I think that we have to put some of the blame for a change in thinking to the car companies and the advertisements that they issue.


Case in point the all new Dodge Charger Hybrid
I found this in a magazine I received in the mail today.
(Hope this is in the right forum, wasn't sure)

Time to go off on the ad agencies now

 

They're just capitalizing on the fact that there is still a huge population segment that feels hybrids are the work of the devil and only weenies and geeks drive them. The Charger is the epitome of a big, manly musclecar, so rather than hiding the fact it gets bad gas mileage, they chose to flaunt it. I saw a post about this ad on another forum a few days ago and the people LOVED it and loved the whole "in your face" attitude towards fuel efficiency. The Charger is a niche vehicle designed to appeal to people that think they have to rebel against organized society, or at least that's how the marketing guys are trying to sell it.

 

Saturn has ran similar TV ads here in the Atlanta area.

"What good is a car that gives you a zillon miles per gallon if you can't drive it normally?"

If they can't design cars with superior MPG I guess this is the next best they can do.
Trash those who do.

 

• If GM only attacks hybrids, it will be the end of them.
• A Dodge Charger, Ford Mustang, etc woudl be a great test bed for a hybrid muscle car.
• Let's come up with ideas of making money on these hybrid-hating gasaholics.

 

these "muscle" cars might be a good test bed for the "plug in" hybrid. I would love to get 40-60 miles on the electric motor with no loss of power and then use the hybrid with an ICE for the long trips. It would be a great second "fun car"

 

Ads like that just prove that GM is out of ideas. They haven't had a single innovation in decades, and their quality is marginal. The Honda Civic was an awesome car even before they made a hybrid variant. And the Toyota and Honda ICE-only cars are actually more fuel efficient than the weak hybrids GM proposes.

I've read the specs on the Toyota and Honda hybrids - - they're all more powerful than their ICE-only siblings (I compared a Prius to an Echo, since Prius only exists as a hybrid.)

Not driving normally? gimme a break. That's just a load of Big Oil / Haliburton / GW / GM crap!