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The story
A thread on 5ch calling out the “Top 3 cars with the worst driving manners” blew up after naming the Prius and the Probox. It kicked off with users hunting for a third contender, and the discussion spiraled to name-check everything from the Copen and kei cars to high-end imports. The debate split into two camps: does the car itself make people drive worse, or is it really just about the driver’s age and job? For the Probox specifically, some pointed to its lightweight build as a genuine mechanical reason it tends to speed, pushing the conversation beyond mere stereotyping.
What people said
Even if I get home early, all I'll do is desk work, so speeding gets me nothing — I stick strictly to the limit.
Sorry to disappoint.
Proboxes on the highway are no joke though.
They're flying like, how many km/h are you even doing?
That's the type with a monitoring device installed.
Not just speed — even engine RPM and how hard you brake gets tracked.
Feels like driving a city bus.
Copen drivers are always one of three things: a middle-aged guy, a short guy, or a bald guy.
Barely ever spot a Vellfire.
The Vellfire's just a downgraded Alphard, so it's not popular.
The Voxy is even a rung below that.
Far from letting you flex, it's turning into an embarrassing car to own.
Resale value's bad, that's why.
The ones blasting down the right lane on the highway are usually these.
The pricier the car, the better the manners.
The bottom-tier the car, the worse the manners, guaranteed.
You're the one who's never actually driven.
"It has nothing to do with the car model" is the correct answer.
Women driving their husband's Lexus or BMW are terrifying.
Saw a middle-aged lady in a Benz parked diagonally across two handicapped spots.
The Probox's body is stripped down to the bare minimum weight for its engine size, so it's genuinely fast.
No joke, that thing's basically a sports car.
Guess they ripped out everything since it doesn't need creature comforts.
Kind of like a Mini.
My impression is they roar up super loud but aren't actually going that fast.
That's because it's diesel — it's slow.
There aren't many of them, but honestly that's the only impression I have.
Probably some corporate slave stuck on a brutal "black company" schedule.
It's a company car, so who cares what happens to it.
If you can shave off travel time, that time goes toward something else.
An accident would be brutal — is your own life really worth that little?
My company's sales car is a kei car, and past around 85 km/h I get hit with this fear the engine's about to blow.
Kei cars doing 100+ km/h on the highway are seriously out of their minds.
Don't see that color much these days 😭
Ah, I feel that.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The Probox is a Toyota commercial van known for its cargo-focused, lightweight body and bare-bones equipment. The thread’s claim that it’s “fast for its engine size” stems from that light weight, combined with its common role as a business vehicle pushed through long drives on tight schedules. Criticism of the Prius, meanwhile, points to an objective hybrid-specific design trait: thick C-pillars that limit rear and rear-side visibility. That said, the thread as a whole is built on anecdotal impressions rather than hard data — agencies like Japan’s National Police Agency don’t publish official violation rates broken down by car model. The fact that both “luxury cars have better manners” and “luxury cars have worse manners” were argued side by side also suggests the driver matters far more than the vehicle.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyō G) thread “Top 3 Cars With Bad Driving Manners: “Prius” and “Probox”.”
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