Mark Johnson walks toward two white Honda Accords sitting side by side on the dealer's lot at Holmes Honda. He heads to the car on the right to demonstrate its hybrid technology and suddenly stops.

Oops. Wrong car.

"The only way you could tell it's a hybrid is the badge on the back," he said, turning to the identical car on the left and pointing to the designation on the trunk.

Gas electric hybrids have come a long way from the unconventional designs of just five years ago. Contrary to popular belief, they don't have to be plugged in to recharge. And aside from battery pack replacement every 100,000 miles or so, they are serviced like traditional vehicles.

I read your article about hybrids. One note:

It was not fair to compare the cost of the prius as "$21,000, or $7,000 more than a base-model Corolla."

Why in the world would you compare a prius with a base-model Corolla? Would you compare a Ford GT with a Ford focus? They simply are not comparable vehicles!


Here is a partial list of things the prius has standard that the base-corolla does not have:

1) automatic transmission
2) Alloy wheels (steel with plastic hubcaps for the corolla)
3) Traction control
4) ABS brakes
5) remote entry
6) cruise control
7) climate control (set temp and forget about it)
8) electric locks
9) trip computer
10) rear seat belt pre-tensioners
11) a rear wiper
12) audio controls on steering wheel
13) 6 speaker stereo (vs 4 speakers)
14) Prius is bigger



Now, most of the features that I listed are not little "throw away" options and are very important to consumers, and in most cases, add quite a bit of expense to the vehicle. If you tried to configure a Corolla with options and safety features as similarly to a prius as you could, you would find that there are some options that come with the prius that you simply can't get with the corolla. You would also find that the cost difference was now getting to be less than $3000.

What I'm saying is that if the only difference between the two cars you tried to compare was that one car was hybrid and the other was not, and they were $7000 different in price, that you would be right, the difference is not worth it. But for $7000 more you are getting a whole lot more car than a base corolla, AND it is a hybrid.


best,
John

John,

Thanks for writing. Your points are all valid but the example was for illustrative purposes only -- and one that Toyota salesmen made themselves. Many people are shopping for hybrids solely for what they believe to be huge gas savings. The comparison was simply to show that's not the case in every situation.

Michelle Mahfoufi

Thanks for replying. Your comparison is only valid if you assume that the customer's only interest is gas milage and nothing else. I think an "equivalent car" comparison would have been more interesting, but regardless, I believe you should have at least mentioned that you get a whole lot more car with the prius. I think that unless you mention otherwise, when a journalist compares two cars, it is implicit that they are similar cars, more or less. The only hint that your reader got on this count was that the prius is "slightly larger than the Corolla". If your interest was a milage comparison only, you might as well have compared the prius with a scooter.

best,
John

Point taken. I'll keep that in mind in the future.

Thanks,
Michelle Mahfoufi

Toyota salesmen discourage their potential customers from buying a Prius because of the wait