@Rä¢inG73 - ain't nuthin' but a G73 thang: Except that it's a meaningless number. They could claim any number they want. My commute is 3 miles, so I'm going to claim I get infinite miles per gallon. Except sometimes, I want to drive 8,000 miles over the course of a few weeks, in which case it will get mid 30's.

@irishman: airbags. crumple zones. pedestrian safety. traction control. ABS. Power steering/brakes/locks/windows. TPMS. EGR/E85/CO2.

@Rä¢inG73 - ain't nuthin' but a G73 thang: The wording in the last article was hazy, but that's what it said - at speeds in excess of 70, when the battery was also dead, the ICE pushed the wheels.

@Prawo Jazdy and The Velocity Trumpets: And if you remove the ICE, it only runs for 30 miles. But since it has and uses both to drive the wheels, it's a hybrid.

@craznoe: No it doesn't. It goes for moderate distances on delicious, cheap electricity, and goes for long distances on a semi-decent amount of gas.

@thedudeabides: Yep. That's a better metaphor than mine.

@CrabSpirits: This is undoubtedly the answer to every "why not diesel" question - nobody wants the unpopular fuel, which means it stays unpopular. On the other hand, I'm betting between modern diesel technology and starting the journey with an electric motor, cold weather would almost never be a problem.

@thedudeabides: Let me have a go at this one. You go to a restaurant, and are told the soup of the day is clam chowder. You would really love some clam chowder, so that's what you order.

at least in my neck of the woods, rust-piles with nothing under the hood will still run you $3k. Five grand for a runner is NP.

@arozzi 수동차 마시고 싶어: yes.

@BrtStlnd: Maybe your area of the country. I've always thought of a middle-aged woman with huge breasts and huger bottle-blond hair, but I'm from Texas.

@CrabSpirits: A bit of looking around and I think I stand corrected. I'm still disappointed that it's not a true series hybrid, but I agree that most of the time people won't need the gas engine powering the wheels directly.

@wætherman: I think the disappointment here is that, even if it was less efficient than the current crop of hybrids, if it was a true series hybrid, at least it would be something new. A step in the right direction.

@v6sonoma: 70mph isn't high speed. My previous commute was:

@CrabSpirits: I'd hardly call "speeds near 70 miles per hour" a rare instance.

@Nieros: The Altezza is not a sports car. RWD does not a sports car make.

@Motor_Yakuza: I know. I'm talking about the fact that Toyota is not a sports car company, and you pining for the Glory Days of Yore is silly in a thread about a passionate car company building an appliance.

@Motor_Yakuza: The only RWD sports car Toyota has made since 1985 is the Supra, which they let stagnate for 10 years and then killed off in 2002 (earlier than that for North America).

@SpikeJnZ - Brett Favre's most recent drunkdial victim: Now that's a quality idea - Tom Swift had a nuclear-powered car three-quarters of a century ago.

@OldSlowJetta: Trunk rack means you can't get into the trunk without taking the rack off. Also, hitch racks don't rub the paint.