Until you're involved with a FATAL accident first, you'll learn Hybrid Isn't worth.

In message , Conscience writes

of God." -- John F. Kennedy A good catholic.

In message , Tegger writes

Not in London were petrol is about £4:50 a gallon and it cost about £6 a day to drive in the city, a daily tax called the congestion charge which hybrid owners are exempt from.

I don't know that they never made sense; they make perfect sense to me, at least how Toyota did it,

What I don't understand is why people don't buy them. They drive just like normal cars, but get significantly better gas mileage. I just don't see the tradeoffs that others are claiming to see.

So provide a reference to prove it.

Yeah, like Toyota is trying to fight off bankruptcy, like GM is, and is getting rid of an entire subsidiary like GM just did with Pontiac.

Not that anyone can say that there's going to be a need for a battery replacement after ten years, and no one knows what the cost of batteries will be at that time.

And as wrote before, the purpose is not to make one's money back. However, I'm getting about double the gas mileage I did with my previous car (an Acura) with gas that's twenty cents a gallon cheaper. That was saving me about $1300 a year on gasoline when gas was four bucks a gallon. Right now, it's saving me about $940 a year.

Whether driven regularly or not, the car clearly handled worse than (all) the cars we had been driving (i30t, Acura TL, Honda Odyssey). The fact that the Honda Odyssey, a big tub, could out corner it, says something.

I will agree that once you are forced to drive a car with sloppy handling, you will learn to accommodate it (or die trying). That doesn't make it a good car and that certainly doesn't make it handle any better.

Presuming you have posted your criticism to other Prius groups, you must have noticed that most Prius owners believe the car handles as good or better than other cars sold in the U.S. There are exceptions, but the Prius at least handles well enough to have earned numerous "car of the year" awards and it enjoys an extremely high customer satisfaction rating. I suspect you are just another troll because your post is completely out of touch with reality.

Michelle Steiner wrote in news:michelle- snipped-for-privacy@mara100-84.onlink.net:

Your flinty-eyed skepticism has yielded success: I appear to be out-of-date.

According to Forbes, "Toyota's Prius came out in 1997 and did not break even until just before the introduction of a second-generation car in model-year 2004."

This from the article

Except that now Toyota dealers can't give Priuses away, so the implied post-'04 profit has probably disappeared.

The auto manufactures are having a hard time giving anything away. Contrary to what some media is trying to claim, hybrids and other economical cars are doing relatively better, though not as good as when gas was $4. The big SUVs and pickups are getting creamed.

Will I be able to buy one now for say $13500? That's about all I'd pay for one today.

snip

Which is the exact logic I apply to my owning ancient Civics only that the year(s) are rolled back to 1980-83.

I can handle the "old school" engineering and ease of maintenance/repair and not have to fess up with 'puters and other modern gadgets.

Besides that, parts as almost as cheap as dirt these days...

JT

Uh, that's why just over two hundred years ago, some people revolted...

JT

five years out of date, and referring to the previous model, which is nothing like the 04 through 09 model.

Got a cite for that? Other than the fact that the entire auto industry is in the tank, I mean.

Nothing implied about that profit. Furthermore, your conclusion does not follow from the premise, regardless.

In these dismal economic times, no one likes to talk about annual sales projections, but Bob Carter, group vice president and general manager for Toyota Motor Sales USA, did just that at last week's press launch for the 2010 Toyota Prius in California's Napa Valley. Toyota expects to sell 100,000 examples of the 2010 Prius from the time it goes on sale in May until the end of 2009.

Come 2010, the company hopes to return to its 2007 sales pace and sell 180,000 Priuses. You'll recall that Prius sales fell 12.3 percent in 2008 (to 158,884) after a steep drop-off in demand in the fourth quarter.

Yes, Prius sales have been down in the past few months, but that's most likely because people are waiting for the 2010 model, due out next month.

In message , Grumpy AuContraire writes

I didn't know that the Toyota Prius and the London congestion charge existed 200 years ago, I learn something new every day.

I'm one of those. Went to toyota.com's build-your-own routine today to find it still configures a 2009.

He refers to our the revolution we fought over taxation without representation. It must been have been a good way to raise money because we sure do a lot of it ourselves today.

I have to wait until September at the earliest, which is after I get a major bill paid off.

Yeah, that's what he meant, but how would London's taxation with representation in the 21st century have any relationship to the colonies' taxation without representation in the 18th century?

What taxation without representation do we have today?

A couple of months ago I was comparing 2009 Prius prices found on the 'net with what my area dealer offers. A dealer in Mesa had several units with leather, nav, etc. for $3000.00 less than I'd have to pay for the same unit where I live in MN. Maybe I should wait until next January, fly to AZ, soak up some rays for a couple weeks, and drive one back.

Primarily sin taxes. People who don't participate in an activity taxing people who do. Smokes come to mind but the the best example is property tax on out-of-state property.