Ditto; second: Porsche 928 (Risky Business anyone???); Third, Ferrari 308 (s or b, quatrovalvole perferred); Fourth, Porsche 911; Fifth: Pontiac Firebird Trans Am (in K.I.T.T. trim only of course!!!)

Gee my 2006 Civic Hybrid has had 2 safety recalls, a rattling air conditioner vent and a seat that wouldn't stay adjusted for a month.

My 2006 Chevy Trailblazer has....no problems whatsoever.

I own a 2006 Hybrid Honda Civic and lease a 2006 Chevy Trailblazer.

I love both for different reasons.

I hope the leases for the Tahoe will be reasonable because I would jump at a jump in size and fuel economy for the truck needs of the family.

Ultimately, though, I think the best focus we can make is an Electro-Motive Diesel electric generator hybrid.

In this case an electric motor would drive all wheels (2WD or 4WD via transmission or direct). The diesel engine would run optimized at a single speed, low-RPM to produce maximum horsepower-just like in a train.

The power would be stored in batteries and the engine would shut off whenever the charge was at a certain peak, turn on again whenever more power was needed to be generated.

Granted, this system is years off, but GM already has the experience from its EMD divisions of the past.

That would be the ideal Hybrid.

Saw it in person on Sunday night (Tokyo time) being driven around on a flatbed promotional truck in the Shibuya area of Tokyo.

It is one sweeeeet ride.

I just saw the Demio (aka Mazda 2) being driven around on the back of a promotional flatbed truck in the Shibuya area of Tokyo Sunday night (visiting from NY for business).

It is one beautiful car in person. All I could think of was how it would be in a MazdaSpeed trim...and my colleague joked it would be nice with a 440 (MOPAR) in it...

They are promoting the hell out of it. Compared to the Honda Fits you see around town (I'm a Honda guy-have a Civic Hybrid and also a Chevy guy-Trailblazer) it makes the Fit just look plain ugly.

Michael

Well I can tell you that my 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid hit 103 MPH and still had a little room for more...but the MPG dropped to a tick...

A Prius at 100MPH is NOT getting 47MPG. No way. That engine will be burning fuel and the electric will be on full boost with no regeneration...

We bought a Honda Civic Hybrid for the following reasons (in order of importance):

1) So my wife can drive in the HOV Lane to work
2) To save on gas
3) Because the Toyota dealers were being complete a-holes about Prius pricing (trying to sell us a used model for $8,000 above new-stripped! at $29K without the tax credit); this was New York (a friend in San Francisco could have gotten me one at invoice plus $1,100 to ship).
4) Because we got it for $700 BELOW sticker
5) Because it wasn't a Prius and looked "normal."
6) To save Carbon emissions

There was nothing smug-only selfish and frugal.

I drive a Chevy Trailblazer Inline 6 with about 12-13 MPG everyday, and 16 MPG on a long highway run; my wife gets 35-45 MPG and we average 20MPG between the 2 vehicles annually...about 3 MPG more than our old Acura TL (we only had 1 car for a while) and 1 MPG better than the VW New Beetle Turbo prior to that...

As the saying goes:

If you can't drive a stick, don't do the crime!

HOLD THE PHONE!

Didn't Ford offer a lifetime warranty on repairs if done at a Ford Dealership at this time? If just 1 person had the black box replaced, wouldn't they have to have at least 1 black box in inventory???

Something doesn't seem right here....

FWIW, My Civic Hybrid (2006) has the extended warranty...and since it uses 144 D Cells, I am sure I can find those in 8-10 years...

Michael

Reminds me of the old VW Bug conversion kits that put a Rolls-Royce front end on a Bug and allowed further modification to allow for a full-on conversion...