No guilt. If anything, I'm a little proud of myself (and it takes a lot for me to say that, I tend to be so self-deprecating). I live in what would be called by statisticians, an 'exurb' (far out suburb, semi-rural area), and while I see other hybrids (mostly Prius) in the last few months, I see a lot of SUVs and 4WD pickups (there's a lot of tradespeople in my area as well, so I don't fault the pickups too much), and in the summertime, they're towing boats (lots of lakes in my area). Thus, I think I do a little better than 'average'; another thing that makes me feel 'good' about driving vs. not.
While I live in a 'train town' (there's a regional rail stop in my little town), the fare would be equivalent to driving (or more so, now that I use 60% of the gas that I used to), and I'd have to catch a bus that only runs to my office building once per hour. So, since I need a car for everything else, I justify in my mind the commute to work with it.
I did use to carpool with a guy who lived in my development, and worked in the same building I did - but he left the company about a year ago. Saved a heck of a lot of wear / tear on the car during the year and a half that we carpooled (not to mention the gas / pollution). It was fun. We got to discuss everything under the sun during the ride back and forth every day (although the ride back tended to be a b*tch fest about the company's policies, etc).
Finally, I had wanted a hybrid, and the opportunity came along for me to get the one I really was interested in. So I bit.
I'll admit, it was a bit of an emotional & non-essential purchase, but I enjoy the car, and I drive it not with guilt, but with pride; especially when people take interest in it and ask me about it.
