We have tended to buy and drive smaller, more efficient cars over the years (with the exception of the Bonneville)–we find the hybrids to be comfortable, high-value cars, expecially the Prius. If you shop carefully you can buy them at a discount–all of our cars will pay back the “hybrid premium” within two years, with less time required for the highway cars.

Once the public realizes that hybrids are not exotic vehicles, can save significant amounts of money and perform a patriotic duty by lessening our dependence on Mideastern oil and the current warping of our foreign policy, I believe they will embrace this approach as a legitimate bridging technology to a more permanent solution to our dismaying dependence
on fossil fuels.

The last person carmakers want in their showrooms is a well informed buyer who knows what model and options he or she wants and how much to pay for it. Yes there are scores of websites with vehicle information and tips for negotiating with dealers. But a diligent consumer must make use of these sites in order to avoid disappointment when living with a new car, hybrid or conventional.

New cars cost “mucho dinero.” Too much in my opinion. But someone has to pay for all that advertising that is increasingly harder to avoid. Don’t think that carmakers are relying on impulse to sell their cars? Look at one of the latest Hummer TV ads with the guy standing in the supermarket checkout line feeling insecure and meager with his tofu, compared to the big guy with his side of beef. So he runs to a Hummer dealer and mortgages his future inorder to feel more like a man. GM wouldn’t produce this ad if they didn’t know it would stimulate someone’s impulse to buy a Hummer as if it were a pack of gum sitting on a shelf, in a supermarket checkout line next to the National Inquirer.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is to be well informed about your potential new vehicle before walking into a showroom, and to take all that TV advertising with a grain of salt. Know that carmakers are gearing their hybrids to perform as their V8 powered models, with only a slight fuel savings. So before you plunk down a large wad of cash or go in debt up to your eyeballs thinking that that new Lexus SUV Hybrid will deliver 20+ MPG above a conventionally powered SUV, think again.

Very few problems are solved by doing only one thing, and this is no exception. If we are EVER going to free ourselves from dependence on oil, we have to work on alternative energy technologies and they have to be subsidized to the point where it is cheaper than using conventional technology. If it costs the same, most people will stick with what is tried and true. It has to cost measurably less than conventional means in order to attract buyers. Or, if the price ends up at least the same, it can be mandated.

Our current method of talking about needing alternative methods and then letting those methods cost significantly more than what we currently use is going to make the progress very slow.

We also have to be careful of energy displacement technology. This is where a energy saving technology is used that simply shifts where the oil is used, i.e. plug in electric cars which use no oil, but if they become popular create a much greater load on electric plants that then burn more oil. It may save some oil, but not as much as proponents would have you believe.

And, no… I am not an environmentalist whacko. I am a conservative Reagan Republican that happens to like the Earth I live on!

I like to watch the energy usage when I drive & try to maximize it by turning off the AC & coasting whenever possible. I often get it up to 70MPG on the streets.

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes: I purchased a Prius earlier in the year, and I went in with my eyes wide open. I knew it would cost more than say, a Corolla (which I already had), get probably 15 mpg more than the 30 mpg I was getting, and get me…

Personally, I’ll be happy when small diesels catch on here in the states. VW’s get some great milage out of that old technology.

It’s a performance hybrid. Meaning the electric engine that helps is mostly there to help provide a faster vehicle. So go faster, use less fuel or go slower and use much lower fuel. It’s your choice but everybody really should think about what they are getting themselves into when they make a big purchase.