Priora!

What's the plural for Mustang? Mustangs!
What's the plural for Hummer? Hummers!
What's the plural for Corolla? Corollas!
But what's the plural for Prius? Prius.

At least that's what Toyota says. But they don't mind if customers use whatever their hearts desire. What does Prius mean? It is a Latin term that means before, ahead, prior. So put in context Prius is that which goes before. Wikipedia says the true plural of Prius is Priora. Here is the section. If you know Latin, I suppose it's really easy to understand.

I once walked into a Lexus dealership. They were holding a raffle (or some kind of draw) to give away a brand new Lexus sedan. As we walked up, the receptionist called in a sales person to take care of us. We told him we weren't looking to buy a Lexus, but we wanted to participate in the raffle nevertheless. In our conversation we had mentioned the Prius. And surprisingly the salesman went into a rant about how the Prius causes more damage to the environment than it saves. His argument, and I had seen this before, was that the mining of nickel for the battery, shipping it to Japan, making the battery, shipping the car back to the USA and then in time disposing the battery causes more harm to the environment than a Hummer does. A CNW Marketing analysis named "Dust to Dust" made these same claims. I wonder if that's where he got his talking points from. Of course he didn't mention the tests conducted at MIT, Carnegie Mellon and Argonne National Laboratories that completely shredded the "Dust to Dust" report. Again, here is the section from Wikipedia.

Another time, when we rented a Prius for a road trip, the Hertz mechanic who was around when we picked out the car, said that hybrids are no good at all. They are weak and inefficient and what the world needs is a better gas engine. He also said global warming was sham, scam and nonsense. According to this rental car company mechanic, the Prius is just a political show-off. I was extremely polite when I reminded him that he was neither an engineer, nor a physicist, nor a climatologist and that his opinion, as entitled to it as he may be, is best stored in a dark damp place only he is familiar with.

I called Toyota once to ask them about these claims. They actually took the time to explain the fallacy of the naysayers' arguments.

Priora: the ones that go before. And truly they do. They herald a new era. They blaze a trail for other cars to follow. And indeed, following the rest are.

Prius Pride!

People who own Harley-Davidson motorcycles are loyal. Very loyal. It is said that a pre-owned HD motorbike is more expensive than a new one. Why? Because you have to persuade the owner to sell it. And that often takes quite a bit more cash than the price of a new one. Well, all that is fairly well known and I contributed nothing new to the world... yet.

Consider now, the Prius. This is not a Harley. In fact if anything it is the polar opposite of a Harley. Well, actually a Prius is the polar opposite of a Hummer, but you know, people who drive Hummers could just as well own Harleys or vice-versa: so it's not that different. The Prius commands quite some loyalty from their owners. I have not seen a single owner of a Prius who does not say, "I love my Prius!"

Think about it. How often do you hear that? How often do you hear a Chevy Blazer driver brag about their SUV saying, "I love my Blazer!" My friend who has a Blazer doesn't brag too often. Or even people who own their M3 or M5 (yeah, BMW) don't have such a strong rapport with their cars. They probably like driving their vehicles, but they don't think of it as an extension of themselves. It's almost as if the Prius was a pet. Like a dog, or horse. You love your dog. You love your Prius. You love to drive your Porsche (if you have one). But you love your Prius. I think that's pretty amazing. And of course your Prius loves you back as well. It saves you from spending your hard earned money to buy overpriced liquefied dinosaurs. And it keeps the air you breathe clean.

May be soon there will be a proverb: Love me, love my Prius.