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I love talking about hybrids, and I've had loads of opportunity lately! First a buddy of mine called me out of nowhere to ask "Hey, do you know anything about hybrids?" Turns out his mom needs a new car for city-type driving, and wants to replace her aging Rav4 with something small but with comparable capability and improved FE. If all goes well, they should be out looking at the FEH and Prius this weekend.

Now my parents are dealing with a dying car of their own, but won't accept anything without 4WD and leather. "Hey, do you know anything about the Highlander Hybrid?" Not really, but it was still fun to get into the basics of HSD and where to get better info. It's not exactly a blistering FE machine but my parents are both very reasonable drivers, and might be able to get into the high 20's I think. The selfish part of me hopes they get it (unless I can steer them to a FEH or MMH) so that I can stop in and see what it's good for :D.

I even have my girlfriend asking me questions after reporting terrible FE while crawling through traffic with the engine cranking the whole way. Finally, unreasonable time spent surfing the web pays off! :woot: Not to mention, a sign that main-stream folks are starting to accept hybrid technology as a viable option.

Anybody else notice a sudden surge in people looking at hybrids whom you wouldn't have expected to do so?

Lots of people at work. I try to remind them that there is no instant pay back. And if they buy a hybrid that they should above all buy it because they like the car and not to save money. If you have a car that is paid off and your new car payments will be more than what you put in for gas then financialy it isn't neccasarily the best choice. Fortunately most Hybrids are very nice cars with lots of goodies that the non hybrid versions don't have.

Now my parents are dealing with a dying car of their own, but won't accept anything without 4WD and leather.

The FEH is available w/4WD & leather. ;)

(Just trying to do my little bit to keep Ford in business - I want to be able to buy another FEH when I'm done w/this one!)

One point in favor of hybrids is that they give you the tools to improve FE: displays showing instantaneous mpg and various average mpg's. When I hop from my Insight into my Subaru I realize I have no clue (in the Subaru) how FE is affected by whatever I'm doing at the moment. My sister's BMW's have instantaneous mpg displays but you really need an in-your-face average too.

If these tools were simply added to non-hybrids it would be a huge improvement.

This week there has been talk of a CNN/Edmonds article that says hybrids are worth it. My calculations say I've saved $3,000 over the six years of my Insight. I could save another $3,000 in just three more years at today's gas prices.

if i base my savings on what i was getting with my CRV, at the time when gas first went to $3/gallon, and what i am getting now, the savings is almost $2000 already just in the year that i have had the HCH. i went from 22MPG to an overall average around 55MPG....even i can do that math. :)