I see Hummers all over the place. I've seen a Hummer limo driving around a few times, too- who knows, it may even have been the same one over and over as I hope and pray that there aren't many of them out there. There's probably... a Hummer on my commute every couple of days (45ish miles of driving mostly through the Northwest Chicago suburbs). Compare to hybrids I've seen on the same route:

--I see a Prius once every two or three weeks, maybe a little less.
--I have noticed ONE FEH. I may have seen more and not noticed them- it's subtle. This one wasn't so subtle- I noticed the license plate, 'Hybrid 1,' first.
--I saw ONE HCH. It happened at 6 pm on Monday and it was so exciting! My very first HCH sighted, other than mine. I wanted to pull alongside and give whoever it was a thumbs up, but I didn't get the chance before it turned off. If any of you happened to be driving an HCH westbound on Golf Road towards Barrington then, hello from the HCH two cars behind you!

So the "small numbers" is a misleading, or at least geographically specific remark. Around here: many Hummers. Few hybrids. The relative proportions matter, because if for every one of us sipping gas there's one of them guzzling it, the net impact on nationwide fuel consumption isn't going to drop, and if they outnumber us greatly, it'll keep going up. Most cars are driven into the ground, so the longer the 'SUV-loving' and 'Hummer-ogling' phenomenon exists, the more of these menaces there are going to be on the roads, guzzling gas for years to come.

 

Just for those interested. FEH's say hybrid on the upper right tailgate with the leaf logo, beneath the window. Regular Escapes have nothing there, and V6's have the V6 logo there. So if there's anything other than the V6 badge, even if you can't read it, it's a FEH. On the drivers side rear window (trunk window) there's a "break" for the HV Battery Vent, regular and V6 Escapes don't have this. And there's the leaf logo and the word hybrid on the passenger and driver doors at the bottom. Some Escapes say Escape there, and the rest have nothing. If you really have an eye for detail, the colors are all unique to the hybrid as well; the metallic paint and some of the colors (like the green) are pretty much just hybrid offered colors.

Going from just North of Mount Clemens, MI on vacation to Myrtle Beach, SC, I was passed by a number of hybrids. 3 Prius', and 4 FEH's. Yeah, 7 isn't that much. Saw many more Hummers, but still, a few.

There's a hummer dealer not far from where I live, and there's soon to be a Land Rover kitty corner from them. I keep thinking about dropping in and giving them my "requirements" for a vehicle, and see what they say. 1. Roomy enough for me, 2 passengers, and fencing equipment. 2. Navigation system. 3. CD Player. 4. 30+ MPGs consistantly.

Back on topic, I'm not surprised sales are up. People don't like to think bad things are in store for them in the future, and image is everything, especially considering how easy it is to blame things on others.

 

Around central CT highways I see Priuses (Prii? Pria?) daily, Insights only if I dwelve into the prozac county in southern CT (except for mine), hummers maybe once a month but a whole lot of 'regular' SUVs.

 

Hummers are still kind of a sighting in the bay area. You see more if you head to the south bay around san jose, but not very many in San Francisco or Berkeley. The Prius is so common here that no one really notices them much anymore. In Berkeley it's not uncommon to have a Prius behind me and in front of me while waiting for a light. That would never happen with a Hummer.

Norris