Defending the Prius against malicious attacks

Fed up with some the negative reports about the actual fuel economy of the Toyota Prius, a Gristmill blogger code-named biodiversivist has come to the hybrid's defense. He picks apart arguments and results from the critics and upholds the car's honor as the best mileage vehicle around. Key to his position is the accuracy of the Toyota mileage computer. Biobiversivist says too much can go wrong when figuring the numbers manually with gas pump readings. He refers to a well-documented 5,000-mile road trip that passed through Midwest and Southwest states under various road and weather conditions. Bottom line was that the mileage computer remained consistent while the manual method could be off as much as 11 mpg. In the end, Biodiversivist is convinced the hybrid option will pay for itself eventually and all other criticism is moot.

[Source: biodiversivist / Grist]