Bye-Bye 2009: Worst Car of the Decade

By John LeBlanc I know. The Prius has become the best-selling gasoline-electric hybrid of all time. Over a million have been sold since the first one went on sale in 1997. You could make the argument and ask, "How can that many people be wrong?" Easy, really. Given the right conditions, the Prius—heck, any hybrid—will sip less gas than a gas-only model. And buyers get a buzz from the "HYBRID" badge. It says, "I care about the world and the people that live in it, and you don't." But the costs and compromises of driving a hybrid are huge. With the second-gen '04 Prius, you had the pleasure of paying about twice as much as a subcompact that got similar fuel savings. It was slow, handled like a shopping cart, had a steering wheel that may as well be made out of sandstone for all the feel it transmitted, didn't achieve anywhere near its rated fuel consumption in adverse driving conditions and is costly to repair out of warranty. But what cemented the Prius as my pick for Worst Car of the Decade is how it forced other automakers to dumb down their cars. If it wasn't for the Prius, we wouldn't have rubber band continuously-variable-transmissions or the word "hypermiling." Think about that. The Prius is THE car for people who loathe cars. Me? I love cars. Therein I loathe the Prius.

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