Hi MGBT:

___It is one thing to drive a Prius II because you want too. It is an entirely another matter to tell the rest of the country that a large, and heavy vehicle isn’t socially acceptable. You happen to be in the minority on this one. What has to become more socially acceptable is much smaller automobiles for the masses. Even with today’s dire warnings of impending Peak Oil and Global Warming, I still like the creature comforts and safety of a true mid-sized or larger automobile compared to a small one.

___Another tact. A vehicle that weighs twice as much will always use more then twice as much energy to accelerate up to a given speed. All other efficiency terms being equivalent of course. The counterpoint to this is once up to speed, that larger vehicle does not necessarily consume twice the energy to maintain a given speed as the smaller one. A good case study for this is the Corolla vs. the MDX. With all the techniques I use today, the 4WD - 4,500 # MDX is good for between 33 and 37 mpg out on the highway. The much smaller, far lower performance, much less luxuriously equipped Corolla is good for ~ 50 mpg. I give up ~ 15 mpg to drive a fully loaded and semi-lux 4WD SUV. Was it worth it? Did you not give up ~ 20 mpg to drive the Prius II instead of an Insight 5-speed? How small is small? Should we not all be driving relatively smallish 1.6 L CDTi equipped Ford Focus C-Max’s or Prius II’s at a real world 50 and 48 mpg respectively? Let us all be mandated to an even smaller Honda Fit w/ a yet to be developed 1.5 L iCDTi for maybe 80 lmpg? One man’s large and oversized vehicle is another mans basic want or need. In your case, you are sitting in the middle at ~ 2,890 + #’s although near the high end of the FE scale if course.

___Finally, as far as $’s are concerned, if Toyota did not sell all the 4WD SUV and P/U trucks that they do, do you think they would still be making handsome profits thus allowing the healthy R&D budget to design and manufacture the Prius I, II, HH, and RXh? Making the same handsome profits and reinvesting those same profits back into R&D for future hybrid designs on the much smaller and probably far less profitable Camry, Corolla, and Echo would be a real stretch imho.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net