Are you ready for a hybrid?

By Larry Armstrong

updated 1:02 p.m. ET April 20, 2005

I've been shopping for something to replace my aging Toyota, and I've come to this conclusion: My next car will be a hybrid. I've driven them all, starting in 1999 with Honda's quirky Insight and Toyota's original Prius, each more of a laboratory curiosity than a practical vehicle. In the past three months, with an eye on ever-loftier gasoline prices, I've driven all the mainstream models again, most for a week at a time and back to back with their conventionally powered counterparts. The landscape has really changed.

Today's hybrids are no longer sops to environmentalism. They represent the biggest shift in automotive technology since the development of the gasoline engine. True, the first-generation hybrids were underpowered -- and ugly. But the new wave, led by pioneers Toyota and Honda, is vastly improved. By marrying an electric motor with a conventional power train, hybrids save money at the pump, reduce consumption of foreign oil, cut tailpipe emissions, and maybe even give the car's performance an extra kick.

Now the hybrid is firmly in the automotive mainstream. Waiting lists for some models are six months or more, and Toyota and Honda are selling all they can make. There's a model for just about anyone. And if the current crop doesn't meet your needs -- or your fancy -- just wait. Next year will see a half-dozen new hybrids from such nameplates as Chevrolet, Lexus, Mazda, Nissan, Saturn, and Toyota. Toyota, in fact, says it will eventually offer a hybrid version of virtually every car it sells. All told, 200,000 Americans will buy a hybrid car this year, up from 90,000 in 2004. Who's buying? Mainly baby boomers who are a little more educated and wealthier than those who buy the regular models.

A car for every driver
Want a gas-thrifty econo-box with four, maybe five, seats and gussied up with all the amenities? The plain-looking Honda Civic Hybrid and the showier Toyota Prius cost about 20 grand each. For a family sedan, there's the Honda Accord Hybrid. If you like the above-it-all seating of a sport-utility, you can consider a hybrid version of the Ford Escape compact SUV, introduced last fall, or the seven-passenger Toyota Highlander, due in June. If price is no object (but social status is), the Lexus RX 400h beats your neighbor's RX 330 in fuel economy, emissions, and performance. It's arriving in dealers' showrooms just about now. (Unless you're one of the more than 13,000 folks who has put down a deposit, you're unlikely to get one much before the end of the year.)

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You'll never persuade your dealer to lend you one long enough to get a feel for the car, so I've put together cheat sheets that catalog the differences. Price and fuel economy figures in the tables are for hybrids with an automatic transmission. For the comparison car, I selected the model in the line that comes closest in standard features and priced it without adding any optional equipment.

I didn't bother with a couple of hybrids. The Insight, Honda's two-seater and the first hybrid sold in the U.S., has been largely eclipsed by the hybrid Civic sedans. Only 583 Insights were sold last year. General Motors has a big pickup, the Chevy Silverado, that comes in a hybrid version. The fuel savings is scant -- only a mile or two per gallon. The real attraction is four 120-volt outlets that tap the electric generator to power your tools at a construction site or your TV at a campsite.

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