2011 Kia Optima Hybrid Review

The 2011 Kia Optima Hybrid.

As impressed as we were with the 2011 Kia Optima just a month ago, nothing could have prepared us for the Kia Optima Hybrid.

Here's the recipe: Take everything that makes the Optima a winner, and add a hybrid powerplant. But make it a hybrid powerplant that delivers the mileage. 24 mpg city/34 highway in the gasoline Optima becomes 35 city/40 highway in the Optima Hybrid...good enough to vault into 7th place on TireKicker's Top 10 Fuel Savers, ahead of smaller, lesser-performing cars like the Honda CR-Z and Lexus HS 250h.

The 2011 Kia Optima Hybrid rear view.

Best part of it all? The price spread between gasoline and hybrid is small as such things go...$4,005.  Now, admittedly, that's the difference between $22,495 and $26,500. But if your priorities include using less gasoline and putting fewer pollutants into the air, there are higher prices to pay.

Much like the gasoline version from a month ago, this Optima Hybrid was loaded. You might remember the $22,495 wound up being $27,440. Well, in this case, a single option, the $5,000 Premium Technology Package (Nav system with backup camera, Sirius Traffic, an Infinity audio system, panoramic sunroof, auto-dimming rearview mirror with Homelink and compass, upgraded 17-inch tires with alloy wheels, auto-leveling HID headlamps, leather seat trim, driver's seat memory, heated and cooled front seats, heated outboard rear seats, a heated steering wheel and power front passenger's seat) ran the price with $750 freight and handling to $32,250.

Yeah, that's a pricey Kia. But again, it's less than five grand above the loaded gasoline version.

The 2011 Kia Optima Hybrid gauge cluster.

So...the big question: How's the mileage? Well, we did 225 miles of purely city street driving over the course of a week, and got 31.0 miles per gallon. Yes, the EPA estimate is 35 city, but the small print under that number says "expected range for most drivers 29 to 41 mpg". So we're in the ballpark. As always, your mileage may vary. I'd bet on having hit 35 had we done our usual amount of freeway driving...and on a roadtrip, 40's probably realistic.

Bottom line: Kia's on a roll, and the Optima is a contender not just among family sedans, but among alternative-energy vehicles as well.


2011 Kia Optima Hybrid

Base price: $26,500

As tested: $32,250

Likes: Styling, smooth power, impressive mileage for its size.

Dislikes: Overly sensitive tire pressure monitoring system.

EPA estimates: 35 mpg city/40 mpg highway.

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2012 Infiniti M Hybrid Review

The 2012 Infiniti M Hybrid rear view.

In a break with (sometime) TireKicker tradition, we're showing you the rear view of the Infiniti M Hybrid first, because it is how you will most likely see one. You see, just yesterday (9/21/11), no less than an adjucator from the Guiness Book of World's Records and the UK's CAR Magazine certified the M Hybrid as the world's fastest full hybrid.

Now, its 0-60 time of 5.0 seconds is plenty impressive, but CAR decided real speed is best measured in quarter-miles, and there, the M Hybrid did it in an average of 13.9 seconds...tying the 1/4 mile performance of a 1982 Lamborghini Countach, coming within a tenth of a second of the 1998 BMW M3 and within three-tenths of a second of the 2007 Aston Martin Volante and the 2007 Porsche 911 Carerra.

That's gonna sell some cars.

2012 Infiniti M Hybrid. The World's Fastest Full Hybrid.

I'd been driving one for six days when the news broke, and I was already a fan. I could tell, just from the seat of my pants, that this was a phenomenally quick, smooth luxury sedan that just happened to be hybrid-powered.

Not exactly a surprise, really, since it was only five months ago that we got all excited over the gasoline-powered M37.

The surprise was this felt just as good and we knew we were saving gas, at a price only about $7,000 more than the gas version. Yeah, we know...seven grand is seven grand, but Infiniti could have charged more (there are hybrids out there running much closer to a $10K premium over the gasoline-powered equivalent).

The EPA says 27 city/32 highway for the M Hybrid...and we didn't quite get there. In our 500 miles of 70 percent city street/30 percent urban freeway driving, we only averaged 24.9. But then, there's something about that magnificent power package (30 horsepower more than the gas version) that tells you to go ahead and plant your foot in it. I wish I could claim will power, but I can't. Still, that tops the 18/26 EPA estimate for the gasoline M37.

