Another Reason to be Thankful For Owning a Prius

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What are the reasons people tend to buy hybrid vehicles? For some, it's a personal effort to be "greener" and help play a role in reducing carbon emissions worldwide. There's also that desire to be on the cusp of technology and to drive the newest and latest innovations that go into the entertainment features and design of a hybrid. For others, it's the fact that the Prius is built to handle long drives, with gas mileages that can travel ridiculous distances. Take for example this Prius C that went on a 437 mile trip with just a 9.5 gallon tank.

Well, you can now add another factor to the list of reasons why someone might choose a Prius. According to the National Crime Insurance Bureau, the Prius has a much lower theft rate than many other vehicles, despite being one of the most popular on the road. It also has one of the highest recovery rates, with 96.7% of Prius vehicles being returned to owners. Either thieves don't know what to do when they attempt to steal one, or they really just don't like super efficient vehicles (after all, if you're committing grand theft auto, you're probably not caring about how good of gas mileage you're getting. And let's be honest- a Prius is definitely not the fastest vehicle for going 0-60 out there!)

Perhaps there's a better reason. John Abounader, executive director of the International Association of Auto Theft Investigators, says in a Bloomberg interview that “It’s a one-model car; the parts on it won’t fit anything else but a Prius. If you use a Camry, for instance, the engine might fit in another car. On a Prius, the engine is so different because they’re hybrid.”

The average rate of theft for 2008-2010 model vehicles is one in 78. For Prius models, it's one in 606. If we do the math, that's approximately an eight times greater likelihood of having your vehicle stolen if it's not a Prius!

How Can You Tell Someones Drives a Prius?

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If you know the answer to this joke ("they'll tell you") then consider this for a moment: one thing I notice from monitoring social networks and watching tv/movies is that the Toyota Prius seems to catch a lot of humor from people who enjoy making cracks at it. It's almost as if you're instantly tagged as an environmental awareness extremist, an egoist, or a goofball if you drive or support one, because mainstream media is telling us to think that way. For the record, I thought "Horrible Bosses" was a hilarious movie, though I personally blame it for the amount of times I've had to hear "You were drag racing...in a Prius?"

Here's the thing- the people who want to joke about or bash this car know that deep down inside, if they could get 50 MPG and a built in navigation/infotainment system (Entune), they'd jump at the chance. There's a reason the Prius has been around so long and is seen as the flagship hybrid vehicle of the entire automotive industry!

The desire to want to tell everyone about your new car is pretty natural too, so why is it any different to geek out over efficiency rather than performance? As I discussed previously, there is still a notion in some people's heads that you can't buy a car unless it's from Ford, GM, or Chevy, and if you do, it has to be a gas guzzler that goes from 0-60 in less than 6 seconds. Is that really something to be proud of, and yet getting great gas mileage isn't? It seems like a double standard in this case.

As this video from CNET shows, you can recoup the cost of an average car with the gas saved by purchasing a Prius in about 5 years. It's even faster if you drive more than 15,000 miles a year or if you practice hypermiling techniques. On top of that, it has a built in sensor that shows you the average miles per gallon you are attaining on a monthly basis. How cool is that?

Do you think we're too quick to lump drivers of certain vehicles into stereotypes these days? What other shows or movies have you seen where the character is defined by the car he/she drives?

The One Toyota Ad You Have to See

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There have certainly been some interesting videos from Toyota this year. From the "how did they think of that?" department comes the series of ads featuring the Prius c and a spoof of the game of Life. They also made an original song to promote their 100 Cars for Good initiative. As a social media guy, one of the spots I really like is the Venza ad where the girl talks about setting up Facebook profiles for her parents and how they've already got 19 friends. Have you seen it? Or would you prefer an endorsement from your favorite childhood celebrity? Fear not, they recruited both BILL NYE and WINNIE COOPER from The Wonder Years to educate you on the Prius.

However, my favorite from Toyota's repertoire of Youtube content this year is the futuristic video they created below. Ever seen the movie Idiocracy? If you haven't, the gist of the film is that a man is sent to the future, where he finds that despite advances in technology, people have actually become less intelligent over time (a brilliant concept, if you ask me. Mike Judge is a genius).
The same principle applies to this alternate reality where a couple set off to work in the morning. I won't spoil any details, but the story behind it all is "a world without hybrids".

What is your favorite video from Toyota? Leave us a comment or tweet it to @LouFuszToyota with your thoughts!