Hi,

Recently, my Google alert for CNW Marketing triggered on a reprint of a 2006 article from Cars.com. The author had cited CNW Marketing as an expert source about leasing but it was attributed to 'Cars.com.' So I decided to see what is going on over there.

I clicked on their link for best fuel economy, an not one hybrid showed up. To find hybrids, you have to click on "Best Mileage for Alt-Fuel Vehicles" or "Best Overall Fuel Economy." Then they've settled on "Best Bang for Your Buck" to institutionalize econo-box cars with no pretense of matching options.

So it turns out they also have a "Cars.com Lifestyle New-Car Buying Guide" with options for family, play, work, and eco-friendly. For "Commuters," not one hybrid is listed. Only by selecting MPG and continuously variable transmission do they show a list of hybrids (CVT makes it 100% hybrid.)

What really surprised me was their "Top Picks for Green Drivers." They listed the Camry hybrid and the Honda Fit (manual transmission) at the top of the page. Somehow, the bottom listed car was the Prius, below Mercedes-Benz E-Class and Mini Cooper.

An outfit like CNW Marketing is only supported by the enablers and apparently "Cars.com" is near the front of the line. What this means is when the Boston Globe reprints a "Cars.com" article by Eric Evarts, it is a fair thing to call them on it. To point out that Eric writes for a notorious anti-hybrid web site and that his 'article' is mostly warmed over material dated from 2004-2006. There is no need to reference CNW Marketing but rather the poor quality, biased source and ask if it has any credibility.

This is how I posted a comment to the Boston Globe:

Ordinarily, I wouldn't care about "leasing" since we drive our cars 'until the wheels fall off.' But I was disappointed to read "For a select few, leasing a vehicle is the way to go" by Eric Evarts, Jan. 6, 2008. This article pretty much echos similar web pages found in Cars.com that date from 2004-2006. Finding something new to write is always a challenge and certainly, car leasing has been morbund for years. The only 'exciting' prospect and completely missed are a couple of hundred hydrogen fool cell cars being leased in California, sometime this year, maybe.

Many of us remember the GM fiasco of leased EV-1s that were crushed rather than letting the owners or others buy them. Only a handful of Toyota RV-4 electric vehicles survived when after their leases ended, Toyota made their electric cars available for sale, Crushing the EV-1s is the ugly truth of leasing that it lets major car companies "green wash" their image. Sad to say but Cars.com remains in silent support of this fraud.

If Eric Evarts is going to bring new information, he should ask all of the companies that plan to 'lease' their fool cell vehicles if they will be available for purchase afterwards. That would be something new and useful. Otherwise, these California fool cell leases are not worth it and should be boycotted. No post lease sale, no lease.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

Yes, there is "hybrid hate" out there. I don't completely understand it. Mostly it seems to be located in cyberspace and in the print media. I can't say that I've directly encountered it personally.

Here are some possible reasons that have crossed my mind in thinking about the subject.

a) Misery loves company. It's probably pretty galling to some people who are getting 15 - 20mpg that there is a group of people out there who are getting 45 - 55mpg. A pot of crabs in boiling water will try to pull down any crabs with a grip on the pot rim.

b) People don't believe the mileage claims of hybrid owners. This makes them hostile to anyone who tries, in good faith, to explain hybrid technology. It is understandable that people don't understand the technology. There has been a lot of misinformation published about these cars. Many hybrid owners, in fact, don't understand the technology.

c) Hybrids are not about "power, acceleration, prestige and conspicuous consumption". This places these cars and their owners outside the popular culture; we're "outsiders". (It certainly doesn't help at all that we're outsiders who are also perceived as believing we're better than everybody else.)

Something that is has been frustrating to me is the resistance to learning about these cars from some people I've spoken to (online) who I know to be engineers (and very intelligent people). This is disturbing.

I deal with engineers and turn my hand at it too. Yet I also remain curious about their resistance to change. So what I did was take them out to lunch and have them drive the car back. Since then, no comments or concerns at work. Of course my vanity plate, "C52MPG" might also have something to do with it along with the $3.09/gal gas.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

This is my least favorite part of owning a hybrid. My friend has a Civic (not a hybrid) and always is like "OH MY GOD I GET 35 MPG!!!!" and I'm always like "Yeah, well. I'm getting 40-60 and my car is twice as big as yours" and he never believes me (and he's ridden in the car and seen the energy displays and whatnot).

I still get questions from people at work WHY I traded in an Envoy for a hybrid after only owning the Envoy for 6 months? Gee, I can't friggin imagine.

I was thinking of getting "40MPGWOW" haha

Hybrid technology is here to stay!! I know many people that don't know what to say when i tell them i get around 40mpg either!!! The truth of the matter is when you don't understand something...........you will write it off even if you don't know anything about it!! Oh well.............i got it and am glad i bought it!!