And the fact that the M Hybrid allows you (under the right conditions) to run up to 62 miles per hour on electric power doesn't enforce light-footedness the way hybrids that dip into the fuel tank above 25 miles an hour do.

2012 Infiniti M Hybrid interior.

It all starts at $53,700 with an impressive list of standard features. Too long for me to re-type. Wanna know what they are? Infiniti's M Hybrid webpage has that covered. Our tester added the Delue Touring Package (Japanese White Ash wood trim with genuine silver powder accents, semi-aniline leather appointed seating, a Bose 5.1 channel 16-speaker Premium Audio system, Forest Air filtration, a suede-like headliner, soft double-stitched meter hood and power rear sunshade) for $3,800.

Next was the Premium Package (hard drive navigation system, 8-inch color touchscreen display, voice recognition, XM NavTraffic and NavWeather, Zagat Survey restaurant review, climate controlled front seats and a heated steering wheel) for $3,350.

The little stuff? $650 for 18-inch aluminum-alloy wheels, $360 for illuminated kick plates and $200 for a trunk mat, trunk net and first aid kit. Toss in destination charges of $895 and the bottom line is $62,955.

And it feels like so much more.  Even if it weren't the fastest, we'd love it.

2012 Infiniti M Hybrid

Base price: $53,700

As tested: $62,955

Likes: Styling, power, quality of materials, power, workmanship, power and...did we mention power? Oh, yeah...and better mileage, too.

Dislikes: A little hesitation off the line as the car wakes up and brings the engine back to life.

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2011 Kia Optima Review

The 2011 Kia Optima. Yes, Kia Optima.

The progress made by Korean automakers Kia and Hyundai the past few years has been nothing less than remarkable. It's the same basic story as how Toyota, Nissan (then Datsun) and Honda went from footnotes to mainstream best-sellers, but with a much steeper curve, negotiated much more quickly.

But even the rapid rise to respectability couldn't prepare us for the giant leap that is the 2011 Kia Optima. Until now a generic-looking sedan that fit right in as a rental car, the Optima now is gorgeous (if not absolutely, then certainly by family sedan standards), stylish and has bypassed contemporary for futuristic.

Rear view of the 2011 Kia Optima.

That particular "F" word, "futuristic",  is fraught with peril for manufacturers on that side of the Pacific, who have produced some designs that look like mutant insects from a 1950s sci-fi flick. But not the new Optima. The future here is one that's within sight from the present...where other manufacturers have been heading, but won't arrive for another move or two, that's where the 2011 Kia Optima is now.

The Optima starts at a very reasonable $19,200 for the LX with a manual transmission. Our tester was the EX with an automatic...boosting the price of entry to $22,495. You keep the same 2.4 liter four cylinder engine (200 horsepower), but step up to 17" wheels from 16s, and you get chrome accent door handles, clear-lens projector headlights, front fog lights, dual body-color heated power mirrors, Smart Key & pushbutton start, dual zone automatic climate control, the passenger gets an auto-down feature for the power window, door mood lamps and rear reading lamps, auto-dimming rearview mirror with HomeLink and compass, an 8-way power driver's seat, leather seat trim and aluminum interior trim. That's a lot of upgrades for $3,295.

2011 Kia Optima Interior.

And then there's the interior. And I'll be honest. At first, I felt let down. The surfaces and materials felt cheap to me. I finally figured it out...they're exactly right and maybe a bit better than they need to be for this segment and this price point....but the car gives the impression of being a much more expensive piece...my brain was thinking $40,000 when I slid behind the wheel. Again, the reality is $22,495.

That, of course, is before options, and the Kia press fleet folks added two...the Technology Package (a navigation system with backup camera and Sirius Traffic plus an upgraded Infinity audio system with 8 speakers) for $2,000...and the EX Premium Package (Panoramic sunroof, power front passenger seat, driver seat memory, heated and cooled front seats, heated outboard rear seats and a heated steering wheel) for $2,250.

Regular TireKicker readers know our mantra when it comes to $2,000 factory nav systems ("Your phone does that"), but the Infinity audio system sounds mighty nice, so maybe that's only a grand worth of nav.

