Sticker shock
ASK ANY PRIUS OWNER -- OR EVEN DON’T -- and he will tell you that his vehicle is not merely a car, it is a statement. It says, “I believe in a cleaner environment, energy independence, universal healthcare, world peace and organic tofu.”
Admirable sentiments all, with the possible exception of the tofu, and in general the trend toward hybrid gas-electric cars, of which the Toyota Prius is one of the most popular, is healthy. If we had to choose between being stuck for seven hours on the 405 behind a Prius or an SUV, we’d choose the Prius.
Still, while SUV drivers can be irritating behind the wheel, Prius drivers can be irritating once they get out of the car. In the immortal words of Larry David, in one of the finer episodes of his HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm”: “We’re Prius drivers. We’re a special breed.”
Their latest complaint concerns four yellow stickers that the DMV is requiring them to put on their cars if they want to use the carpool lane, under a new California law that allows hybrid owners to do so even if they have no passengers. You’d think they were being required to affix “Global warming is a myth” bumper stickers. Some owners have called their representatives in Sacramento in protest. Others have gone online to vent. A few have tried using Velcro (or, with less success because the bumper is not metal, magnets) to attach the stickers so they can be easily removed when the Prius is not on the freeway.
Of course, if they don’t want to use the carpool lane while driving solo, they don’t have to pay the $8 for the stickers, which measure 7 by 3 inches and 5 by 2 inches. The main purpose of allowing them to use the lanes is to encourage the use of hybrids, but as this page has noted before, that’s something that hardly needs encouragement; hybrids are in such demand that some Prius dealers in Southern California are getting $4,000 over the $21,275 sticker price.
We are now considering reconsidering our position in view of the reaction of Prius owners. Anything that annoys them this much can’t be all bad. Maybe a few yellow stickers are just the thing to help them realize that a car is, after all, just a car.
