Before I get on to ranting let me first say that I love the Prius. I find it an amazing technology showcase that works very very well and is very very cool. Great car, wish I had one.

Many folks out on the internet go on and on about the wonderful "full" hybrid design of the Prius. This is all fine, I agree that the Prius is nothing short of fantastic.

These same folks just can leave well enough alone, they seem to always feel the need to point out just how much better there "full" hybrids are compared to the "mild" hybrids that Honda sells. Sorry but this is where I get a little hot under the collar. Rather than bore you all with the technical details I ask you to look no farther than our database. I drive a Gen 1 Civic Hybrid with a manual transmission. Currently our database has the "mild" hybrid Gen 1 HCH at :
48.3 mpg (US)


and the Gen 2 Prius "full" hybrid at:
48.1 mpg (US)


The numbers are close enough that in spite of the MT HCH1's narrow victory we can call it a tie. I'm thinking the HCH holds its own pretty darn good for a "mild" hybrid.

BTW the HCH2 is too new to be used in this discussion. The sample size is too small and there are no summer miles in the database for the HCH2. We can come back to this point in a year and see where we are.