s not exactly a big man’s car, to put it mildly. And it’s got Chrysler reliability.

    For reference, at current gas prices, the break-even point for a Prius vs. an ordinary compact car (say a Civic) is driving 40-50,000 miles per year, which will get you a new battery (and set you back even more) every few years.

  7. you’re getting an invoice for the “Coexist” bumper sticker, too.

    Favorite mobile moonbat display: Coexist sticker on right, Darwin fish on left. Makes perfect sense if your head is maintaining a 12″Hg vacuum.

  11. Ah, the Pacer. I bought mine for $100 and it worked for three months. It was “exotic” (never drove a ‘3-On-The-Tree’ before or since) and you were guaranteed a nice, even tan. 😉

  13. Yep. The Pacer was the ugliest car of it’s day. The Pinto and the Chevette gave it a run, but the fishbowl on wheels was hands down ugliest.

  14. April 1 is coming up. How about running around and putting a “You can take my gun when you pry it out of my cold, dead hand” bumper sticker on every Prius you see?

  15. Ah, the Pacer. I rocked that shit hard back in the day! Real chick magnet.
    We now know that “Swiftee” is Joe Biden’s commenting nic.

  16. Ugliest car – Citroen 2CV and Aztec share honors.

    All wussie cars need to be outlawed. Nothing that gets over 20MPG should be allowed on the road. We need as many CO2 belching cars out there to counteract this Global Cooling nonsense! I am doing my share – I have 29 cylinders, well over 1,000HP sitting in the garage, and am proud to say nothing that gets more than 20MPG. Bwahahahahaha…

  17. Everyone who does not own a hybrid plays the battery card. Six years and going strong. And getting the adsvertised mileage by the way. We like it so well, we bought a Ford Escape hybrid – same technology. Now own two hybrids. No problems. Cheap vacations.

    And neither one looks like a Pacer.

  19. Leslie, do you have a “coexist” bumper sticker on your hybrid? Howabout one o’ them “Darwin fish”?

  20. Leslie Hittner Says: “Now own two hybrids.”

    Stay in the right lane; and never ask me for a jump start!!

  21. Leslie,

    I think that’s awesome! Good for you! I respect your choice. I just don’t want to help you pay for them any more than you want to help me pay for my Suburban.

    By the way everybody, my Harley gets awesome mileage too. I promise to ride it a lot and save lots of gas and maybe even the planet! (!!!) May I please have a government rebate for buying one?

    As long as we’re at it, my Trek doesn’t use gas at all. Why did I have to pay anything at all for that? I want the government to give me my money back.

  22. First day on the job today at a gas station, had a prius driving pony-tailed 60 somethings hippy want his tires inflated. The poor guy waited outside for 5 minutes while our mechanics were DOING THEIR DAMN JOBS and then came in and bitched to us. How much do we have to pay for the inflated sense of self-esteem that these pricks have? Is there anyone who drives a Prius who isn’t an insufferable jackass? Seriously

  29. People living in the Leftosphere believe that (1) they know what’s best for everyone else and (2) subsidizing practices that otherwise would never succeed is a good thing if it furthers the cause.
    An example : http://nyti.ms/hJCap3
    Hat tip to Planet Moron.

  30. I remember that picture!

    It was taken at a MOB get-together just after David Strom passed out and fell off the stool farthest left.

  31. Leslie, tell us how many miles you’ve had the cars, and when you bought them, and I’ll tell you how much you’ve lost on the transaction.

    Five will get you ten you’re about $5k in the red until the tax credits are accounted for.

  32. For reference, here is the calculation; the Prius costs about $7000 more than a comparably equipped car of equivalent size like the Civic or Corolla. So to break even without counting 5% cost on your money (typical car loan %), you’ve got to drive about 35,000 miles per year.

    Counting the cost of the money you (or the taxpayer) spent on the hybrid system, you’ve got to go about 40,000 miles per year just to break even in six years.

