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PRIUS GANG AT LARGE

Two months ago the New York Times ran a piece by Californian Chris Marcil in which he mentioned the theft of his hybrid-identifying DMV sticker - a sticker that bestows coveted carpool-lane privileges. Opportunistic hybrid peelers obviously took note:

It may be California’s newest crime: The Department of Motor Vehicles says it’s receiving two to three dozen requests a month for replacement stickers from hybrid owners who say they’ve been ripped off. Thieves, these drivers theorize, are peeling off their yellow carpool decals in hopes of selling them.

Hybrids function least efficiently at highways speeds, when they run almost completely on traditional internal-combustion power. Consider these thefts a form of carbon tax.

UPDATE. Canada also has enviro-related auto problems:

The “insanity” of the environmental movement is now the biggest threat to Canadian automotive jobs, Buzz Hargrove, the Canadian Auto Workers president, said ...

He also charged that none of the environmental policies being promoted by politicians make sense or will stop global warming.

“It’s the insanity of the environmental movement—everybody’s trying to outgreen each other,” Mr. Hargrove said, singling out Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister, and George Bush, the U.S. president, for his harshest criticism.

“Politicians have gotten the green god and now they’re running with it for the next election.”

Posted by Tim B. on 04/16/2007 at 08:48 AM
  1. How much is my “Ï like Swipe” sticker worth?

    Posted by surfmaster on 2007 04 16 at 08:59 AM • permalink

  2. #1 My grandma used to have one of them on her pale blue ‘76 Toyota Corolla…

    Posted by murph on 2007 04 16 at 09:10 AM • permalink

  3. We definitely need a government funded study to determine the ecological damage evoked from the distribution of HOV stickers stolen from hybrid-autos. Logically, based on the findings, we’ll need a government program to off-set this damage. Yes Sir, there’s nothing that can’t be solved by good old government intervention! I mean, just look at immigration and welfare. The future looks bright and secure.  And once Queen Hillary takes the throne, we’ll never have to make another decision for the rest of our lives. 
    </mouth froth>

    Posted by Texas Bob on 2007 04 16 at 09:18 AM • permalink

  4. So where can I get some Prius Adverse Carbon Offsets?

    Posted by rbj1 on 2007 04 16 at 09:20 AM • permalink

  5. I don’t know if they’ve thought this thing through. One of those decals would look fishy on a Hummer, and the lack of smugness emissions would really give it away.

    Posted by ErnieG on 2007 04 16 at 09:43 AM • permalink

  6. Dunno if I posted this here before, but an actual bumper sticker I saw out here:

    “I beat up five hippies
    and all I got was this
    fucking Prius.”

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 04 16 at 09:43 AM • permalink

  7. Richard, that’s the best bumper sticker. Even better than the one I have on my Lexus, which is “Kevin Rudd wants Australia to be great. Help him out. Vote Liberal.”

    Posted by Ash_ on 2007 04 16 at 09:57 AM • permalink

  8. Can’t they stick them on the INSIDE of the window?

    Posted by m on 2007 04 16 at 09:58 AM • permalink

  9. M, they’re Prius owners. The average Prius owner has the intelligence of Toni Collette. Of course they couldn’t.

    Posted by Ash_ on 2007 04 16 at 10:14 AM • permalink

  10. I dunno how effective your yellow “hybrid” sticker would be on my Ferrari Testarosa…

    Posted by mojo on 2007 04 16 at 10:17 AM • permalink

  11. Mojo, you didn’t have that Homer guy drop it off did you? Because he took forever with mine.

    - Signed,

      C. Montgomery Burns.

    Posted by Ash_ on 2007 04 16 at 10:23 AM • permalink

  12. You know, I’d like this thread a whole lot more if the theives used a chain-saw and a pick ax to remove the stickers.

    Posted by Texas Bob on 2007 04 16 at 10:36 AM • permalink

  13. #12, does that include mine, or am I forgiven for the sin of having a bumper sticker?

    Posted by Ash_ on 2007 04 16 at 10:38 AM • permalink

  14. There was a news report on CNN that Priuses are flunking emissions tests in the state of Georgia. They claim that it’s because the engine stops when it goes to just battery power, but while I suppose it’s right (emissions tests simulating the kind of low-speed driving conditions hybrids do well in), it seems a little weird—why would the test flunk because the emissions stop entirely for a time?

    I think it’s the smugness emissions, as ErnieG mentions, that cause the flunkulation.

