I remember a conversation I had with a survey taker/marketer not long ago (2 months,maybe). Among the queries was whether I would consider buying a hybrid. The answer was 'no'.
Here is why: there is not a hybrid out there that performs as well as a pure gas powered car. And those that do come close, cost too much.

I'm not down on the hybrid idea, though. I'm just down on hybrids as currently offered.
If a salesman offers me a hybrid, as a selling point, I immediately assume it is a lessor performer, and/or more costly. "But its a hybrid! Cheaper on gas!" is an excuse, not a selling point.

There is not a hybridized model of any car that performs as well as the standard version. Add the cost of hybridization to that, and you have a "less costs more" equation.

Hybrids are not offered as great vehicles in their own right. They are overpriced compromise cars, who's only real purpose is to assuage guilt. I want what I want, at the price I'm willing to pay. That's all there is to it.
I really don't care how its powered, only that it performs as to my needs and desires, and at the most affordable cost. Cost of a vehicle is more than price. Cost includes all the sacrifices in comfort, power, handling, fuel, reliability(or lack of) and upkeep.

As it stands right now, petroleum fuel is the most economical way of putting power to the ground. Nothing else does as much for as little a price, or even comes close.

I want cheap gas. But even at $10 a gallon, I doubt that anything else will still be as economical. Ethanol actually cost more to produce than gas. So, as it stands now, corn is still not a solution to petroleum.

Even at the exorbitant cost that Europeans have traditionally been paying for gasoline, they still stick to gas powered cars. Why haven't they figured out something else by now? If the price of gas is any motivation, they should be 40 years ahead of us in the technology, don't you think?


I don't know what will come next. but as long as gasoline is still around to do what it does as economically as it does it, I will stick to it.

And these overpriced hybrids do not impress me. They offer marginal fuel economy at a much larger price tag. My V6 Santa Fe gets 25mpg hwy. The comparable hybrid, Ford Escape, gets 27 mpg. And does not have the same power.
I had a 1990 Geo that got 45 mpg. (only the Prius comes close, and it took over ten years to catch up to that.) All gas.Very primitive technology. I got it used with 95K on it, for $1200. Over 4 yrs, I put just shy of 150K additional miles, over the course of which I replaced 12 tires and one battery, changed oil every 5k... And no other costs. It went everywhere I needed it to go, even off road every couple weeks to go shooting in the hills. When I was done with it, I passed it over to my gardener (for free). When I last saw him, 18 months later, he was still driving it. What hybrid out there is going to treat me the same way, economically, as this Geo did?

(All that, and I took the state for $300 in reimbursed registration fees. That I did not pay. It's always good when you can screw The Man and get away with it.)