When Good Cars Go Bad

The editorial explains how hybrid incentives may end up subsidizing companies that have failed to produce truly fuel-efficient vehicles. Hybrid cars are most effective when used for short trips. On a cross-country trip on the Interstate, Automobile Magazine staff discovered that the Toyota Prius had lower gas mileage than the similarly-sized Corolla with its conventional engine. In addition, SUV hybrids use the electric engine to boost the power of the gas engine, not to replace the gas engine on shorter, low-speed trips.

"...under some imaginable patchwork of state and local ordinances, the Durango [SUV hybrid] buyer might get a special parking space at the train station and the right to use a high occupancy vehicle lane, despite appalling fuel economy and a car full of empty seats, while the Honda driver will have to walk to the train from a distant parking lot after braving the worst of morning rush hour traffic on the highway like everybody else."