I think there are a bunch or reasons that folks buy hybrids. Doing good for the environment is definitely one of them. I personally like how quiet the car is, and knowing that I can drive 550 miles on a tank, or in my case the entire week, without filling up. If I drove our dodge Pick-up I'd have to fill up twice in that 550 mile run and kick out 80 bucks a week in gas! I kick out about 26-28 dollars per week. I don't need a truck all the time. People keep comparing the Hybrid with its non-hybrid counterparts. My Civics counterparts are boring. The HCH is a lot of fun to drive.
I get around 45 mpg. This is my very rough formula.

Civic CVT averages 47.5
Civic LX auto averages 35
If I drive 550 miles, I use 11.6 gallons in the HCH
If I drive 550 miles, I use 15.7 in the LX, and have to stop for gas sometime during the week.
That is about $32. a month saved on gas.

My payment is $366.00 per month.

LX would be about $300.00 per month.

Economic sense, absolutely. Those short sited writers don't seem to grasp that a hybrid isn't the only car most of us own. I love my truck, but I can't stand dumping $45.00 a pop at the pump.

We drive the truck a total of 200 miles per week these days compared to the 350 miles per week we did drive it. That other 150 has been taken over by the HCH.
"not figured in above".
In that 150 mile drive, I spend $20.00 in gas for the truck for 10 gallons.
when I drive the Civic I spend $7.00. That is $13.00 per week saved, or $52.00 per month.
We really like driving the HCH. If we had a standard Civic, we would keep using the truck all the time. I can't explain why, but we just would.

By driving a hybrid, I hope that I am helping to drive down demand for fuel, and doing something good for the environment. I still like all the technology though. It is just fun to drive.