This type of bias towards hybrids isn't surprising where you look where it comes from.

I live near Detroit and I would say some of the media in this region realizes that the Japanese auto makers are kicking the big three's buts with these Hybrids and other efficient vehicles. The big three are losing this round.

With that said their is a negative ecconomic reality hitting the Detroit and Northern Ohio region which is huge in automotive manufacturing and makes a lot of the large SUV's. Factories are closing and workers are being laid off. It's bad and getting worse. Detroit is potentially being de-throned as the king of Auto manufacturing. A detroit auto reviewer is going to frame his opinion that sheds a more favorable light on the US makers and a negative light on Toyota and Honda. This I believe is happening in this article in an indirect way.

 

I gotta disagree, I live North of Detroit, and I haven't seen that. The Detroit Free Press has run a number of articles, and feedback articles about the benefits of hybrids, and their uses. When they ran a review that said that most hybrids don't get EPA numbers, they also ran a a response article with a number of people who wrote in who exceeded them. (Myself included) They were the first ones that I saw run an article about the negative depreciation on them, and had graphs and all sorts of good info on the subject. When gas prices rose, they had an article from a columnist who bought a Prius Online, and about how people in the area were considering hybrids and at what point. Just this week, there was a brief interview with the people who have a Prius and a license plate "6 T MPG".

Now, the Detroit News, on the other hand, tends to run more stuff like this, about how hybrids are bad news, I think this is the third article that I know of this year about it that they've run.

 

one thing i always read is "current driving habits." i think that is one reason why people may not get the mileage some of us do with the hybrid. the types who often pass me on the way to work......the high riding chevy with the loud pipes and the kid driving it....the cadillac passing me at about 20 mph over the speed limit.......probably exhibit a lot of these driving habits. they are hard to change, but that's a large part of what does need to change to improve mileage. that and realizing that bigger is not always better. when it becomes trendier to save gas than to drive a huge SUV, i think more of them will be sold.

 

If the nation as a whole starts to drive about 65mph in a non-agressive style, that would be progress. Yes, I know a lot of people try harder to get better fuel economy, but just think of the gas saved if it ever happened.

I'm not holding my breath that current driving habits will change quickly. People just don't want to face up to the consequences of their actions, be it wasting gas or other things....