Was scaning through this article from Canada (How it works - Hybrid cars) and the last paragraph made me sit up and read it again. "Some of the more popular hybrids include: Chevrolet Tahoe, Ford Escape, Honda Civic, Lexus GS 450h, Lexus LS 600h L, Lexus RX 400h, Mercury Mariner, Nissan Altima, Toyota Camry, Toyota Highlander, Chevrolet Silverado, Hyundai Accent, BMX X6, Honda Global Subcompact, Porsche Cayenne, Ford Reflex, Mercury Meta One, Saab BioPower, Toyota Hybrid X, Toyota Sienna, Toyota Volta, Volvo 3CCC, Honda Accord, Honda Insight, and the number one selling hybrid, the Toyota Prius." You would think that from the first couple of words that there are now hybrids everywhere and that, really, everyone should know that most of the myths are just that - myths. Just think, if all these models were actually on the road, in numbers, hybrids would really be mainstream.
In Australia there are several hybrids available Prius Civic hybrid 2 Lexus models if you have money to burn. That's it, stop looking.
Where the heck are these guys getting their list? Half the cars on the list are either no longer made, haven't been made, or are concept cars. Course, I must say I would rather see articles talking about hybrids everywhere then the regularly scheduled articles we used to see saying how hybrids were only .XX of the total cars and were never going to be more than 1 or 2% of the total.
No, seriously... we are in 2008 right ?? Then why is it that so many peoples, specially in the world of automobiles, that dont know crap about the reality of hybrids and such That's ridiculous.
It's called disinformation. GM and the people who still hate Japan for Pearl Harbor are working very hard to make sure that people think the Prius is no good, so they'll continue to buy American nameplate cars.
"Some of the more popular hybrids include: Chevrolet Tahoe, Ford Escape, Honda Civic, Lexus GS 450h, Lexus LS 600h L, Lexus RX 400h, Mercury Mariner, Nissan Altima, Toyota Camry, Toyota Highlander, Chevrolet Silverado, Honda Accord, Honda Insight, and the number one selling hybrid, the Toyota Prius." There's your list. I have no idea how concept car hybrids can be popular when they can't even be bought.
In LA Hybrids (mostly Prius) are mainstream. I've given up counting Prius on my 45 mile commute, its usually in the 50s. One day I tried counting the seconds between sightings. The shortest is 6 sec, and the longest is 204 sec. I know, I have a boring life. Lots of Prius though. It would be harder to count all the Hybrids though, with Camrys, SUVs, and Civics masquerading as gas-onlys. I'm glad the Prius has a distinctive look. It must work in the marketplace too.
The disinformation is from Toyota getting folks like yourself to think they are buying a vehicle that is as American as a Chevrolet, Ford or Dodge. The US automotive deficit with Japan in 2007 will be over $65 billion dollars and the US deficit with Toyota alone will approach $40 billion. I can tell you Toyota is very afraid of John Q Public finding out what is really happening with the US and Japan and now China. A trade deficit now on its way to $4 trillion in the last 22 years. Thankfully the Japanese and Chinese are gracious enough to loan us our money back to keep the economy from crashing in the short-run.
its the same around here too, forget that the state has about 1000 Priuses with most around the Olympia area, the city and county governments are using them too and i think that has translated to a higher than normal percentage of "civilian" Prius owners because of the forced added exposure to them. i have a 6½ mile commute and i usually see a few dozen on my way home (too early to see more than a dozen cars of any type in the morning) every day.
I think if the Japanese apologized for things like... Nanking, the Battan Death March, the occupation of China, the Hong Kong massacares, the mistreatment of POWs... a lot of those people would probably lighten up. Oh, comfort women... just last year, wasn't it, that the Japanese government refused to apologize for forcing women into sexual slavery. And let's not forget about the whaling. How utterly barbaric. Greenpeace is already out there trying to stop Japanese whalers... donations are in order.
I'm no fan of a big trade imbalance. However, Is Toyota really worried that a John Q Public that has paid more attention to the quality of what they were buying that last 22 years (vs. who made it) is going to change tomorrow?
