As many here would say... it's marketing that tells us what we want (yeah right) and since marketing is not on board, you won't see those cars here.

 

I too have decided that my Hybrid was unsafe for merging in Houston traffic and have decided to upgrade to one of these:

 

Our market does seem stupid, but what it really is feeling we are entitled to more than everyone else and not giving a whit about sustainability, as some members have expressed so vocally.

 

You'll be safer if you choose a bigger car! People will slow down to look at you AND you have plenty of engine in front of you to smash first in case of a head on

 

Very Nice "RIDE"

 

bingo. grasshopper simply wasn't ready to change his fast and ostentatious driving style.

 

Don't sacrifice safety for fuel economy. To me, that means hypermiling, which is an unsafe practise as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't mean that the HCH-II is at all unsafe because of its power. The HCH-II is very capable of reaching legal freeway speeds within short merge lanes, so if you're getting run down by stupid drivers maybe you should be speaking to your local law enforcement and lawmakers to voice your concerns. If you drive properly and confidently, then you shouldn't be intimidated by others. I used to drive a smart fortwo cdi that had only 40 hp, and I could and would take it on the freeway.

Don't lose faith in law enforcement. In Ontario, a tough new "racing" law came into effect that has taken over 400 vehicles off the road in a week's time. Minimum fine is $2000 and the vehicle is impounded and the driver's license taken away for a week. I say, "Bravo!" There is no excuse whatsoever for one's joy riding to affect others.

 

Spinner,

That is an interesting Post you shared here on GH. However I think the OP lives in the USA and here drivers don't really care what the posted speed limit is, Period.

So if the OP felt like he was unsafe in the HCH II he had and wanted to get a different vehicle that he did feel safer in I guess he did make the right move for hisself.

 

Plenty of acceleration...

 

I've been following this thread for a while now and had always been a bit skeptical about the assertion by some that there was something severely wrong with the acceleration of an HCH. This weekend, though, I had a conversation with a friend from out of town. She reported that a while back, she had taken an HCH for a test drive with a friend. She described to me how, on a downhill freeway entrance ramp, with, apparently, the pedal to the floor, the car had only gotten up to 40 mph by the time they entered the highway, freaking out her friend and causing the friend to go with a Prius instead.

Now, my first reaction was that her friend may be a lousy driver, or not have known how hard to accelerate, being unfamiliar with the car. My second thought, though, was that the test drive was in a dealers' model, when hybrids were still in fairly short supply. Surely that particular car had been treated terribly by every lead-footed would-be purchaser and probably all the staff, not to mention the fact that the assist won't come on if the battery is depleted, and it probably was. It could even have been in forced charge mode. I don't know, it's mostly all been said, but hearing her story makes me think again of how easy it is for an entire type of car (hybrids) to get a bad rap because of one lemon or one bad experience for which a given salesman probably has no explanation, even if there isn't anything really wrong with the car. If these cars are the test drive models, they're even more likely to have problems AND to be the cause of spreading around mistaken reputations. Just my thoughts.