I guess after years of losing money on each unit, even with higher prices than comparable gasoline models, they're not eager to pursue this. Why would they? Americans don't actually care or want this. It's only a niche market and they can't keep selling the same cars to the same people and make money. I'm sure Honda's experience is the same. They've even discontinued the Hybrid Accord. At $30,000 there was no market for a ULEV 265HP Accord that cost 30% more.

Meanwhile where I live the F350's are flying off the lot. Even bigger custom built trucks are starting to appear. A 4-door F450 modified pickup is not so strange anymore. Even larger models are seen. Gas dropped in price from a high of 3.38 to today's 2.83. Happy Days are here again!!!!

According to the news a week or two ago, Priuses are now available off the lot, without a backlog, and Toyota has expressed surprise and disappointment that they aren't selling faster. That's why I expressed dismay.

I think it's telling that the only hybrid produced by an American company is a Ford, using the obsolete first edition Prius engine. American automakers have abandoned the concept of innovation in search of higher quarterly earnings.

That's why they don't sell, chickadee, not because people don't want them. This business about people not wanting small cars is a myth perpetrated by the Big Three in order to keep Congress from intervening with things like CAFE. The truth is, we just don't want the crappy small cars the Big Three makes. Good small cars like the Honda Civic sell quite well, thank you very much.

As toothless as CAFE is, and as lame as the ever-so-gradual rise in CAFE standards proposed by Congress are, the Big Three would still rather cry and complain about it than do something. God forbid they should ever have to admit that other people (Congress, Toyota engineers, etc.) were right and they were wrong. Would it kill GM (for example) to go out and buy a Toyota Corolla, take it apart, and figure out why it's so much better than the cars they make? Probably, because that would involve incorporating things into their production processes that Weren't Invented Here, and (what is the world coming to?) selling something that people actually want and need instead of telling people what they want and need, namely that big, godawful, ugly truck thing with the $10,000 markup.

I'm sure that will fix everything. And while you're at it, build a time machine, bring Pol Pot back and turn society completely inside out and upside down replete with the genocide part. Just because you hate your world doesn't mean that making everyone else suffer in the solution.

NaR's point: "I don't know if it was in the final bill, but a MAJOR change was the inclusion of small trucks into the CAFE numbers. If they were included today the average fleet mileage would drop precipitously" is important. In the 80s, the automakers persuaded Congress to define SUVs and minivans as "light trucks," excluding them from passenger vehicle safety and environmental standards, including CAFE standards. Changing this is a big step in the right direction.

I agree with you on principle, had_enough: "So, we ought to just forget CAFE standards and tax the hell out of all fossil fuels. I mean, make it so gasoline is 12 bucks a gallon or more. And use the money to invest in alternative energy solutions for transportation."

But while we're waiting for those alternative energy solutions to show up, millions of people are going to go without food and housing because they can't get to work at their minimum wage jobs. I'd be all for this if it only affected the people who have a choice to move or switch jobs readily. But if we're really going to legislate something like this, we're going to have to require Wal-Mart, MacDonalds, etc., to shuttle people back and forth for their shifts or something. And that might cost those retailers a little bit of money.

I wonder if it has occurred to these large corporations who run our country that if they stopped spending so much on lobbying our legislators they might be able to afford more of the stuff that would further the common good.

I don't know if it was in the final bill, but a MAJOR change was the inclusion of small trucks into the CAFE numbers. If they were included today the average fleet mileage would drop precipitously.

So the increase in the miles per gallon requirement added to the inclusion of larger, poor mileage vehicles is actually a significant change.

Is it enough? No. But it's a start and if we do this right we will have 55-45 in the Senate, a larger majority in the House and the Presidency to make bigger changes in 2009.

Has anyone added up the cost of evironmentalist lobbying over the decades that has gotten us a requirement of 35 mpg?

Has anyone added up the cost of the Department of Energy since it was created in 1977?

Billions spent and we are still, dependent on petroleum to a large extent and foreign oil as well.

The only way that real get real energy independence is to get the Congress and local legislatures out of the energy business. Either let oil companies produce petroleum at reasonable prices or push an alternative. It seems the government does neither and is more interested in how much tax revenue it can realize from energy production and consumption.

I'm mystified why Toyota Priuses aren't selling faster in the US. I have to do a lot of driving for my work. I bought a 2004 Prius three years ago, have over 108,000 miles on it, and have averaged better than 50 mpg on it. I received my $1500 extended warranty fee back because I hit 100,000 miles without needing ANY work on the car other than routine maintenance. It's comfortable, and roomy enough that when one side of the backseat is down, I can fit a fully inflated air mattress and sleeping bag in it. It has great pickup when entering a busy expressway, is silent when I stop--really, it's the most pleasant and easiest car I've ever had.