Is Toyota's Prius the New Buick?

I was born at the tail end of the baby boom, and have had a love-hate relationship with boomers since I was young enough to know what cool was. The 60's were cool, damn it, and I had been born too late to really say I had been there.

Like a perpetual younger sibling, I lived in envy of the generation that had come just a little before me. And they knew it, too -- walking down the street as though marching in Selma or organizing a Be-In gave them some sort of lifetime coolness credential.

Over time things have started to shift, though. Gradually, for instance, it has dawned on me that I am still in my prime while they are looking kind of old. By extension, many of the things older boomers hold sacred are becoming the opposite of cool -- of being places where cool goes to die.

Take cars, for instance. Mine has over 250,000 miles on it, so I have started thinking about what to replace it with when it finally goes. The new hybrids on the road look good, and by far the hybrid of choice for conscientious boomers is the Toyota Prius.

I thought they were pretty cool at first too, but lately I have noticed a disturbing trend. Prius owners are turning into the elderly, erratic drivers we used to see in Oldsmobiles and Buicks. They drive slowly, even in the fast lane. They brake for stoplights 500 yards away. They see no need to signal before turning, as though a half-mile of crawling down the road were enough to alert other drivers of their intentions.

Even worse than the bad driving is their sanctimony, as though being ecologically conscious excuses their atrocious driving and anything else we might find irritating. Boomers still consider themselves trendsetters, but I don't think they are doing their favorite car any favors. This will be a serious marketing problem for the Prius if it continues.

I have an uneven record of prediction. I can't choose the shortest line at the checkout counter to save my life. But now and again I do have a moment of clarity, where I can see the signposts into the future as clear as day. This feels like one of those moments.

If you are looking for a great car that will also have a cachet of cool for the next decade, you might want to look beyond the Prius. It is absolutely a great car, but I believe its days of being a cool car are numbered.

I plan to keep looking for a new car that might capture the twin crowns of greatness and coolness and keep them for a while. But it won't be because the boomers have adopted it. Now that their driving is becoming an issue, they will have a lot harder time convincing any of us to follow them, on the road or anywhere else.

 

 

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Comments

[thenakedlens]

Not so comfy for us people over 6'2"...and there are 3 of us in my family. Need a Prius XL...otherwise super car.

[SolarPowerGuy]

I don't know where you live, but out here in Silicon Valley the Prius is the car of choice for its environmental AND its engineering cachet. Young, tech-savvy people drive them, as well as their Boomer parents. The Prius was the number one selling car in Santa Clara County last year. What this means is that, it's so popular, that someone from every walk of life will be driving one.

When I bought mine in 2004, they were still rare. When two Prius drivers saw each other on the road, we would wave at each other! Sometimes we would end up chatting in a parking lot. It was pretty cool.

My sense of the average Prius driver was exactly the opposite of what your article implies. Not only were they environmentally conscious, they were more considerate people OVER ALL, and that included being better drivers.

Last year, when gasoline topped $4.50/gallon, I finally started getting cut off in traffic by other Prius drivers. It was a disappointment. But then I realized: if a**holes are going to get drivers' licenses anyway, I'd rather have them behind the wheel of a sensible hybrid than an SUV.

BMW drivers are still the worst.

[Anne Hill - Huffpost Blogger]

It's nice to hear that the view is different down in Silicon Valley. Here in Sonoma County, Priuses have been a staple on the roadways for quite a while, but popular mostly with an older crowd.

I'm with you on BMW drivers, so long as we can also include the Lexus on that list.

[Caliwoman]

Accelerating fast, speeding, and braking hard are what is no longer cool. Like Mr. Roger's sneakers, slow driving is back in style and you obviously are not cool enough to be aware of that Anne. You know, slow food movement, slow driving movement. New environmental trends!

[Biodiversivist]

Sigh ...can you name anything that will remain "cool" forever?

Ever wonder why long hair, gold chains, and bell bottoms were replaced with shaved heads, tattoos, and piercings?

As social primates we are all locked instinctively and largely subconsciously into an unending competition to maintain or improve our status positions. Well, everyone but me of course ...is what everyone says. That's why we go into debt. That's why we comb our hair.

The slow driving isn't because they are old. They are trying to minimize gas use and not because they are cheap. Here, type the following string in next to that little box on your computer that says Google: "Prius driver demographics."

When you finally find a status symbol to call your own, just make sure it is at least, and hopefully more environmentally benign than the Prius, and prepare to have a slightly younger person write an article denigrating you and it as she scrambles to get another notch up the status hierarchy ladder. That's life with human beings.

The sanctimony you see is all in your head.

www.biodiversivist.com

[Anne Hill - Huffpost Blogger]

In the radical relativist's universe there is nothing but my reality and yours and no basic truth in between. That is not only misleading, but it's boring to write and even more boring to read. Plus it misses the point, which is that there's a huge difference between combing one's hair before you walk out the door in the morning and going into debt to buy the latest cool toy.

I look forward to the day when someone writes an article about what a dork I am in my new car that I think is so cool. I just hope it's well written, and exhibits a basic sense of humor and compassion about us humans.

[Allannde]

I resemble your remarks!

I am very aware that priorities change as we get older. The reverse of what angers you angers me. People pull around me with obvious impatience as we approach a traffic light, and they rush up to the light, only to stop, as they must. I have slowed so that it turns green just before I arrive and I zoom by them. I get a second dirty look! But my car uses less rubber and gas. Over time this adds up and my car lasts longer. On top of that, I get where I am going just as fast.

Why is this kind of impatience a virtue? It is just a game of "King of the mountain". It only happens because most cars have MUCH more power than they need and consume MUCH more gasoline than necessary.

My Prius averages (over the life of the car) 50 miles per gallon and I drive as fast as I like.

But to each his/her own. It is still a free country. That includes us senior citizens.

[Anne Hill - Huffpost Blogger]

Oh no, that kind of idiot aggressive driving pisses me off too. But that's another post, about another kind of car...

[kneison]

Anne, I was born at the tail end of the boomer generation as well and I have a 2010 Prius of which I think is very cool. I took a little offense to your description of Prius driver habits. I'm very conscious of using my signals when changing lanes and turning. Yes, I drive a little slower these days only due to using the ECO mode and trying to get the best fuel economy I possible can. I have no need to exceed 65MPH on a regular basis as so much of the traffic around me does. Are we not suppose to be conserving energy these days? Furthermore, I don't see those types of Prius drivers you talk about in the Portland-Metro area.

[Anne Hill - Huffpost Blogger]

Ah, Portland! I am glad to hear we haven't exported this particular trend up your way--at least, not yet!