    In which case I have to ask this; unless you’re a taxi driver, I’d suggest that the better thing to do is to move closer to where you work and buy a real car, as you’d be using as much gasoline as goes through both of my family’s cars with such a driving schedule. Hybrid vehicles simply do not make environmental, economic, or engineering sense.

  33. A. I got no government help with either of my purchases and don’t expect any.
    B. I get far better mileage with these two cars than with comparable conventional vehicles that I have owned.
    C. I’ve had no problems with either of them and I can go 10,000 miles between oil changes on the Escape. probably could on the Prius as well, but it’s older and Toyota wasn’t recommending that at the time. Probably do now.
    D. While the engine must run more in the winter to keep the cabin warm, the mileage is still above my older cars, and I see all kinds of people sitting in all kinds of cars with their engines running in the winter. Some of them even have ARA sickers on their bumpers! Big deal.
    E. I don’t wear dresses. Maybe you do, but frankly, I’m not a cross-dresser. Never appealed to me. I’ll pray for you, Kermit.
    F. We own three bicycles; two treks and a Burley tandem. They don’t use gas either (although my wife might wonder when she’s with me on the tandem).
    G. I keep my hair cut and don’t have a beard or other long facial hair.
    H. I have absolutely NO bumper stickers. No coexist. No fish. No artificial bullet holes. No ARA stickers. No yellow ribbons. Our cars are methods of transportation, not statements, and if all I do is break even on the cost, at least I’ve left a little more gasoline for the rest of you to burn!

    If I were an extreme liberal or conservative, I would tell you to stick your mental mindsets where the sun don’t shine. But I’m neither, so I’ll just say, “You all sound kind of foolish. Not really funny. Just a bit foolish.”

    There.

    I’m done.

    🙂

  34. A. I got no government help with either of my purchases and don’t expect any.

    You mean TurboTax didn’t claim a hybrid credit on your income tax return? And I guess that government subsidy to the car maker to bring the price you paid down to a mere $7000 over conventional car is no help at all. No Leslie Bob it ain’t!

    C. I’ve had no problems with either of them and I can go 10,000 miles between oil changes on the Escape.

    My 500HP daily driver with well over 100,000mi on it goes about 10,000 to 15,000 miles between oil changes – as per manufacturer recommendation and the idiot light that monitors oil condition. So, your point is?

    To me, the most incredible is an argument for better mileage from hybrids. Not a single one currently produced can beat that of Rabbit Diesel from 30 years ago! If environazy lobbyists and their political and corporate stoogies were really serious about mpg, we would all be driving diesel vehicles. Current diesel engine technology, coupled with 100% sulfur-free diesel from GTL process is the way to go – but it does not have word “electric” in it. Oh, and if you are going to knock diesel performance – last time I checked, IMSA had to change rules to keep R10 from complete domination which is a diesel, not gas, and sure as heck not electric.

  35. I have no argument with dieselsand would like to see some diesel hybrids. What I like about the current generation of hybrids are things like regenerative brakes, etc. I just think it makes sense to recover momentum and store it for future use. That’s one of the best feastures of a “hybrid” and i jhope the future generations of “all electric” vehicle continue to look for ways to capture momentum. One local person is experimenting with shock absorbers that do the same thing. Imagine! A car the can improve its mileage when driven over a road full of potholes! That could be used to offset the lower mileage of hybrids in the winter!

    And the turbo credit was for electric not hybrid cars (at least in the past). Dunno about this year. Has there already been a change in the law?

    I don’t know what your “daily driver” is – a big truck perhaps? Maybe more new cars are extending their miles between oil changes. last vehicle I owned (2000 Chrysler minivan) didn’t.

  36. Leslie, hybrids theoretically make sense, engineering-wise. However, they simply can’t compete with standard vehicles in terms of cost to operate unless they’re heavily subsidized. Given the expense of making the batteries and motors, I would have to guess that even massive increases in the cost of petroleum would not make them cost effective.

    Also, regarding oil changes; if you buy the Corolla with the same engine as your Prius for $7000 less, you’ll also get 10k or so between oil changes. Tighter engine tolerances have shifted the miles between oil changes decidedly upwards.

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