[TheBry]

Uuuhhggghh!! I'm so glad you started this thread. I've been wanting to vent about this for ages!

I absolutely HATE driving behind Camrys, Prius' Corollas and Civics (especially the hybrid variety). There's just something about drivers who select these cars -- or, more accurately, the way some drivers DRIVE these cars. The Civic driver (at least in my neck of the woods) ALWAYS drives slow in the fast lane. Especially the latest generation Civic (pictured below). They'll "dam-up" traffic for miles behind them without the slightest glance into their rear view mirror -- with miles and miles of open highway in front of them. Why not move into one of the right lanes?! Frustrating.

The Prius driver (current generation car pictured below) is a little more challenging to characterize. They're either really slow or really fast with no in-between. I always make the assumption that the slower driver is paying more attention to their energy use than actual driving -- which wouldn't be such a bad thing if they weren't CLOGGING the fast lane. There's nothing funnier than a smug Prius driver in the carpool lane gumming up the flow of traffic so they can keep their MPG meter at 50MPG, while regular (non-carpool) traffic is passing them by. Then there's the hyper Prius driver that floors the thing, weaving in and out of traffic. There are lots of both varieties here in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In some cases it's the car itself. For example, I especially hate the 1997 - 2000 Camry (pictured below). When I'm driving behind one of these, the driver will invariably tap on the brakes at the slightest hint of "traffic change" in front of them. In any other car, this simple tap would illuminate the brake lights and gradually slow the car. However, in this generation Camry, the braking action causes the nose of the car to dive, and the rear to raise up high in the air. I never EVER get used to this. I always think they're in a panic stop, so I panic myself. I've slowly come to realize that it's just the behavior of this particular car, so I steer clear of them whenever I can.

I think part of the problem here is that these cars are simply "appliances". They're very easy to drive and are relatively inexpensive (which is why they're all over the place and, in some cases, a menace to society).