HYBRID cars are the bomb diggity or Hybrid Shmybrid?

Question

Just wanted to see what people think of the hybrid cars. Especially now that so many car companies are offering them.

Answer 1

Hybrid cars are like mopeds.
When you have a moped, it's a motorcycle , but it still has pedals, like a bicycle.

Like a moped, a hybrid car is best around thirty or thirty five miles per hour.

If you want an electric car, get a Tesla Roadster.

Answer 2

Ask an ex owner of a Prius. I had one, I sold it to the next fool in line.
Tinny little car that cost way too much. I traded for a Mercedes CLK230 and spent only a few thousand more. The Benz handled like a dream, got about 6-8 mpg less than the Prius and I liked it so much I bought another one this year.
My issues were the Prius was cramped, tinny, and ugly. The interior was cheap and the road noise while driving distracting. The mileage was great when new and as the battery aged the mileage went down. Toyota could never tell me how long the battery would last, or how much it would cost to replace. When the car failed completely at 44,000 miles because of a faulty seal in the fuel tank, I ditched it. My mileage at the end was about 36-38 on the type of driving I do, and my first Benz was doing 29-32 for the same drive.
I just don't think that Hybrid technology is all it is hyped up to be. I think that technology like turbo bio diesel will make hybrid obsolete eventually because of production costs on the hybrid.

Answer 3

Oh please... the above posters are writing off the whole technology because they bought the first hybrid to come along. Rome wasn't built in a day, the Prius is one car. Forget it then!

You can get hybrids any size you like. Honda Insight 2-seater, Lexus midsize sedan, Ford Escape mini-SUV, or GMC Silverado full-size truck (complete with 2500W inverter for running saws and compressors at the jobsite.)

Hybrid technology seems to age well, since the Toyota Prius has been around a long time and technology seems to be holding up. That's no surprise; electrical gear tends to be very reliable when it's built to be.

Some people felt the fuel economy wasn't that much better than a gas car, so Ford told its customers "Look, it's how you're driving! Here's how to drive to make your car's economy really get great." And Ford runs classes all over the country. One guy got 54 MPG, which beats the Ford engineers' record of 50 MPG... and this is an SUV... rated for 36/31 mpg... so that's not bad.

It's kinda cool that if gas prices really start to go up, you can dial up your savings with your right foot :)

These are only the first generation. You should see what's in the pipeline. http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/18042/ It's a plug-in hybrid with 40 miles range just off batteries, then the APU kicks in and gives 600 more miles per tank of gas. Whee!

You won't win any drag races... yet... but it's a matter of time before hybrids are banned from drag racing same as electrics were, because they win too much.

In the meantime, this country SERIOUSLY needs to get off foreign oil. There are lots of technologies coming "real soon now" like fuel cell and cold fusion, but we need to stop buying gas cars TODAY. A hybrid is a step in the right direction.

Answer 4

Hybrid technology is still very new and it shows. Almost every engineer rated MPG rating is rarely met by the consumer who drives the car under realistic conditions. As for the classes offered by car manufacturers to train people how to drive their car...wow, I would want a car that I am the master of, instead of it the master of me. Also, I know there are ugly hybrids as well as pretty hybrids, but I would think the people who buy hybrids don't have their #1 concern in their new hybrid car be the way it looks over its benifits to the environment. I would love to own a hybrid car or SUV, but I want more from my car than what is currently offered by most manufacturers for a fair market price. The guy that mentioned he had a Prius and traded it in for a Mercedes for just a few thousand more, has me absolutely floored that you would spend that much initially for a Toyota economy car. Sure they market the car as getting 50 mpg, but the key work here was "market". These manufacturers are still in the business of selling cars. Ok, enough ranting because I do think that our dependency on fossil fuels is ridiculous. Gas prices will continue to rise and thats a fact. The hybrid car is our current stepping stone to a better alternative, fuel cell technology. Unfortunately, that technology is not close to being consumer ready, again reasonably priced and safe, for many years. However, we have flex-fuel and hybrid vehicles to hold us over until then. I think the current hybrid is important to the evolution of our fuel dependency, but I also believe you can overpay for a technology that is more hype than bang.

Answer 5

I think hybrids are great. When I saw the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car" I was really disappointed at the government and car manufacturers way of handling the situation. It was obvious America wanted the option of a fully electric car but they weren't willing to *keep* providing it.

When I have the money to do so I plan on getting a hybrid car. Not only will it save me money personally, but if it's going to help the environment, more power to it. The only issue I see is with the actual building of the hybrid battery. The batteries are being made by coal plants which cause pollution so are they really worth it? On the other side of it, I believe these batteries last for the "useful" life of the car and can be recycled. While I'm torn on that issue I still think we're headed in the right direction.

Answer 6

I'm all for saving the environment, but I'm not sold just yet. When they build one that looks good and has some power, I'll consider it. For now, they're for little fairy girls. Sangina drives a hybrid.