The 「最高経営責任者」 (Chief Executive Officer (CEO)) of one of America’s automobile corporation, Dan Akerson, unveiled the latest model of the Chevrolet electric hybrid car called the “Volt“.
GM's Chevrolet "Volt"
At the unveiling of his company’s car, Mr. Akerson decided to express his opinion of Toyota Motor‘s hybrid car, the “Prius“.
He called Japan’s Prius a “geek-mobile” (かっこ悪い車) and he said that he wouldn’t be caught dead in one.
I wouldn’t be caught dead in a (Toyota) Prius.
– Dan Akerson, General Motors C.E.O.
The Toyota Prius doesn’t look “geeky” to me. What do you think?
- Toyota Prius
Which do you think is nicer, the Chevy “Volt” or the Toyota “Prius”?
Tokyo Five 
I like the Prius. Not too big on the Volt, but I’d have to ride in one to pass final judgment.
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I guess you like “compact cars” then.
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Japanese cars are consistent, consistently ugly that is. Of all imports the Japanese cars are the ugliest. Ugliness aside I would never one. Why, because I’m not Japanese. One thing about Japanese car is they are cheap, cheap, cheap. I love to drive, and I like cars that look good and drive great, is why I drive a new Chevy Camaro. They have a lot of power and great suspension and a feel like they belong on a race track. I could never be seen in an under power generic Japanese car, also I pay absolutely no attention to commercials and salesmen in case you didn’t know they are tying to sell a car, and will tell u anything to accomplish that goal.
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>Japanese cars are…consistently ugly
There are ugly and beautiful cars made by nearly all manufacturers…including Japanese and American.
>Of all imports the Japanese cars are the ugliest
That’s not true. I guess you’re just trying to get a rise out of me.
>I could never be seen in an under power generic Japanese car
There are many cool-looking Japanese cars with powerful engines. But if you don’t know about them or you don’t like them…it doesn’t bother me. You like American muscle cars…as I’ve commented earlier on this post, I think American muscle cars are cool too.
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I think Mr. Akerson’s choice of words was poor. I like the prius look.They make the Volt to look like a muscle car which is silly.
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>They make the Volt to look like a muscle car
Actually, that’s what I liked about it. (*。*)
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I liek muscle car look too
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’69 Ford Mustang, Corvette, Ford Shelby SS, Pontiac GTO, ’67 Chevelle, etc….classic American machines!
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I love mustangs, my favorite mustang is the 2004 mustang cobra with a mystichrome paint job, I also like the classic ’60s-’70s mustangs.
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>my favorite mustang is the 2004 mustang cobra
Personally, I don’t like the design of the Ford Mustang since the 1973 model.
The original (1964) until 1972 look nice…but after that, not so much.
In my opinion.
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Is there anything that these hotshots don’t shoot themselves in the foot with? Whatever the Prius might or might not be, didn’t our mothers not tell us to NOT criticise others when we’re promoting our own wares?
If Akerson was a low(er)-level employee, his kind of remark would have gotten him sacked. As it stands, we tolerate this kind of bad behaviour merely because he’s a high-level management executive – which we shouldn’t.
In my company, I sack anyone on the spot if they start criticising others by product name. No exceptions.
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Yeah, I’m wondering if there will be any repercussions for his comments.
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I think the volt is nicer, but I don’t think the Prius is geeky, I think a better term is bozy, borderline ugly, at least from the rear view of the car, it does have quite a lot of room inside of it and it has great fuel efficiency, great as a town car, the volt on the other hand looks more sporty and luxurious, I don’t know why, I will have to wait to get inside a volt to make a complete analysis, my grandma has a prius so I have been in it many times. Now for a first car what would I like? Well I would want good fuel efficiency to save gas and money, and also a six cd player because I don’t want to have to switch the cd every time I am done with it, justs imply rotate the cd.
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Your grandmother has a Toyota Prius? Does she like it?
They’re from Japan, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.
>Now for a first car what would I like?
I guess you’re almost old enough drive in the U.S., aren’t you?
What is the driving age where you live? I began driving when I was 15 in Florida.
But, I’m happy to say, in Japan the driving age is 18. In big cities like Tokyo, cars aren’t really necessary.
> a six cd player
Why not just connect your i-pod?
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>Your grandmother has a Toyota Prius? Does she like it?
They’re from Japan, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.
about a year and a half ago it seemed you couldn’t leave the hosue wher eI live without seeing one, my grandma does liek it, and it ahs a otn of leg room for a sedan.
> guess you’re almost old enough drive in the U.S., aren’t you?
What is the driving age where you live? I began driving when I was 15 in Florida.
But, I’m happy to say, in Japan the driving age is 18. In big cities like Tokyo, cars aren’t really necessary.
I think where I live the driving age is eighteen now, but you can get a permit at 16.
>Why not just connect your i-pod?
I don’t ahve an “ipod”, I ahve a Sansa Fuze and from what I know I could connect it via the cassete player but not all cars have cassete players anymore, and I wouldn’t want to be fiddling with it while driving, it is almost liek playing with your cell phone while driving, and you don’t get as good of sound quality out of it, the bass is notably lowered on an mp3 player because an mp3 is smaller than a .wav file and in order to condense it parts of the sound is deleted, but I am not agianst using my Sansa, just I think cds are still better.
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>about a year and a half ago it seemed you couldn’t leave the hosue wher eI live without seeing one (Toyota Prius)
Really? So they’re popular in America?
Do you see the Chevy Volt often too?
>I think where I live the driving age is eighteen now, but you can get a permit at 16.
Is that right? The driving age has been raised there?
>I ahve a Sansa Fuze and from what I know I could connect it via the cassete player but not all cars have cassete players anymore
You can buy an adapter to connect it to a car radio via the car’s cigarette lighter.
>I wouldn’t want to be fiddling with it while driving
No, that’d be dangerous.
You could play all songs on “shuffle mode” and then not have to touch it at all.
>cds are still better.
What I never liked about CDs is that they’re like vinyl albums in that care must be taken to prevent scratching them.
They’re both better than cassette tapes…the only media worse than cassette was 8-track!
I was surprised that MDs (Mini-disks) weren’t more popular than they were.
They’re small and they stay inside a protective case even when you play them…and, like cassettes, you can record on them.
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