Interesting article

http://autos.msn.com/advice/article....tentid=4024642

Here's a tidbit

Today's affordable, efficient gasoline engines can compete with hybrids.

With global warming becoming widely accepted as fact, even by the likes of Congress, environmental consciousness is moving concerns such as emissions and fuel economy up the criteria list of many new-car buyers. While hybrid prices have come down in recent years, the cost difference between gas-electrics and conventional gasoline-powered vehicles is still the great divide in the hybrid/gasoline debate. But making the green choice does not necessarily mean driving a hybrid.

Auto manufacturers have developed a slew of technologies that have elevated the conventional gasoline engine to new heights in efficiency so buyers concerned with the environmental impact can go green on gasoline. More precise engine control computers and related programming coupled with refinements in injector design that provide more efficient spray patterns empower today's gasoline engines to burn fuel more completely than ever. On the post-combustion side, improvements in catalytic converter technology ensure any byproducts still in the system are thoroughly filtered.

oops...may have posted in the wrong forum...move if necessary

Articles like that really pi$$ me off! He's comparing a base Accord with the HAH in terms of cost benefit without mentioning the fact that the hybrid actually has a V6 with substantially more power, and lots more features including leather and an "automatic" transmission. He then goes on to do the same thing with the Civic by comparing the hybrid to the lowest price base model. If he would have compared the HCHII to an HC EX, the comparison wouldn't have been nearly as one sided.

If you didn't know better, you would read an article like that and think that you have to be stupid to buy a hybrid. The mainstream auto press is full of crap like that. Every time Car and Driver tests a hybrid, they complain that the milage isn't anywhere near as good as the EPA. Well, DUH! they drive the cars they test like they stole them and of course they aren't going to get decent milage.

I don't understand why almost 100% of auto journalists are anti-hybrid. It's like they are afraid that the congress is going to pass legislation that requires all cars to be a hybrid and they want to kill the idea before it even gets off the ground. If they want to drive gas guzzling sports cars, that's fine with me, but it drives me nuts when the spew a bunch of bad information about hybrids...

Commuter car, grocery getter, and summer road tripper--average 10k miles per year.


Winter road trips and ski trips, bad weather commuter and my wife's "daily" driver--expected average 4k miles per year.

That's one of the things about the article that irked me too. They are not comparing similarly equipped cars.

If the part that you quoted above is correct, then why aren't fleet averages (in terms of fuel efficiency) going up? Why haven't these cars and trucks and SUVs, which are apparently all burning fuel more 'completely' than ever before, managed to get much better fuel efficiency than the first Model Ts from a hundred years ago? 17 mpg then, and about 17 mpg now for a lot of SUVs, as an example.

I know, cars are heavier and go faster, so there have been improvements, certainly... but they're also much more aerodynamic, or they can be if the designers choose to make them that way. There's a lot of stuff out there that could be an 'advance' which the car companies don't choose to use- hence the boxy trucks and SUVs, or the Hummer, which seem to be built to burn as much gas as they can. How can this writer make grandiose pronouncements like these when so many conventional engines come in packages like that?

I'd like them to show me one. Just one. All conventional high-FE cars are what they were 30 years ago - small, underpowered with limited options. They miss the whole point that hybrids offer not only better fuel economy than econo-boxes but do so with regular-car hp and options. It's like comparing an HAH or TCH to an Echo/Yaris.

Do journalists actually do work, or do they just surf the web and cut/paste stuff until they have an article?

*** Retired after 65,000 outstanding miles ***