As a dyed-in-the-wool enthusiast, I find superficial excess repulsive in whatever form it takes. Yes, I think heavy-duty trucks and SUVs are a garish display of vehicular excess unless they’re towing, hauling, or otherwise justifying their gluttonous existence. But it wasn’t until the second-generation Toyota Prius became the darling of the Hollywood left and the Brie & Merlot quasi-literati crowd that similar feelings of disdain for this posterchild of parsimony began to well up inside me.

As a dyed-in-the-wool enthusiast, I find superficial excess repulsive in whatever form it takes. Yes, I think heavy-duty trucks and SUVs are a garish display of vehicular excess unless they’re towing, hauling, or otherwise justifying their gluttonous existence. But it wasn’t until the second-generation Toyota Prius became the darling of the Hollywood left and the Brie & Merlot quasi-literati crowd that similar feelings of disdain for this posterchild of parsimony began to well up inside me.

Now don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against hybrids and I applaud Toyota for its efforts to build environmentally-friendly vehicles. But it’s interesting to see that demand for the Prius has remained consistently high while other manufacturers’ hybrid models, including some of Toyota’s own, haven’t seen the same level of success. Honda’s Accord and Civic Hybrid, for instance, haven’t sold at the expected rate. Likewise, Ford had to resort to incentives to help move its Escape Hybrid.

So what accounts for this disparity? The other cars look like “normal” cars. The Prius flaunts its mission in life with space capsule-like styling. There’s no mistaking it for anything else. I especially find them obnoxious when they’re flying along in the carpool lane solo at 85 miles per hour with their yellow bumper stickers staring back at you. The EPA sticker may say 60 miles per gallon, but at that rate, they’ll be lucky if they’re getting 40, a figure which was easily surpassed by a VW Jetta TDI which–in real-world driving–bested the Prius by 7 miles per gallon on average.

So at the end of the day, do I hate Priuses or their drivers? Not necessarily. Just drop the “Look at me! I’m saving the environment! Aren’t I great?” attitude and that your car is superior when there are other models out there that are as fuel-efficient or better.