Wheels readers may recall that sales of some hybrid cars have been underwhelming, as Jerry Garrett pointed out recently in a post about Honda’s scuttling of the Accord Hybrid. (In a separate post, he noted that the next generation of the Toyota Prius may be delayed because of snags in a new type of battery system Toyota wants to use.)
Now The Times’s Micheline Maynard points out another reason that the Prius has dominated the market for hybrids: buyers want to show it off. As she writes:
The Prius, after all, was built from the ground up as a hybrid, and is sold only as a hybrid. By contrast, the main way to tell that a Honda Civic, Ford Escape or Saturn Vue is the hybrid version is a small badge on the trunk or fender.
The Prius has become, in a sense, the four-wheel equivalent of those popular rubber “issue bracelets” in yellow and other colors — it shows the world that its owner cares.
In fact, more than half of the Prius buyers surveyed this spring by CNW Marketing Research of Bandon, Ore., said the main reason they purchased their car was that “it makes a statement about me.”
Read the whole thing. Then tell us what you think: Are Prius drivers looking
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