Toyota has always been on the forefront of environmentally friendly vehicles. At first it was probably just out of the desire to fill the economy market. Only they were smart and built cars that lasted forever, that's how they built their name over all these years. With economy and good mileage came efficient engines that produce less emissions than the others.
While the hybrid is a great idea, and has much more performance potential than gas only, they aren't engineering or marketing as a performance vehicle, unfortunately. Non the less their direction and intentions are right and that's the best we'll get for now, so I'll take it. I'm glad to see a major automotive manufacturer putting a cleaner option on the table, hopefully the newest generation of consumers will demand 40+ mpg and all manufacturers will follow suit.
It's crazy that the diesel VW Rabbit of the 80's, which got 50+ mpg, can't be recreated into a hybrid. Just a thought.
