Hybrid Rage

No, not us ... we're still madly in love with the Prius. But the San Jose Mercury News has an article about people who are fed up about being stuck behind hybrid owners who are poking along on the highway, cruising at slower-than-normal speeds in order to hyper-maximize their fuel economy.

Perhaps surprisingly, I've got to side (partially) with the impatient ones, rather than the propeller-beanied hybrid drivers that they managed to dig up for this article. I've found that with a little care — by keeping the accelerator in at just the right amount, or backing off ever-so-slightly a few minutes later — I can drive just as fast as I would in any other car and still get 50+ MPG. Driving along at 55 miles per hour on the freeway is just not necessary.

However, I'll agree with the other hybrid owners that some people seem more than a little um, overzealous to pass up me and my limp-wristed Commie-pinko environmeddler machine — speeding up until they're tailgating, abruptly swerving into the adjacent lane so they can pass me with a BURST OF POWER, and then slotting themselves into the narrow gap between me and the car in front of me, perfectly content to cruise behind that car for the next fifteen minutes, even though that car is the reason why we were all going so slow in the first place.

On top of that, there's Consumer Reports, which recently came out with a study stating buying a hybrid probably won't save you any money, dooming us to at least a good six months or so of "but Consumer Reports says . . . " in the party-conversation circuit. A few quick observations:

• We win! The Prius and the Honda Civic hybrids are the only models that CR calculated would save their owners money over an equivalent gas model. However, the amounts saved are middling: $406 (Prius) and $317 (Civic) over five years.
• I've gotta say wah for the hybrid SUV owners. Did you really think that buying an SUV anything would actually save you money?
• I'm not so sure of CR's methodology:


• They assume that a hybrid vehicle will depreciate more quickly than its gas equivalent, but whether or not this will be true remains an open question until the used-hybrid market matures (it certainly isn't the case now — current-generation used Priuses are selling for almost the same price as new ones);
• They factor in increased financing costs for the more-expensive hybrid models, which isn't an issue for full-cash-down people like us (yes, I know there are opportunity costs, but let's assume I'd otherwise blow the cash on big-screen TVs, or by investing in the Web-2.0 equivalent to pets.com);
• They compare the Prius to the cheaper Corolla, when it has the interior room and appointments of the next-step-up Camry.

. . . stick to reviewing blenders, CR!