Forgive me if I'm redundant.
It took me at least a month to learn most of the nuiances that gives my 2000 Honda Insight it's best fuel economy. Most of the writers reviewing the Insight not only not pick up on these, they tend to drive most vehicles fast anyway. What these writers should not be ignorant of is for any given US vehicle, you can deduct about 20% off the EPA's estimated mpg to get a somewhat realistic figure. I laugh when a review states they got 48 mpg on an Insight with a 5-speed, yet I have 56.4 mpg and know it would probably be close to 65 mpg if I tried. I suspect reviews for Prius and other hybrids get the same bad review....
I have noticed a large part of the population in general tends to detract anything that is different or requires even a little thinking to use properly. For instance, the vBulletin forum software is as good as it gets, yet I have friends that complain endlessly about the primitive forum software at MSN Groups, yet act like a VBulletin group is rocket science. Different - yes. Harder -
no! Faster - definitely. More powerful and user-friendly - absolutely.
I wanted to put a power cord on my Insight except it reinforces one of the biggest hybrid myths - it's plugged in overnight. The other big myth is hybrids have poor acceleration. Truth is the electric assist is superior - performance-oriented hybrids are just starting to come out. The general public assumes that Insight and Prius drivers trying to maximize their fuel economy can't drive more agressively. In the Dallas area, a number of huge pickup trucks seem to want to blast by me, but when I take the challenge, 4 out of 5 are still in my rear-view mirror.
(why my lifetime mpg is 56 - not 65) Some of these people are also suprized that the Insight can go 113 miles per hour - faster if the speed limiter was disabled. (only done this twice)