Think tanked

The CATO Institute proves that even think tanks can fail to understand the basics when comparing two things. Granted, most Sesame Street afficionados wouldn’t have screwed this up but, well, these hybrids thingies are so complex…

Hybrid Cars Don’t Get Great Mileage

“Interested in an energy-efficient auto? You’re in luck. That’s because nearly every major car company has a hybrid line, or has plans to introduce one soon,” reports ABC News. “Many of the market’s hybrids — cars which combine gasoline engines with battery-powered electric motors — forsake fuel-efficiency in the name of power and performance. … In fact, the fuel economy of many new hybrids is almost indistinguishable from that of their conventionally powered counterparts.”

In “Escape from Automotive Reality,” Patrick J. Michaels, Cato senior fellow in environmental studies, writes:

“Consumer Reports compared Toyota’s hybrid Prius with its conventional Echo. Prius has been around (in Japan) since 1997, and Echo is an economized version. A base Echo sells for $10,525, and a Prius for $20,520. The difference in miles per gallon found by CR’s drivers? Three miles per gallon (41 vs. 38).

“Is that all you get for your money? CR also tested the Honda’s hybrid Insight, another $20,000 machine, and got 51mpg. It seats two and weighs 1820 lbs. Testers at Edmunds.com got the same, after over a year of ownership. Total U.S. sales in its 18-month history are a miserable 7,500 units. … In fact, you can get much more mpg out of both conventional and hybrid cars if you try. When we look at this subset, Prius owners average around 45mpg and Insighters around 62 (mine shows 69.7). But this group is much more obsessive about mileage than, say, SUV owners.”

Hey Pat, I’ll make it easy for you and reduce this to two points.

First, when you compare two cars that are quite different in most ways, for instance, size, weight and passenger compliment, you’re not really making a valid comparison and while you might wow folks who have never been in either vehicle, to the rest of us, you just look stupid.

Second, when you pick and choose your data and your subjects from different time periods, from different sources and from some sources with more than questionable reliability, then you again make yourself and your “report” look less than enlightening to those of us who know better.

If this is what think tanks produce it’s no wonder we’re where we are politically.