"Capt. Rob" wrote in message
oups.com...
Right, but Toyota will get a lot more of it--more than it needs to.
Buy a
Yaris and the bottom line will be less money out of your pocket over
the
long run than with a Prius or especially with the Camry or a Honda
Accord
hybrid.

You keep chanting this and avoiding facts. Taller people can't drive
those econoboxes.

How tall are you? I'm 6' and can sit in a Yaris with at least two or three
inches to spare overhead.

The Camry hybrid's goal was to allow a more powerful engine
with no more fuel expenditure than a smaller V6.

And if you read read the results they got high 30's making it a great
car for MPG. And it's large enough for tall people, luggage and crash
safety. End of story.

Was that 30mpg an all-around average, or just highway. Actually, IIRC,
hybrids get slightly better mileage in city driving, mostly because their
engines shut down at stoplights and restart automatically when the
accelerator is pressed. AND they use more electric motor power for starts,
etc. But my BMW 323Ci gets around 32 on the highway, but averages about 26
overall. A four-cylinder Camry will do even better than that. My
contention is that Toyota wanted to make a car with the power of a big V6
but with the fuel economy of a 4. And they did. If they'd really wanted to
make the Camry hybrid a green ultra-econocar they'd have put a 4cyl with the
electric motor. That wasn't their purpose, however. Same is true with the
Highland hybrid.

Hybrids rely on petroleum for all their energy. Are you saying we
shouldn't
bother with alternative fuels?

Alternative fuel powered cars are not practical or really available for
most people, Max. Are you saying that this is good reason to drive a
Lincoln, burn more fuel and polute more than is required. That's some
argument.

How in Hell did you draw that conclusion?? To the contrary, I think the US
vehicle fleet should be comprised of at least 50% E85-compatible vehicles by
2012. And I think hydrogen fuel cells can be practical for commuter
vehicles. In the meantime, turbocharging can give decent power curves to
smaller engines with acceptable fuel economy without all the complexity and
expense of hybrid systems, to say nothing of avoiding the disposal problem
of megatons of sulfated lead from all those giant batteries the hybrids use.
THAT is a real ecological disaster waiting to happen, if hybrids catch on
more than the few percentage points they now occupy.

Max