With those two options and a $695 freight and handling charge, the sticker price on the 2011 Kia Optima we drove was $27,440. Slick, smooth, clean, quiet...EPA estimates of 24 city/34 highway and Kia's 10 year/100,000 mile limited powertrain warranty, 5 year/60,000 mile limited basic warranty and 5 year/60,000 mile roadside assistance. Hard to go wrong.

And there's a hybrid version for 2012 that will be in our hands in early October.

Camry, Accord, Altima, Mazda 6, Sonata, Fusion and Malibu, move over. There's a new contender you have to share the stage with.

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2011 Porsche Cayenne Hybrid Review

The 2011 Porsche Cayenne Hybrid. Green with grins.

The very idea of a Porsche hybrid takes some big-time explaining for a lot of people. A $67,700 Porsche hybrid SUV even more so.

The Porsche Cayenne is the SUV in question, and to a lot of Porsche purists, it was the Porsche that wasn't supposed to be built anyway. It was counter to the marque's mission of building laser-focused sports cars with 2 doors and low centers of gravity.

But the Cayenne has been a success. Porsche builds a lot of them and has built market share squarely on its broad shoulders. And since powerful SUVs have taken the biggest hit when gas prices get squirrely, wouldn't they be the perfect place to employ a little hybrid technology?

The 2011 Porsche Cayenne Hybrid. A few extra MPG for a couple extra Gs.

Hybrid luxo-SUVs aren't new anyway...three years ago, when TireKicker was a toddler, we spent in a week in and then wrote about the Cadillac Escalade Hybrid...which, in 2008 was 5 grand more than this year's Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid.  The Porsche has the edge on performance (0-60 in 6.1 seconds), handling (elementary physics) and, as it turns out, gas mileage, though neither of them pump up the EPA estimates to Prius levels.

In fact, the Hybrid Cayenne S only gets about 2 miles more per gallon in the city and on the highway  (20/24) than the non-hybrid version. But Porsche only charges a couple of grand more to make the gas/electric leap.

The 2011 Porsche Cayenne Hybrid Interior. You could get used to this.

$67,700 might strike you as something of a bargain for the Cayenne S Hybrid...and you're right. For what you get, that's a fairly compelling base price. But with Porsche, the difference between base price and as-tested price often jumps by the price of a loaded Honda Fit once you get into the optional equipment. And that's what happened to our test vehicle. About $16,000 worth of options got poured onto and into the machine ($4520 of it for the Convenience Package alone), for an endgame (including destination charges of $84,950.

Yes, that's very different from $67,700, but it's not out of the territory for Porsche buyers...who, with the Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid, get arguably the best of all worlds: An SUV that saves a bit of gas and a bit of the planet because it's a hybrid, and is a Porsche.

Try as you might (and a lot of journalists have tried very hard the past few years to poke holes in the Cayenne), it's tough to find fault with the finished product. It works like an SUV, goes and handles like a Porsche (okay, the center of gravity does affect things...but there's no other SUV that can play in the twisties like this one) and the hybrid system is unobtrusive.  A dealer-accompanied half-hour test drive will have you wanting one. A week unsupervised (as we got) just makes it worse. If Porsche sent it back to us tomorrow, we'd be happy campers.

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2011 Lexus CT 200h Premium Review

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The 2012 Lexus CT 200h.

Extending your brand is a tricky thing...especially if you're well-defined. Take Lexus, for example. The name says upscale, well-built, smooth, quiet and refined.

Lexus has broadened beyond that successfully with their IS 350, a performance machine, and it's done it not all that successfully with the HS 250h.

The latter fell short because it's clearly a re-badged Toyota hybrid (one not sold in the States), slathered in so much Lexus luxo that it starts at $37,000 and can be optioned (as ours was) to within a few bucks of $50,000.

Well, this time around, Lexus has done about all it can do if it really wants to sell small hybrids...it's come up with another one, but this time kept the price in line.

The Lexus CT 200h hybrid. Is the world ready for a Lexus hatchback?

How'd they do that? Well, they started with a smaller Toyota. The CT 200h is 14.7 inches shorter than the HS 250h, with a 3.9 inch shorter wheelbase, and it's 8/10ths of an inch narrower. Headroom and front shoulder room, however, are better in the smaller car (sold in the UK in non-hybrid form as the Toyota Avensis).

The gasoline engine is smaller, too...1.8 liters and 134 horsepower as opposed to 2.4 liters and 187 horsepower. And that results in better EPA figures...43 city/40 highway compared to 35 city/34 highway.

