In article .com,
Matt Beard wrote:
29mpg - who are they trying to fool that this is environmentally
friendly?

The idea with hybrid cars is supposed to be that they are more fuel
efficient.

If that was the main reason, they'd use a diesel, not petrol engine.

But diesels ain't popular in the US - its main market. Its real purpose is
low emissions in towns with heavy traffic were it can run several miles on
batteries alone producing zero emissions at that point in time. Of course
those batteries then need to be recharged by the petrol engine producing
just as much emissions as any other similarly sized car, simply shifting
the place that those emissions occur. And with poorer than average CO
emissions when touring (its mpg then is poor) it does nothing to save the
planet. ;-)

The latest incarnation of this technology from Toyota is the Lexus RX400H
- a 'chelsea tractor' type vehicle. This certainly is a class leader in
fuel efficiency although it's gone back to a conventional V-6 petrol
engine. Not that it's difficult to be a class leader here as no vehicle of
this type is ever good due to heavy weight and lossy trasmissions for off
road use. Lexus have solved this at a stroke. It can't be used for off
load or heavy towing.

My car can manage 65mpg happily with a normal engine - and
still stays above 50mpg with 4 adults onboard and a shedload of stuff
in the back (it's an estate).

A quick glance at any road test summaries - not makers adverts - shows
any diesel of similar size and performance uses a deal less fuel than the
Prius in everyday use. Oh - and some petrol ones too. And they also cost
less. Much less, in fact.

--
*Why isn't 11 pronounced onety one? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.