The Hybrid Savings Hype

Hybrids might be hip, but are they saving consumers enough at the pump to compensate for their high sticker price?

With gas prices soaring and the summer driving season upon us, you’d think fuel-sipping hybrids would be all the rage on the road. And you’d be wrong. Just ask Wilmington, Del., Honda dealer Frank Ursomarso. His customers are so turned off by the pricey Honda Accord hybrid, he doesn’t even keep the model in stock. “When customers come in looking for the Accord hybrid,” he explains, “they either get deflected to another model or they leave.” The story is similar at Kent Ritchey’s Memphis Toyota dealership, where Highlander hybrids languish on the lot, while the regular version of the SUV sells briskly

As 31 million of us hit the road this holiday weekend prepared to suffer at the pump, we’ve begun to rethink the conventional wisdom that hybrids are the solution to our oil addiction. It turns out that last year’s “it” car is losing some of its megawatt buzz. Despite those runaway gas prices, some hybrids are crashing at the intersection of fashionable and rational reasons for purchasing the costly gas-electric models. The price premium you pay for a hybrid