B= Backup?

And I will.

B=Battery? Do you know there is a year and a half wait list for those cars?

Nope, never read directions, my intuition is much better. But manuals? Manuals is for guys. Always check them out just in case they have nice pictures and blow-up diagrams.

Cheers
JMH

You can get Hertz gold for free.

Waaaaaaaaaay cool! I wanna try!

Reading thirty minutes to start a car would have made me more than a little impatient - - I've heard reports on the news of how much people love their hybrids - - would you own one now that you've driven one?

To answer questions - It is free to be a Hertz Gold Member, but it just means you get to be in a shorter line than a non-member.

For my $50, I don't have to wait in a line - my name with the slot number of the car is big board - I go straight to the car.

The car is great. I love driving it. It is very cool. I'd love to own one. It handles very nicely and is very comfortable. The Prius is so high tech feeling, that I feel like I'm driving the car of the future.

There is an R for Reverse, D for Drive, I have no idea still, what B is for. I guess I could try it and see what it does?

As ever, JMH is entirely correct.

I intend to buy a hybrid for my next car. Gas is at $1.79 here and this is Houston. It now takes over $20 to fill up my little Grand Am. The Jeep takes $26+. From what I've been reading demand for gasoline vs refining capacity worldwide is on a collision course and scheduled to impact within 2 years. We don't build refineries anymore and few other countries can refine gasoline the right way to meet our EPA regs. Even if we decided to make more refineries (very doubtful) we don't have time to do it before the capacity vs demand collision. It takes around 5 years from concept to completion to make a refinery.

I intend to reduce my gasoline consumption now that good alternatives are available. Even if the predicted crunch doesn't materialize I still think its a good thing to do.

I don't know what B means either. :-/

I've been looking into hybrids for two months. My problem is I have a 'big' family. (Three kids makes it 'big' nowawdays.) We're up to close to $2.00 a gallon down in here in West Palm Beach. With my size family, and we do a bunch of driving with sports, school, etc, it is hard to find a hybrid that will suit us. Toyota is coming out with their mini-van, but not until next year and even then, I was told they'll get something like 6 per dealership. I can't imagine what that wait list is going to be like. It's frustrating.

A good, modern, fuel-efficient diesel can compete with the hybrids in fuel economy, and costs less. (Heck, gas engines can make the 40s in a small car!)

VW will sell you a Jetta that gets 45 MPG, which from what I've read, is comparable to the real-world efficiency of a Prius. Plus, I believe the Jetta is bigger.

(Expect something similar from M-B soon enough, when they resume importing diesels in quantity. In Australia you can get a C-class with a 2.7L CDI engine that gets in the 40s per gallon. Likewise, BMW. Diesel is set to make a big comeback, with the new cleaner fuel standards comparable to Euro sulphur levels. Even the American companies are said to be readying a big diesel rollout. And, no, they're not black-smoke-belching monsters like a city bus or a road tractor.)

With current technology, hybrids are mostly hype (that is, they're not profitable to sell; Toyota loses a pile of money on each Prius they sell in the US. But it does wonders for their CAFE numbers, and it'll get cheaper). In five or ten years, it'll be Ready For Prime Time, I expect.

The 2004 Prius I'm driving can fit 4 adults, very comfortably. I took 3 of the people I'm training to lunch in it today. Everyone of them was excited and impressed about the car.

It runs about $20,000 MSRP, and it looks great. The 2004 model is a midsize car - not like the compact prius of the past 3 years. It has power and drives like a dream.

I won't buy one because I can't wait a year to get one, but it performs way beyond any expectations I had, and it gets great mileage.

I would not buy a diesel engine car because I can't buy gas for one anywhere near our house, and because diesel has a lot of particulates in it, and as an asthmatic, I don't want to add to the shit in the air.

We know someone who works for Toyota/Lexus and they did say that the hybrids are not getting the mileage they thought they would get. If I were getting a small car, you can find a small non-hybrid that gets good gas mileage. It is much more of a challenge when you are forced to drive a mini-van. Anyone who wants to carpool and save on gas, has to have a mini-van or big honker SUV. I filled up today, low grade gas, 2 bucks a gallon. It isn't cost effective to buy a hybrid (it's an extra 5K per vehicle) with gas at $1.50, but as it tops over 2 bucks, it will be more so, especially for people like me that put nearly 30K a year on a vehicle. But, like Beth, I cannot wait a year. So I will wait for tne next generation and try to carpool more. I don't know enough about diesel to comment, except to say, it does not appear so readily available.

If I had a diesel I'm sure I could get it filled. Its true the diesel pumps aren't as prevalent as the regular ones though. I don't want a diesel though. They are noisy and they put out too much crap through the tailpipe. I just had my Grand Am inspected and we have an emissions test now, but the guy I was talking to in the waiting room was telling me he doesn't have to have the test for his pick-up because its a diesel.

BTW, suggestion for a blog topic Beth: Socially Retarded Behavior.

While I was waiting in this car place there was a woman there talking very loudly into a cell phone about her husband, recent children's behavior, etc. She was so damn loud I had to walk outside to wait. Turns out the guy I was talking to had done the same thing. WTF does someone do that? Don't they know I don't want to hear about Johnny's misbehavior at school? Don't they know others would like to be able to hold a quiet conversation in the waiting room? WTF.

Calliope - I feel the same way about idiots like that. So does John. Perhaps I can convince him to tell the story about the asshat in the PX who was talking on the cellphone and told everyone else to be quiet because he was on a business call.

You whiners should try paying N. CA prices for gas and diesel, 2.38 per gallon, ASSHAT!

Why would the price of California gasoline make anyone here an asshat?

Move.