I’ve enjoyed almost everything about summer vacation this year...except for that one time I was waiting for a red light to turn green and the distracted driver behind the wheel of a 20-year-old tank of an automobile came plowing into the back end of my end of my car. I was right at the intersection so I wasn’t knocked into anyone directly in front of me, and the other driver was at least aware enough of her proximity to an intersection to have been slowing down. At first it looked like a simple case of cosmetic damage to the bumper and the rear gate, but as the mechanic that both my insurance company and the Toyota dealer recommended said when he got a look at it, “Yeah, you got tagged pretty hard.”
I had two precarious weeks of minimal driving before they could schedule my repairs, then I brought my car over for work I was told would take a week or two to complete. The insurance company supplied a rental car for that time, which turned out to be a Prius. I wasn’t totally unfamiliar with the hybrid experience since both my sister and my brother-in-law drive them, but I hadn’t yet driven one myself. Turns out there was something of a learning curve involved.
DAY 1
After getting a three-minute tutorial from the rental guy, I sat behind the wheel and started it up. I hear this loud reverse beep and wonder if the rest of the world can hear it as well, since there isn’t any engine sound. Where’s the speedometer? How do I turn the A/C down? And what’s with this push-button start-up witchcraft? Instead of a normal dashboard it has a display, which reminds me a lot of the heads-up display I’ve seen frequently used in gaming. It’s all too much to keep track of until I figure out how to compartmentalize it and learn where to look. For some reason the car I’m driving has Washington plates on it. I momentarily wonder if BuzzFeed has ever compiled a list of the 17 states with the highest per capita of hybrid automobiles.
DAY 2
Every time I get in this car, I’m reminded of my sister and my brother-in-law. I feel like I’m required to be listening to The Current, the Twin Cities’ NPR alternative rock radio station, because that's what they would have on. It also feels wrong if I don’t have an empty Caribou coffee cup in drink holder, a semi-loose ball of yarn rolling around on the floor, or a partial case of Monster energy drink in the back. The other things I can deal with, but I feel like I’m violating an important part of the Prius Code if I don’t listen to The Current. Since I don’t see a jack anywhere for plugging in my iPhone and I don't want to be monkeying around with an unfamiliar radio while driving, I guess The Current it is.
DAY 3
My display shows the length of any trip I take. One time I drove somewhere, parked, and looked at the mileage. I drove home the exact same route and saw the return mileage was a tenth of a mile greater. This freaked me out a little since I hadn't been aware of any time/space portals in my neighborhood.
DAY 4
I went to see “Guardians of the Galaxy” with Nephew #3. When I tried to start the car after the movie, all the lights came on but with no power as the starter button flashed orange at me. I’m certain I broke my science-fiction rental car. "What did I screw up here, there are only like three steps," I thought. I asked my nephew why all of this was happening, figuring his mom and stepdad both drive Priuses (or is the plural form Prii?). He gives me a look from the passenger seat like, “I'm thirteen. What are you expecting me to tell you here?" He finally replies, "I have never seen this happen before,” which isn’t at all reassuring. I start to think computers and decide to try rebooting the car. It thankfully works. As we start driving out of the theater parking lot, I notice the air conditioning isn’t on and figure I probably pressed the wrong button when I was shutting the car down and setting it into park. Now I’m afraid to try adjusting anything.
DAY 5
I drove about eight miles through monsoon-level rain today, and learned two things: 1) Trying to look out the rear window of a Prius in heavy rain is probably about the same as trying to look through a submarine periscope during a hurricane. 2) When I have the wiper blades on full power and I’m waiting at a stoplight, the motion of the wiper mechanism actually ROCKS THE ENTIRE CAR. Unfortunately I now know my RAV 4 can take a solid punch without even deploying the airbag. This car now feels as fragile as an Easter egg.
DAY 6
I never get used to the feeling of waiting a stoplight, starting to move once the light turns green, and not hearing the motor. Every single time this happens I’m convinced the engine is going to die right there in the middle of the street.
DAY 7
It turns out the dashboard display will scroll though the titles of songs on the radio and the artists as they’re played. For a music nerd like me, this is far too big of a temptation, especially when I’m listening to a station like The Current that plays a lot of music not instantly identifiable. I’ve caught myself glancing at the display to learn the song title and the artist too many times, so I finally caved and changed the tuner to one of the homogenous radio stations that now refers to the music I grew up with as “classic rock.”
Since I wound up behind the wheel of this car because of someone else's distracted driving and I still have it for at least another week, I figure that’s probably for the best.
No comments:
Post a Comment