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Re: Hybrids; A scam whose investment you never recoupe
I was gearing up to write some silly letter to the editor of the local
paper, about how the Toyota Prius owners in my neighborhood -- Berkeley
CA -- are so environmentally irresponsible to be driving these rolling
Superfund sites when they don't even return that good an mpg. I found
these factoids before I got bored:
"Many of us tried to drive the Prius like committed Greens. Other less
patient colleagues hammered down. Our combined results: 1338 miles per
31.832 gallons, or 42.03 mpg. That's well up on the 35 mpg we managed
from our last Prius, and it puts this one in fifth place in the
C/D-Observed Fuel-Economy Hall of Fame, behind a 2002 Honda Insight
hybrid (48), a 2000 Insight (47), a 1992 Suzuki Swift (45), and a 1998
VW Jetta TDI (43). That's still impressive, considering the Prius is
bigger than all the above and that the Jetta was driven from coast to
coast on the superslab."
CD 2/05
"12-Month Update, longterm 2004 Toyota Prius test:
"· Total mileage 21,794
"· Average fuel econ 42.0 mpg
"It's still good fun to see how high we can get the mpg readout on the
screen to go--50 mpg isn't unusual."
MT 5/05
Compared to the EPA's rating of 60/51 city/highway, the 42.03 mpg that
Car & Driver got in a 1300 mile road test, and the 42.0 that Motor
Trend got over a 22,000 mile 12 month extended review, have to be
ranked as disappointing. My family's Toyota Echo, which sells for less
than half the price of a Prius, gets 37-40 mpg no matter how you drive
it. Yet the 42 mpg Prius -- and not a 40 mpg '01 Echo, or Car and
Driver's 45 mpg '92 Suzuki Swift or 43 mpg '98 Jetta diesel -- get the
tax credits and the diamond lane passes.
What inspired my "research" was taking a walk through the nabe a week
ago with the wife, and seeing THREE of these Prius things parked nose
to tail. So I started paying attention and I swear I saw at least one
and sometimes two or three PER BLOCK, 1st and 2nd gen included, over
about a 20-block distance. In other words Berkeley CA is f***in
overrun with these creepy little things. (And they ARE creepy,
sneaking up on you on the electric motor only, like a golfcart only
quieter.) That experience had me feeling like the scene in "The
Invasion of the Body Snatchers," when we see the box truck leaving town
loaded up with pods and headed for the big city.
Write it down, this whole fad is going to collapse and all these
granolaheads are going to be cursing these things the loudest of all.
It happens when a few tens of thousands of these smug little greenies
either find themselves facing a $4000 battery pack replacement or a
similarly disabling and expensive computer or other high tech service,
or that they're looking at a huge depreciation hit at resale time
because nobody's stupid enough to buy theirs.
I've figured it out, though, that these pod people don't really care
about the mileage, they care about guilt, and about their smugness.
The typical Prius owner thinks he or she should really be taking mass
transit, but god forbid they should actually have to double or triple
their travel time to get somewhere. They NEVER do. They drive
(usually some damn Volvo) and they feel guilty. So they buy the
greenest car there is, the Prius, and this makes it OK not to take the
bus or the train. And better yet, to snear at everyone who's not
evolved enough to follow them over the cliff.
180 Out
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