As a result of all that, the base price for the CT 200h Premium is $30,900 and it comes with an impressive list of standard features: Moonroof, heated seats, NuLuxe trim interior, three-spoke leather-trimmed steering wheel with audio and cruise controls, a 10-way multi-adjustable power driver's seat with 2-way power lumbar support, SmartAccess with pushbutton start, electroluminescent Optitron gauges, automatic dual-zone climate control, a tilt/telescoping steering column, 4-mode drive mode select, driver information center with trip computer, a six-speaker AM/FM/CD/SiriusXM audio system with USB and miniplug inputs, Bluetooth, power windows and door locks, personalized settings, a tonneau cover and carpeted floor mats.

The 2011 Lexus CT 200h hybrid interior. Lots of gadgetry, but does the quality say "Lexus"?

The tester came with a few options, too: A Premium Audio Package (taking us up to 10-speakers, 6 CD changer instead of a single-play, plus an auto-dimming electrochromic rearview mirror with compass and a Lexus Homeline universal transciever) for $1,125...LED headlamps with auto-leveling and headlamp washers for $1,215, the leather package (perforated leather seats with driver seat memory, rain-sensing intermittent wipers with mist cycle and auto-dimming outer mirrors with memory) for $1,330...a cargo net for $75, and illuminated door sills for $299.

That makes the bottom line with delivery fee $35,819...which is still less than the base price of the HS 250h we drove.

But three things hover over the CT 200h.

One...it's slow. Just a hair shy of 10 seconds 0-60. Those four driving modes we mentioned? They're EV (purely electric for short distances at slow speeds...you'll never use it on the street for more than a few feet) , Eco, Normal and Sport. And that almost 10 second 0-60 time? That's Sport.

Two...do not adjust your monitor. That exterior color is real. It's called Daybreak Yellow Mica. And it's scarier in person than it is in pictures. It also makes the CT 200h look like a cheap little car. Which, when you're a Lexus salesman trying to get someone to part with between 30 and 36 large and one in that color is sitting on the showroom floor, has to make the job a bit harder.

And three...the question of whether Lexus should be in this segment at all. Wouldn't a real Lexus, something a bit further from the Prius, be a better move? Maybe a hybrid version of the IS250?

Then again, maybe not. The CT 200h was the third-best selling hybrid in the U.S. in July, 2011...and in the top 10 for the calendar year to date. If you see what we don't, click the "comments' button and let us know.

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2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid Preview

The 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid.

And TireKicker's unofficial "Green Week" (yesterday, the Nissan Leaf, Tuesday the Chevrolet Volt) continues with a car you can't buy yet. In fact, you can't even put in an order yet.

The 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid goes on sale sometime in spring of 2012 in  Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. The rest of the country waits until sometime in 2013. Orders won't be taken until late this year, but Toyota, which has been running a demonstration program of 600 Prius Plug-Ins for the last couple of years, has begun putting examples into the hands of automotive journalists, and that got us a week at the wheel.

The 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid's plug-in port.

Apart from the decal along the bottom of the doors reading "Plug-In Hybrid", that little door in the left front fender is the only obvious difference between a regular Prius and the plug-in. The Priuses on the street the past decade don't need to be plugged in. The batteries aren't allowed to drain fully and recharge through braking and other regenerative activity.

Charging the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid.

So what's the point of the Plug-In? Well, the standard Prius has extremely limited capabilities running on purely electric power...get above 25 miles per hour and the gasoline engine kicks in. Drive at most one mile on electricity alone, and the same thing happens.

The Prius Plug-In will operate in EV (electric vehicle) mode "under certain conditions" up to "near freeway speeds" for "approximately 10-15 miles".

The 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid's range indicator.

That's a lot of maybes, but it does allow people going short distances at city street and freeway speeds to do it (under certain conditions) without using gasoline. And you have the gasoline engine when the battery decides the party's over.

Because the battery isn't being asked to propel the car for 35 miles like the Volt, or 100 miles like the Leaf (both those are manufacturer estimates...under certain conditions), the Prius Plug-In Hybrid needs less recharging time. And this is likely to be a big selling point. Both the Volt and Leaf need 14 hours (give or take) to fully recharge a drained battery on 120V household current. Toyota says the Prius Plug-In will do it in 3 hours. And if you use a 240V charger, that drops to an hour and a half.

