The What Drives Us podcast recorded live last week and covered everything from Volt vs LEAF sales to pudding. Yes, pudding. It's a trap!

We're now recording the show LIVE each week at 9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific if you would like to come on and join in the fun of a live chat room while we talk about all things with green cars. Visit us each week at http://whatdrives.us/live

Consumer Reports has gotten into the competitve spirit of March Madness and has created Moto Madness. Moto Madness pits cars of similar aspects against one another until there is one champion to rule the automotive world. This is your chance to show that the Prius is way better than the Volt, so go on over to http://www.crdashboard.org and vote for the Prius and for your favorites from the other categories.

Just in case you need some help remembering who to vote for, refer to the image above.

http://www.crdashboard.org/

Danny Cooper takes a week off and we welcome new guest panelist, Jason Holder to talk about his experience with the Honda Civic Hybrid (2nd generation) and the Honda CR-Z. Jason speaks in depth about the firmware update, Honda performance and his driving impressions of the CR-Z. Regular panelists Linda Weidemann and Tony Schaefer join in to discuss news of the week including Volt MPG, Leaf production number rumors, dead flowers, reveal the mysteries behind plasmacluster and much more.

Host: Russell Frost (Danny will be back next week)

This week Danny and Russell are joined by Linda Weidemann and Tony Schaefer to discuss the Prius tenth anniversary Prius celebrations, Syracuse gets 6 Prius PHVs, Prius making an appearance in Gran Turismo 5, Chevy dealers charging over list on the Volt, the Honda Civic hybrid firmware scandal and much more. B-roll again has a moment of language, so heads-up.

Hosts: Russell Frost and Danny Cooper

Panelists: Linda Weidemann, Tony Schaefer

Episode #: 29

Time: 1:13:51

Ah, this story reminds me of the good old days back in late 2003 and all of 2004 when the Prius was facing huge markups by Toyota dealers across the country. Even then, the premium was usually only around $5,000. But the Chevy Volt is facing a whole new type of greed. FavStocks is reporting that "at least one GM dealer is planning to add a $20,000 dealer markup to each of the 9 Volts the dealer is to receive through 2011."

$20,000 on top of the $41,000 sticker price!

And there it is. After 3 years of speculation, we finally have a price for the 2011 Chevy Volt: $33,500 after the $7,500 federal tax credit, or $41,000 MSRP. This price includes destination and a massive list of standard features.

GM is getting very aggressive with the Volt's lease price. The 3 year 36 month lease will be $350 per month with a $2,500 down payment due at signing.

Regular panelists Tony Schaefer and Evan Fusco join Danny and Russell this week to discuss a wide range of stories from details on the Chevy dash, discussion of the Nissan Leaf pre-sales, more on dash telematics and the rumored "Prius" minivan

Hosts: Russell Frost and Danny Cooper

Panelists: Evan Fusco and Tony Schaefer

Episode #: 13

Time: 1:15:30

This week on What Drives Us, Russell and Danny are joined by Tony Schaefer and discuss a wide range of topics includiing, the debut of the Chevrolt Cruze ECO, the Lincoln MKZ hybrid, a Renault-Daimler alliance which may or may not lead to hybrids and EVs, the Prius is the number on selling car in Japan and much more.

Hosts: Russell Frost and Danny Cooper

Guests: Tony Schaefer

Episode #: 11

Time: 50:06

Thanks to PriusChat forum members cwerdna and JSH, we now know that GM has elected to kill off the Saturn two-mode hybrid Vue that was slated for production last November (but delayed).  GM has also decided to rid its lineup of the Chevy Malibu Hybrid, a model that increased fuel efficiency by a pretty pathetic 1 MPG highway.

Isn't it about time for GM to kill off all of their silly "half" hybrids and focus their wasting of government money on the Volt?