    Posted by SoberHT on 2007 04 16 at 10:38 AM • permalink

  15. Y’know, I have to wonder how many of these Prius owners are selling their stickers (or simply giving them to relatives or friends), and then bleating about it being “stolen”.  I know some people will steal anything not chained down, but just how valuable are those stickers?  It sounds more like a niche market than a commodity.

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 04 16 at 10:43 AM • permalink

  16. #9 be fair - the clowns at dmv probably put the sticky stuff on the back of the sticker so you can’t put it on the inside.  cardigans are even dumber than greenies some of the time

    Posted by KK on 2007 04 16 at 10:47 AM • permalink

  17. KK, I completely forgot about that possibility. Of course, my entire three days of working at VicRoads before I got a better job should have taught me that.

    To anyone with an IQ higher than my shoe size (7) here, I apologise.

    Posted by Ash_ on 2007 04 16 at 11:05 AM • permalink

  18. “It’s the insanity of the environmental movement—everybody’s trying to outgreen each other,” Mr. Hargrove said, singling out Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister, and George Bush, the U.S. president, for his harshest criticism.

    Odd, no mention of THE Goracle. Oh wait, yeah THE “Canadian Auto Workers president”. Lefties come to the rescue of God, Mother and Country, once again.

    “Politicians have gotten the green

    (AL)

    god and now they’re running with it for the next election.”

    Solving the Pirus Problem

    Via

    Instapundit
    April 14th.

    HOW TO DRIVE A HYBRID without looking P.C. I should try that!

    Posted by El Cid on 2007 04 16 at 11:59 AM • permalink

  19. “Hybrid peelers?” sounds like a Canadian Tranvestite Stripper or something?

    Posted by aaron_ on 2007 04 16 at 12:20 PM • permalink

  20. It’ll be a cold day in April when I’ll agree with Buzz Harggrave.

    Oh, wait a minute, It’s snowing.

    For once, this man is talking sense in support of his union membership.

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 04 16 at 12:30 PM • permalink

  21. theft of his hybrid-identifying DMV sticker - a sticker that bestows coveted carpool-lane privileges.

    Wouldn’t want any of those non-hybrid Priuses (Prii?) sneaking into the carpool lanes.  Next they’ll put special stickers on bicycles so they can use the bike paths.

    Posted by Bruce Rheinstein on 2007 04 16 at 01:51 PM • permalink

  22. I note, by way of explanation, that the California program is only allowed to issue a limited number of the stickers, so new Prius owners can’t get them—unless they steal them.

    So, the stickers aren’t going to be stuck on Hummers and the like, but on Priuses whose owners aren’t able to get the sticker legally.

    Posted by Warmongering Lunatic on 2007 04 16 at 03:22 PM • permalink

  23. the California program is only allowed to issue a limited number of the stickers, so new Prius owners can’t get them—unless they steal them.

    I see, it’s sort of like taxi medallions.  You can’t get one unless you already have one - or know the right people.

    Posted by Bruce Rheinstein on 2007 04 16 at 03:42 PM • permalink

  24. #6:  I’ve seen that bumper sticker before, but it was on either an old VW Beetle or Microbus. 

    As for the stickers, I’ve seen reports that said stickers are good for adding $4,000 to the resale value of a car, so I’m not too surprised.

    Posted by Vexorg on 2007 04 16 at 05:11 PM • permalink

  25. #14 I could be wrong, but I think every time you start an engine, it shoots out unburned fuel and other smogifying shtoof. I seem to remember hearing that somewhere.

    Posted by dean martin on 2007 04 16 at 06:28 PM • permalink

  26. #25, I doubt it, they say that the fuel and wear on your car restarting are less than idling for less than 1 minute.

    Posted by aaron_ on 2007 04 16 at 09:00 PM • permalink

  27. What happened to those “whole of life” carbon costs that showed the Prius to be a poor carbon investment. Its engine has just half the life of a conventional car. The only markets where the Prius works are Japan and Singapore, where government regulation forces cars off the road before they get old. The cars are then exported to third-world markets as well-maintained by cheaper alternatives to new cars. Except the Prius - they are scrapped because the cost of maintenance is too high.

    Buying a Prius is a bit like the program that had PET bottles being hauled by truck from Darwin to Adelaide for recycling. The environmental cost was huge but not as huge as the smugness of the greenies who came up with the idea

    Posted by Contrail on 2007 04 16 at 11:54 PM • permalink

  28. #27, this is amusing:

    Prius vs. Hummer

    When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius’s arch nemesis.

    Posted by Art Vandelay on 2007 04 17 at 02:30 AM • permalink

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