Though the folks at Honda and Toyota (particularly Toyota) might beg to differ, I am not actually anti-hybrid. Well, I'm not anti-hybrid in theory, but the current practice of hybrids does not impress me much at all. This was a rather lonely attitude to take for a long time, since there seems to have many rounds of poisoned Kool-Aid served on all those car company-sponsored junkets to launch the Prius and other models. Lots of people who should have known better (the auto journalist crowd) and lots of people who don't seem to know much about anything automotive (the mass media and TV writers) leaped straight up in the air in praise of hybrids as a surefire method of saving the world. But since there aren't many facts in support of that world-saving claim, those folks had nothing to land on and as a result they're falling like stones. In that way, they resemble hybrid car sales in the U.S. for March. (It should be noted that while hybrid sales were falling south of the border, Honda Canada reported close to a four-fold sales increase for their Accord and Civic hybrids for the same time versus last year. Toyota Canada has not replied to a request for clarification.) Full Article
Further on the author writes, "...proving that it's highly unlikely that anyone will recover the premiums the car companies are charging for hybrids with reduced gasoline use during a normal experience (a certain mileage over a certain time) with the vehicle". How about a certain rise in gas prices over a certain time?
The article says: :blink: "saving value of a hybrid is limited or non-existent at highway speeds" WTFFFFFFFFFFFF is this guy talking about??!!! Why is he writing about cars?!?? :angry: Maybe he just wants to be different ("This was a rather lonely attitude ") or maybe he's getting paid by GM...
It's by Alex Law, a well-known hybrid basher demonstrated to be ill informed and lacking any data to back his claims. He's using the rule about statistics which can be used to weakly back any argument. For example, just because some statistics show slowing hybrid sales (mostly for the Escape), he straw-mans it and says people aren't buying. I'm sure the people in the long queues for the popular hybrids beg to differ. Also, he continues to propagate the retracted Consumer Reports article about the Prius not saving money over its lifetime (as if any car especially the V6+/European/luxury/SUV cars did). Ignore him.
we also know the slower march sales of Priuses is because of the cut back in production to make way for the Camry Hybrid.
"It says here that falling sales of hybrids in the U.S. is a very good thing, for the environment at least." Where is HERE? His office? What a badly written article, I could barely choke it down. As for no advantage on the highways, I get 50MPG easily.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(john1701a @ Apr 27 2006, 12:17 AM) [snapback]245976[/snapback]</div> For some of us, it's only been a year or two that we've been reading and getting all worked up about this type of "journalism" (with apologies to real journalists). Keep in mind that John has been battlling this crap for many more years. I've surprised his head hasn't exploded yet.
My virus detecter popped up a warning when I opened the link. Exploitphpb, I think it said. I use Mozilla Firefox with pop-ups disabled, and it still came through, so people might want to scan their computers after reading that link. One thing that kind of didn't make sense, is that at the end of the article it sounded like cheap hybrids would be good, and he just didn't like that Toyota was charging MSRP (altho really it's the dealers making that call to a large extent, not the manufacturer). So I was left feeling confused about the point of the article. nerfer
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NuShrike @ Apr 27 2006, 02:04 AM) [snapback]245984[/snapback]</div> He also apparently left out the fact that the Prius is still a hot seller, even while the others aren't doing so well.
Well, if the price falls to $17,000 or so, I might get my mom to buy a Prius. After reviewing the Toyota Yaris and the Honda Fit, she wants a Fit. Toyota only wants to sell a 2-door-hatch here, and she's a 4-door-hatch person like me...
In general the article was poorly written and cynical. What's wrong with a shopper viewing their car selection as if purchasing an appliance? Is it better to view it as a symbol? as an "investment"?, as a statement? I've never researched car buying as I did my Prius. It's one of the best "appliances" out there. The only negative is I couldn't find avocado green.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Apr 27 2006, 07:56 AM) [snapback]246040[/snapback]</div> The consumer anti-hybrid nonsense grew to such huge pile of crap from that I started to notice patterns, so I wrote an analysis paper documenting them... http://john1701a.com/prius/logs/prius-log2...id_Introduction The media anti-hybrid nonsense that we are now having to deal with have recently adopted many of those same techniques. So rather than being frustrated by this new resistance movement, I actually feel vindicated by having already taken the time to inform people what to be aware of. It's sad that so many are suffering due to not planning for the future. Taking advantage of short-term profits to pay dividends to stockholders rather than investing in research & development has been the bad mindset of our society. Now we have to face the consequences of that poorly made decision.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(john1701a @ Apr 28 2006, 04:52 PM) [snapback]246862[/snapback]</div> You are right john1701a (I like your website BTW...while I await my Classic Silver Prius, I look at your photo album of your Silver Prius with Prius Envy (yea, I know what that sounds like )) Not only dividends to the stockholders, but large salaries and retirement bennies to CEO's (think Lee Raymond, ex-Exxon CEO, 400 million package, 13 year lifetime salary with Exxon at 145,000 per day!) Double the amount of billionaires since 2000. All that money now socked away somewhere else. Lower prices for Prius? Doubt it. Why, when there are none on the lot and we are paying MSRP.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(nerfer @ Apr 27 2006, 09:23 AM) [snapback]246109[/snapback]</div> He's just like the throngs of SUV drivers who, now that gas is on the rise with a vengence, want to suspend supply/demand economics because the economic reality doesn't fit their world view (cheap gas and big cars). On thing that didnt' make sense about the article was... the article from start to finish. A typically steamy pile of dung from Mr. Law.
The article has a reply feature, and so far all the replies (including mine) point out various errors. It's worth replying if you have the time. A year or so ago, I emailed the automotive writer at one of the Chicago dailys about an error he'd made regarding Prius battery life. His reply was surprisingly snarky and rude (I'm also a newspaper writer, and I'd never respond with that tone!) - but when the same issue came up a couple of months later, he had the facts right. So they do learn, sometimes.
