It was a fine article and factual until this sentence was hammered in at the end of a paragraph. It has nothing to do with the Prius or Insight performance and everything to do with the author's hubris. But he is not alone in this nonsense.

GM spent a small fortune, time, and labor trying to make faux hybrids ... the auto-stops. Lacking a serious electric (or other) power system, GM continued to 'over engine', over price, and under perform their hybrids and buyers 'yawned.' A friend in GM engineering told me management directed that "HYBRID" in big letters be painted on the doors of the production vehicles as if that was all it took.

There was a report that the Prius has only a 10 day supply on the lots. Fortunately, we haven't seen a return of the Prius waiting lists and horrendous markups (except for the 'port' options.) Regardless, there aren't huge numbers of unsold Prius sitting on dealer lots. This fact seems to have escaped the attention of the author, a "business" writer.

Bob Wilson

I guess this matters if you're not driving in the real world? Just trying to get where I'm going without getting hit keeps me involved in the driving experience. Obviously a stick shift kind of guy. Luddite.

Many Prius buyers (here) seem to be (very) sensitive when others suggest buying a Prius is making a statement. It's silly for Prius buyers to insist they are not making a statement of some sort to some degree, and the most common statement is precisely as the BW author suggests. You wouldn't really deny that it's not a primary factor for at least some significant % of Prius buyers, I know owners who are very proud of the statement. You see more eco stickers, etc. on Prius than most other models. Just as you may see more NASCAR stickers on some cars.

In a recent poll here, mpg (dependence on foreign oil) was the #1 motivation for buying a Prius. And lower emissions (global warming) was in the middle of the list of reasons.

Prius buyers are wasting their time protesting. The legitimate counterpoint is every car purchase from a new Ferrari to a non-descript old beater makes a statement of some sort. I don't care much about the statement the Prius projects, but I'll readily accept it versus the statement made by a Hummer, Escalade, Mercedes or just about anything else on the road.

I agree with Bob, the comment was a bit of fluff meant to appeal to the reader base. Unfortunately, it is exactly the sort of fluff I expect from Businessweek and the Wall Street Journal types. They have to appeal to the spectacularly unsuccessful (as measured by performance over the past decade) business conservative base and it undercuts the quality of their work.

The author also missed the mark whining about the rear window. It's a hatch and that IS a major selling point (political neanderthals be damned) not "one of the worst design features." I'll take utility and space as a trade off for somewhat reduced rear visibility.

I've not seen any stickers that I can recall on Prius locally, and I've seen a lot of Prius. If I was evaluating the owners based on sticker content I would conclude that the Prius owners were reluctant to advertise their beliefs on their cars...or just don't want a sticker defacing their vehicle.

'Sometimes a cigar is just a good smoke' attributed to Sigmund Freud. When spending tens of thousands of dollars, a T-shirt is a lot cheaper statement media. <grins>

Bob Wilson

I really don't think I bought a Prius to make any kind of statement.

I bought it because I adored the electric drive capability and the hatchback format.

Before purchasing, one night I took off from work in a Prius rental towards home. It was a little warmed up already. I had a chance to go pretty slow down the street. I went about 3/4 mile before the ICE came on ....

I thought that was The coolest thing ever and I told a lot of people about it.

Then bought mine after couple months wait.

There is a lot of misconceptions still about the Prius and Prius buyers/owners. I swear if the Prius was made by Honda or Ford, the media would gush all over it. B/C its a Toyota Product, well....here we are....

I could've very well bought a Corolla or Civic when it came time to buy, I chose the Prius for its hatchback, nothing else like it on the road, and the CO2 output.

Off Topic, so far since Friday night stayin on Capistrano Beach overlooking Coast Hwy and the beach, I have seen 56 Prius' and 0 Insights while sitting on the balcony. PS Anyone paint their trim rings blue on a Seaside blue one? Looked kinda cool moving...

I suppose you could say that any purchase of anything, by anyone, anytime, anywhere, is making a statement. And I suppose I couldn't disagree with you, economic theory being what it is. But, where do you draw the line between "making a statement" and "giving a rat's a$$ about something?" Perhaps some people purchased Priuses without it necessarily making "sense" as defined by some others, surely some even for the warm green fuzzies. How many middle-aged bald guys with bowling-ball guts and small, um, key fobs buy Corvettes? In either case, so what? Paint all the cars (or their drivers) with the same broad brush? If I value minimizing my fuel consumption and someone else values minimizing her/his 0-60 time, is either one really a 'statement' more than a reflection of one's priorities?

If I buy *any* kind of car, I do it in the context of a long, well-considered assessment of what best meets my needs and desires (and, yes, values); what someone else thinks about me or the car is frankly not on that list (and I acknowledge I speak only for myself). In the case of the Prius, I imagine there are many folks who buy one *despite*, not because of, whatever statement they feel may be imputed upon them by people who regurgitate canned sound-bytes yanked out of car (or business) magazines.

Just my thoughts.
Tim
p.s., apologies to Corvette owners everywhere...

I don't know where Business Week gets their marketing information, but they did mention in the article that the Prius with the Option 1 package will be available in September. (And hopefully a few more colors to choose from.)

In this tight economy, a low end Prius would certainly help (and be a better candidate for fleet vehicles.)

Keith