Autoextremist study claims hybrids are losting steam

Autoextremist = CAMRY

Do you ever think anyone in their reading audience would ever accept that equation? No! Absolutely not. They want no association whatsoever with a popular family car that represents average in so many respects. Of course, they did nothing to conceal that bias either, by surveying auto industry professionals and enthusiasts. Had they instead surveyed joe blow, his friend, his sister, his neighbor, his coworker, etc. the responses would have been dramatically different.

I did get a kick out of the lack of a scale. They made no effort to define what a "small", "medium", or "major" step actually meant. Without any sense of perspective, the survery is tainted from the beginning. With 60 million new vehicles built annually and 100's of billions of dollars at stake, it really easy to have absolutely no clue how each person perceives size. Heck, they didn't even bother to explain what the "right direction" meant either.

Regardless, the results were interesting. I am curious as heck why that group believes fuel-cells are the "best solution". It makes sense that the average person would think that, due to all the propaganda. But this group is supposedly better informed.

Oh well. It doesn't matter. Ask a person at an auto show what they'd like as their next vehicle. Then ask that same person the day they intend to spend their hard earned money. The odds of getting answers even remotely close to each other is almost nil. The best surveys are simple observations of traffic and parking lots. That accurately reflects what the general population believes.

 

It seems that more people say to me "I bet you're glad you have that hybrid now?" Some of these people have been the same ones that six months ago thougth I was odd for buying a hybrid. All other surveys show that more and more people would consider buying a hybrid. No, hybrid popularity is not declining.

 

My coworkers joked around with me when I first go the Prius. Now I can tell they are genuinely interested in getting one with all the technical questions and test rides I give.

 

Continuing bias toward "cheap" oil and performance (or at least substituting oil for knowledge). No discussion of efficiency or PHEV, while still discussing the far off never-never land of fuel cell power plants.

 

Well, another "more oil than Saudi Arabia" story, this one about Colorado oil shale, was on TV this morning. Seems like we COULD have oil-based fuels a lot longer, but the scale of economy would get rough. So anything that's not hydrogen or not plugin-electric is going to be picked on as just hanging on to bygone times.

What would suck would be to have domestic oil at $150 a barrel be plentiful for decades and the technology to make it go further would need to be reinvented down the line...

 

Hybrids are not for everyone and I agree with the first writer's comments that what matters is what the particular buyer needs. Being focused on "performance" cars is a growing Detroit trend - one which I think they will pay for. With gas prices continuing to rise or, at a minimum, stablize at a permanently higher level - just doesn't seem all that smart to be spending millions to bring back Caroll Shelby's gas guzzlers! (Don't get me wrong - I love Cobras -- I just can't afford to drive one 30,000 miles a year!)

HOWEVER -- I LOVE performance cars. I just had to realize the performance I needed was two things: i) much higher mileage; and ii) much lower repair and reliability. I traded in an Infiniti G35 for my Prius and I was sad to see it go. I am not sad, however, to say buh-bye to the annual $700 brake jobs and the annual performance tire change out for $1,000. I drive 30,000 miles a year - so a Prius makes sense for me. I will come out ahead on the mileage and I just spent $27,000 on a very nice Prius, as opposed to the $36,000 I spent on the Infiniti four years ago. I didn't spend some fictitious $7,000 extra for the hybrid feature. No matter what I bought, I would have probably ended up spending in the mid-20s.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(john1701a @ Jul 16 2006, 11:42 AM) [snapback]287145[/snapback]</div>

While reading the article, I noted the same thing John. The respondents were those highly involved in the auto industry and currently subscribers to the autoextremist blog. Just by selection of that sample it excludes a huge part of the buying public and skews the sample viewpoint to one that might be considered 'less hybrid oriented'; domestic manufacturers, parts suppliers, dealership personnel, etc. There are many many more people not involved with hybrids, and skeptical to say the least, then are involved.

There are new and interesting options coming to the fore in the next several years so this sample group may be more interested in methods other than hybrid/electric vehicles.

It will be very very interesting in the coming years. From Jim Press' statement Toyota is also jumping on the flex-fuel/E85 bandwagon in order to make sure that they don't miss an opportunity.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DeadPhish @ Jul 20 2006, 09:49 AM) [snapback]289034[/snapback]</div>

Finally!

I hope they can simply modify my '06 Prius to be able to take E85 without much modifications.

Jimmy