Consumer Reports isn't giving all-electric cars and climate change a lot of attention

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Honda will be the next automaker to market an all-electric car as Toyota continues to sit on the sidelines. -- HACKENSACK, N.J. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Consumer Reports seems to have a blind spot for all-electric cars. The magazine's annual Auto Issue, just out, picks the 10 best new cars for 2017, but all of them use gasoline. For a full report, see: Consumer Reports smells (of gasoline)
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Toyota turns back on Prius as hybrid mileage champ, emphasizes performance

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The 2016 Toyota Prius gets better gas mileage than the previous generation, 54 mpg in the city and 50 mpg on the highway. The engine and electric motor produce a total of 121 horsepower. 


By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I have yet to meet a car that is as fast as my Tesla Model S in a stop-light grand prix -- that sprint from zero to 30 mph or 40 mph.

It certainly wasn't the 2016 Prius that was next to me at a light near Route 80 in northern New Jersey the other night, when I blew off his doors.

But I figured the young driver had seen the Toyota TV ad with bank robbers getting away in the redesigned Prius, first shown during the Super Bowl, and thought he owned a really fast car.

LOL.

How trite, I thought when I first saw the ad.

Now, Toyota has turned its back on the environmental benefits of more than 15 years of producing the world's most popular gas-electric hybrid.

Just about every automaker tries to appeal to the boy racer in prospective car buyers, ignoring women altogether.

Aren't you sick of seeing Mercedes-Benzes, Audis and BMWs in lurid slides or Nissans and Lexus sedans racing across sun-baked desserts?

Now, you can add the Prius to that list, and that's a sad development.

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