Poll ShowsOutlook for Hybrids "Iffy"

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Earthling @ Apr 19 2007, 12:32 PM) [snapback]426210[/snapback]</div>

That had to be one of the more stupid statements in that article.

My 16mpg SUV could only go 105mph, and could only beat a Prius by a couple tenths 0-60mph, but no reviewer ever complained about it being sluggish.

 

when gas prices are north of $5, that percentage will change

 

Regarding acceleration, it's adequate most of the time, but there have definitely been instances that I've found the Prius' acceleration wanting (esp. when my other car has 287 hp and my previous car, an 02 Nissan Maxima had 255 hp).

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(IAO @ Apr 19 2007, 09:35 AM) [snapback]426072[/snapback]</div>

The top speed of "only" 105 mph won't be an issue for the vast majority of buyers, but acceleration along w/noise, harshness and vibration of a 4 banger can be. My former Maxima accelerated w/incredible ease and a lot less noise compared to my Prius. As for your "no family sedan is going to perform like a sports car." Well, most don't match sports cars in terms of handling but some have just as quick acceleration if not FASTER than some sports cars. Cars like the Nissan Altima V6 come to mind...

In chiming w/some of the rest of the posters... the ignorance of buyers does really irk me, in particular the finding that "82 percent of car shoppers would be less likely to buy a hybrid vehicle knowing it gets 45 mpg around town rather than 60..." Boy... I guess buyers don't understand EPA #s and the test procedure vs. real world mileage.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Apr 19 2007, 10:22 AM) [snapback]425963[/snapback]</div>

Absoultely! After my wife and I bought our Prius, a LOT of our friends began to ask questions about the car. I love it! I think the thing that's really amazed people is when I tell them we've managed 134 miles on 3 gallons of gas. I had a coworker offer to trade me his 2004 F-250 4x4 on the spot!

The best solution to that poll, I think, is to poll those same people again when gas prices hit $3.50....then$4.00....and so on...

(BTW, getting this car has had such a ripple with my friends that a friend of mine, who was sworn against hybrids and all that they stood for, has begun looking into getting one. Now, understand, this guy is a gearhead to the core and owns a 1969 Mustang, and doesn't subscribe to the hybrid theory. At least, until now that is.)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Washington1788 @ Apr 19 2007, 10:14 AM) [snapback]425957[/snapback]</div>

How about "none of the above".

Reminds me of when I was a kid, they were going to build a great big amusement park in my county. So, one of our county supervisors decided to take a poll, on whether or not the citizens favored amusement parks. Great concept, except that he decided to take the poll at the county fair.

Internet polls are often worthless as indicators of true US averages, doubly so when offered only to narrowly-defined cliques. The headline cars on that website were, as far as I could tell, SUVs, sports cars, and one Scion, in that order.

Random-digit dialing to sample a cross-section (the Gallup poll cited by HBO6 above) is a vastly superior approach. Not that the question they asked was very realistic, but conditional on that, almost two-thirds of drivers under age 50 said they would "seriously consider" a hybrid -- whatever that means.

The good news there is that only the minority of the population dismisses hybrids out-of-hand. That doesn't translate to sales, but at least means that hybrids are in the running.

 

Cargurus.com ? ? ? LOL . . . Oh, they forgot to tell you GM's advertising dollers (which ought to be spent on R & D on a decent hybrid) own them.

Sort of flys in the face of truth!

http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/07/04/20/...a1hybrid001.cfm

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ozyran @ Apr 20 2007, 02:33 AM) [snapback]426603[/snapback]</div>

Premium has been over $3.50/gal for a little while over here in San Jose, CA. Avg. price for regular in SF is now $3.472 per http://www.fuelgaugereport.com/CAmetro.asp.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cwerdna @ Apr 20 2007, 03:14 AM) [snapback]426600[/snapback]</div>

I did go on to say that there are some sedans that are designed for crazy performance. But you will probably not get those for 22k. maybe I should have said most sedans do not perform like a sports car.

I have friends who bash my prius but when they ride in it every single one has said I want one or at the very least they are impressed and stop bashing it. a good friend of mine was concerned about its freeway driving because he sees that I always just try to maintain a constant speed around 5mph-/+ of the posted limit. I showed him that you can get up and pass cars and weave through traffic. You know what was funny had looked at the mfd wile I was doing this and said “dude you waste so much gas doing that”. it was as if he had never before realized that going fast and driving at erratic speeds wastes gas.

We were talking the other night about it and he said he has started driving like me and he gets to work in about the same time but doesn’t have to fill up every other day now its like every third day. He is looking at getting a used gen 1 prius because his budget is very tight but he is at that point that he needs to replace his car before it just quits.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(IAO @ Apr 21 2007, 06:20 AM) [snapback]427266[/snapback]</div>

Ain't education grand. Well, he learned something.

Dave M.

 

yep, i know that too. its funny that once when on a trip, wanted to be there early so was driving a bit over the speed limit, but at times was going under to flow with traffic. had a passenger ask me why i was doing what i was doing and i explained to him that when in heavy signal controlled traffic, the objective is to maintain a steady speed to increase mileage so when i sped up a little because of a light up ahead that i guessed would turn red, the MFD went to about 15 mpg, he said, "wow, your mileage really sucked there, i had to remind him that the AVERAGE on his vehicle (a Ford F-150) was about the same.