Saturn Hybrid Sedan Saves Little Fuel; Costs More

[TriShield]

Calling these BAS cars Hybrids is a pure a joke. It's not fooling anyone.

GM's attempts to greenwash themselves with weak "hybrid" cars, two-mode gigantor SUVs that cost the price of a house in the midwest and mulling putting turbo fours in supersize muscle cars does nothing but make the company look bad.

Meanwhile Toyota remains the company that founded hybrid technology and is purely known for it.

[PA Dweller]

I agree with the people who say the Aura BAS Hybrid sucks. If I was into saving money on gas I would get the Malibu with the 4 cylinder/6 Auto. However if they made this standard equipment on all 4 cylinder cars (At no additional cost) I would say good. This along with 6 speed auto's, and other fuel saving equipment can save the driver some serious money. Maybe the BAS+ will be more useful on its own.

[ponchoman49]

My 2007 Malibu 3500 V6 is averaging 31-32 MPG driving back and forth to work everyday going 70 MPH! This is progress? There is no reason in the world that this BAS system shouldn't be averaging 35 or so MPG.

[2012Aveo]

Before GM decided to produce hybrids, I remember many car fans calling Prius drivers tree-huggers. Funny know GM is producing hybrids, that term is rarely if ever used any more.
I believe most people buy hybrids thinking they will save on gasoline or money. The reduction in CO emisions while a good thing is more of an afterthought.

As far as this statement : "Motor Trend did a test with the Aura Hybrid, the Camry Hybrid and the Altima-with-borrowed-Toyota-HSD and the Aura was the only one to actually save money on fuel, the others didn't."

I find Motor Trend is one of those magazines that are very pro-domestic and anti-foreign. I am not saying they are liars but I would take their results with a grain of salt.

[TKR]

Hi mods,

VCDJ is on my ignore list because he does not contribute anything positive about anything and yet I still have to read his posts when people reply to him. Is there anything we can do?

[TKR]

Originally Posted by TriShield

Meanwhile Toyota remains the company that founded hybrid technology and is purely known for it.

Hybrid technology did not originate with Toyota but they were the 1st to use it in a production vehicle to good effect. Toyota are best at using other peoples ideas properly which is very similar to Microsoft.

[gardnet1]

Originally Posted by Sinner

Doesn't the prius take 13 years to break even? Until hybrids and even diesels cost the same as their gas counterparts there's no point in buying one.

State and Federal subsidies (Credits they are called) can reduce that to a couple of years depending on the model.

[gardnet1]

Originally Posted by Flyingbunnys

It's the badge they can call it a hybrid for the image, thats what really counts. And as a side note my favorite hybrid happens to be the Ford Escape rated at 34 mpg city/30 mpg highway, which is almost the same as the Aura. I wonder why Ford hasn't tried the Escapes engine in a smaller car I'd bet it would get fairly good mileage. I wonder if the reason no one has bothered to try and compete with the Prius (I just notices it shows I misspelled Prius and it suggest Pius) is because Toyota slipped everyone some cash under the table?

2009 Fusion/Milan will be redesigned and have 2nd gen hybrid versions available. Not sure about the MKZ; it will probably depend on how well the other two sell.