This weekend I took my girlfriend to the mountains where we stayed in a nice cabin. She’s a bit of an environmentalist ,which makes us polar opposites in some respects since my garage consists of a gas guzzling f150 to pull my guzzling boat and a gas guzzling 500 hp blown mustang.
SOMEHOW she talked me into driving her Prius as opposed to one of my vehicles. Common sense told me not to listen, but being a man a being susceptible to suggestions from attractive red heads I loaded the Prius and headed out.
On flat lands the car was mediocre at best. I struggled to keep pace on the interstate if any acceleration was involved. Once I got on the windy, twisty, steep mountain roads acceleration became an exercise in futility. I was literally in fear of being ran over by large trucks that in MY car I can easily distance myself from. On steep interstate grades 80+mph was a hopeless dream as 18 wheelers roared past while I had the accelerator floored to the point my toe was hanging out of the grill.
The trip up the mountain to the cabin on a secluded one lane dirt/paved/gravel road was equally nerve racking. Sports car like ability was definitely not there.
Overall it felt like a very dangerous experience. Hybrids (unless we’re talking one of those 300+ horsepower Lexus or GMC trucks) have their place on flat ground as daily transportation. I’ll never again load one down with a weekends worth of luggage (maybe 85-120lbs), myself (175lbs) and my girl (110 lbs). I’ll gladly pay more for gas in exchange for actually having some power to spare under my right foot. The wear and tear on the vehicle can’t be that great considering I had to drive it like I hated to even attempt keeping up with traffic.
Anyone else have similar complaints?