Jayb, your Daihatsu is old hat from the point of view of vehicle safety. I wouldn't be seen dead in one, and I'm sure many others would feel the same way, which is why they didn't sell. Having said that, it's still a reasonable choice for ocasional travel around town (as long as you don't have a prang). The ute too would be good for years of use.

Good luck finding a hybrid for $10-15k. The Toyota Prius sells for close to $40k on the road, new, and I doubt there will be much change from $40,000 for the hybrid Camry when it appears in 2010. With inflation it may well be more like $42k.

Viking13, I understand that the Diahatsu not as safe as present day cars. I was considered safe when it was purchased 9 years & 90000ks ago. The Courier is 8 years old & just had its 100000 service. They'll both well maintained & will be good for years yet.

The new Camery is a large car as is the Prius, athough it is smaller. Yes, they are expensive. In fact too expensive for the average person to own a new car. Therefore they always have to have a second hand eco unfriendly bomb as their only car.

If cheaper smaller hybred cars were manufactured more people could afford to own a new car. I would like to see a small car & I'm sure that many others would also. I am asking for an Australian made small 4 seater car as a second car or as a first car and I would like to see it diesel/electric.

Except for the usual revheads who need the extra safty of the big car & buggar everbody else. I had an experience 2 nights ago with a couple of these using the gap between light changes to race down the oncoming lane. A handbrake turn then race ahead of the traffic back to the first set of lights. Entertaining--NOT.

Why are they makin hybreds petrol/electric cars in the luxury range first? Why not snall diesel/electric or HHO? Seeing that HHO is now a proven technology.

Jayb, the Prius was the first hybrid car on the market, followed by the Honda Civic. Neither are "luxury" cars by any stretch of the imagination. The Prius is a glorified Corolla, made a little bigger in the rear so that the car could have boot space after the rest is filled with batteries.

It's not easy to build a "cheap" hybrid, at least using Toyota's technology. Honda's is cheaper but less sophisticated. Both are about $10,000 or more more than an equivalent base model in the respective ranges (and a top range Prius is over $45,000!). This extra cost would buy a lot of fuel.

Not sure what you mean by "diesel-electric", perhaps a supplementary diesel motor charging batteries for electric motor(s)? Cost not much less than a hybrid. HHO? There's no such thing really. The electroysis of water to make hydrogen and oxygen yields less energy than is input to make the gases in the first place!

For my money a small diesel with supplementary LPG injection is the way to go although there is the hassle of refilling two fuels (as well as finding a place for the gas tank!).

It is actually not well known that Toyota Prius uses a more efficient variation of the petrol engine using the Atkinson instead of the usual Otto cycle. The Honda uses a system of switching off some cylinders on low power, as well as a continuously variable gear box to keep the engine at it's most efficient operating point.

It is not possible to run all cars on diesel fuel as that is only one component of crude oil. The popularity of diesels in Europe is already causing a problem in supply of diesel fuel

Logic, the Atkinson cycle engine in the Prius (and other hybrids especially Toyota/Lexus) is not "more efficient" in the usual sense. It produces only around 50kW/120Nm power/torque which is somewhat less than equivalent sized modern Otto cycle engines. The Prius' engine can operate over a fairly narrow power-band and it doesn't have to rev up and down much. This is suited by the Atkinson engine, which gives excellent economy. Manufacturers would stick with Otto cycle engines for non-hybrids because they are more eficient in that role (and power per litre is a gauge of efficiency).

I doubt Europe's love of diesel cars is causing the present hike in demand, since that popularity is hardly a recent phenomenon. What is new is huge growth in demand from India and China.

I'm not suggesting that everyone should go out and grab a diesel passenger car. Petrol engines are getting better, for instance VW's turbosupercharged 1.4 which puts out 127kW (better than many 2.0l motors) with superb economy (not much worse than a Prius, in fact). Hybrids simply aren't for everyone- they lose out in open road cruising, for instance. Great for city commuters though. My issue with hybrids remains the battery packs, which don't last the potential life of the car, and I for one would hate to throw away a 10 year old car just because the battery pack was stuffed.