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Me, too. My response to hybrid car styling is "Gee, they'll make a hybrid look like a prop from '2010:Odyssey Two' for FREE?" Seriously, it's the 21st century. Insisting that modern-technology, fuel-efficient cars look like cars did in 1980 is, er, how to say this without using the term "cognitively dissonant"? If you look at GM's "hybrid" truck line, the first thing you notice is that you've spent extra money to get a full-size truck which gets 21mpg highway when you could have just gone for the six-cylinder regular gas engine and SAVED money. Meanwhile, Toyota's Highlander Hybrid SUV http://www.edmunds.com/toyota... gets an EPA gas mileage of 33 mpg highway, or high 20s with really fast (faster than the standard Highlander) real-world performance, which should be making the GMC/Chevy team ask "How did they do THAT?" (The answer being that Toyota puts a CVT on the front axle combined with electrically powered rear wheels to give MORE power than the standard gas-only powerplant, and better mileage in town than on the highway). This, by the way, is a vehicle that seats seven grown-ups and has enough power to support not only a very good performance envelope but DVD players for the passengers in the back two rows and other goodies. There are some handling concerns with the Highlander Hybrid, and since the back two wheels are electric power-only, it doesn't give you the snow performance that the gas-only Highlander does, BUT for the mid-$30s, it's actually an impressive ride for the urban cowboys out there. If I had the bucks, I'd get one in preference to a gas-only Highlander OR a Prius.

dustin dustin September 22, 2008 22:08:36
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