Driving Me Crazy: Leave me and my hybrid car alone.

2012 Toyota Prius C

Automotive news and reviews website, Autoweek.com, recently published a review of the latest hybrid car to join Toyota's Prius family. 

Remember the old days when the Prius was just a singular hybrid car that ignited the scorn and derision of so-called automotive enthusiasts (how dare you sully my internal combustion with protons and electrons, how dare you, good sir)? 

Well now the Prius is an entire family of hybrid vehicles, some a little bigger (Prius V), some a little smaller (Prius C), than the original, but all of them just the right size to fire up the comments section of any article or posting that dare praise such blaphemous automobiles. In this regard, the compact-car-sized Prius C does not disappoint. 

Other than the "this car is boring to drive," the general cloud of scorn centers around the undeniable fact that a similar sized, non-hybrid car is so much cheaper to buy that even with improved mileage, it would be years and years before you "broke even" on your premium purchase. A dollars and cents analysis of hybrid vs comparable gasoline-only models is never going to result in victory for the hybrid (at least in the short term while gas prices continue to hover in the $3.50-$4.00 range). 

I know, I get it. Enough already. Can we move on?

Because for me that's besides the point. I mean, when folks are shopping conventional vehicles they make choices based on issues other than economic efficiencies and somehow that's okay. No one questions the economic sense of opting for sport-tuned suspension, summer-spec performance tires over low-rolling-resistance run-flats, the V6 versus the turbo 4-cylinder, etc.

2012 Toyota Yaris

But the hybrid buyer is constantly reminded that they are actually spending more money than they need to. They are criticized for their choices. Autoweek.com reader, Nick Matteucci says, "you would have to hate your wallet to buy this [ Toyota Prius C] over the [Toyota] Yaris." 

2012 BMW M5

And no one ever says to the BMW M5 owner, "wow, you must really hate your wallet, don't you know that a BMW 528i is $40,000 cheaper and only 2 seconds slower? How dare you be so stupid and self-righteous and superior acting to have bought a M5, what a waste?!" No one tells the prospective M5 owner that what he should actually buy, based on economics and the needs of his family, is a 4-cylinder Toyota Camry.

And yet, this is what happens, at least in these automotive forums, to hybrid supporters and/or owners. All the critics are suddenly accountants, and will offer up a virtual spread-sheet full of numbers to prove that buying a hybrid makes no financial sense.

So it's okay to be "financially irresponsible" when buying modern day muscle car, 4-door sports sedan, or an SUV, but it's not okay for the hybrid buyer to be motivated by something other than dollars and cents when he steps on the showroom floor?