Trend: Smug Alert: Hybrid Haters

I posted a few weeks ago about the conflicting mathematics of Hyrid's economy value and their production impacts on the environment...I also noted an amusing aside to a recent South Park episode which highlighted a growing backlash of the increased "Smug" from high-and-mighty Prius drivers who think they are so much better than others.

Now noting an article highlighting the growing numbers of hybrid drivers who are becoming victims of road rage! They are calling it the "Prius Backlash" as the political debate over the environment seems to be moving to the carpool lanes.

Hybrid drivers, particularly in California and Virginia where solo occupants of hybrid cars are eligible to drive in the carpool lanes, are feeling a new form of commuter road rage.

Some carpoolers accuse the hybrids driving too slowly in order to maximize their fuel economy and they claim that the slower hybrids are beginning to cause traffic jams in lanes that were once clear.

"People are a lot less friendly than when I drove a Mercedes," one Prius owner confessed.

As the political debate over the environment heats up inside the HOV lanes, the "Prius Backlash" is giving rise to a group of self declared "hybrid haters" cruising chat rooms on automotive websites. The chatter can be bitter. "These idiot hybrids are clogging the car-pool lane," is typical of the views expressed on many of the anti-hybrid sites.

AKI COMMENT: Judging from the venom over at sites like FUH2.com and now in the HOV lanes, I predict a civil war as Hybrids and SUV Hogs take the matter face-to-face with bottles and bats, Wrestlemania-style! Look to YouTube to showcase the footage.

via Consumeraffairs.com