In the utmost of seriousness...

I dropped my wife off to work this afternoon and was making my way home through Pomona. Waiting at the McKinley on-ramp to E/B I-10 my light turned green. I entered the intersection when a Semi blew the red light at full normal speed of about 45mph.

He just... spaced out and blew right through the ****ed red light. and this wasn't just any truck. This was a DOUBLE tandem hauler , fully loaded with gravel being pulled by a filthy old Peterbilt.

As his brakes went into full-panic-lockup he could not pull out of the momentum that lined up exactly perpendicular to my passengers side 'B' pillar.

There was no time to move my foot to the brake pedal. At his rate of closure, I would have been a pink-mist on the pavement before the pads ever touched.

In a normal gas car, mashing the accelerator would do no good because it takes fractions of a second to unlock the torque converter, spool-up the engine and kick-down the gears to establish aggressive forward momentum. I didn't have the 3/4 second to spare. But I mashed the pedal anyway.

Instantly the DC motors delivered 100% torque to a CVT transmission that is normally wound up like a rubber band anyway. In a blink I was up and out of the way. The truck missed me by about an inch. I literally saw my life flash before my eyes. And I know for a fact I would not be here right now if I tried the same evasive maneuver in a gas car.

No. I'm not a shill for Toyota. But I do know a lot about cars.

I've had this car for 8 months and it continues to impress me every day. some days more than others.