With at least 60 days to go before orders are taken (maybe longer) and perhaps six months or more before the first owners take delivery, it's too soon to come to conclusions about the Prius Plug-In, its usefulness, and where it will fit in a rapidly growing field of alternative vehicle. Will the limits of its pure electric operation be too much of a compromise for green buyers? Or will its either/or concept and the promise of quick recharge be a game-changer?

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UPDATE: Make That $41,000 For A Single Volt

But that includes delivery charges.

(Cue crickets)

Chevy says it can make the argument that unlike the purely electric Nissan Leaf, which starts below $33,000 before tax credits, the plug-in hybrid Volt is a "real" car. And GM's working some math magic to make lease payments competitive with the Leaf despite the sticker spread.

Full details from The Detroit News.

And full credit to Edward Neidemeyer over at The Truth About Cars , who got past the price tag, hauled out the spec sheet and found the Volt's range extender (what you and I might quaintly call a "gasoline engine") requires.....

Premium fuel.

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Toyota Highlander 4 Cylinder and Hybrid Review

A four-cylinder Highlander would have been considered a great leap backwards just a couple of years ago. Now it looks like an inspired move.

187 horsepower turns out to be adequate to move this mid-size SUV, and the resulting gas mileage (20 city/27 highway) is nearly identical to the much smaller 6-cylinder RAV4, which gets 21 city/27 highway.

Not only that, but the 4-cylinder Highlander I drove for a week was optioned sensibly (upgraded audio system, cold weather package, convenience package, manual rear air conditioning, the third row seat package, the towing prep package, cargo and floor mats and a tow hitch with wiring harness added less than $4,000 to the $25,705 base price)...resulting in a bottom line 2 grand lower than the V6 RAV 4.

More SUV...less money...essentially the same gas mileage. In this economy, that sounds like a strong package.

UPDATE: The polar opposite of the brilliance of the 4-cylinder Toyota Highlander is the Toyota Highlander Hybrid. Seven miles more per gallon in the city, true...but two fewer on the highway (27 city/25 highway)...with a base price $16,000 higher. That's right...the starting price is $41,020. And Toyota loaded our tester with enough options to hit $49,086 (an Extra Value Package discount brought the final number down to $48,386).

That's 20 grand more for the same vehicle with a different powerplant, a higher trim level and more options. As with so many hybrids, the Highlander is fine to drive, makes you feel good about your relationship to the environment and all that....but can't win the value argument.

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Ford Fusion Hybrid Wins Break-Even Contest

Here's the deal with hybrids. You pay a few thousand dollars more than you would for the gasoline-only equivalent of that car and you get a few miles per gallon more. How long before those gas savings pay for the extra cost of the hybrid version?

That depends on the car. The Ford Fusion Hybrid is the best bet, according to The San Francisco Chronicle...with the next best taking more than twice as long to put you in the black. But that's the nearly identical 

(and not significantly higher priced) Mercury Milan Hybrid. 

Huh?  Full story here.

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VIDEO: Runaway Prius In Arizona: Driver Says He Was Standing On Brake, Toyota Says "Driver Error"

Chuck Schmeiser says he was a doubter when it came to unintended acceleration until two months ago, when he says he almost killed a parking attendant as his car lurched forward and he couldn't stop it.

He had it towed to a dealer, Toyota flew in an inspector who said it was driver error, and Chuck sold the car and bought a Honda (a new Insight, also a hybrid).


This story's only now coming out because the incident happened on private property, law enforcement wasn't involved and Schmeiser approached Phoenix NBC affiliate KPNX's consumer reporters. That's when the story made the wires and went national.

Full disclosure: My day job is with ABC affiliate KNXV (ABC15), which aired the video by reporter Eric English at the top of this story.

Worth reading: What's behind most fully-investigated cases of unintended acceleration.

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Mercedes-Benz S-Class To Go All-Hybrid?

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Mercedes-Benz, whose parent company is already considering a technology and stock deal with Renault-Nissan to meet European emissions standards, is also under the gun on upcoming fuel economy requirements.

One idea is to make all flagship S-Class models, including the high-performance AMG models, hybrid-only, beginning with the next generation which hits Europe in 2013 and the U.S. in 2014.

But Automotive News says Mercedes-Benz dealers in the U.S. aren't happy with that idea at all.

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Lincoln Hybrid MKZ Unveil At NYC Auto Show

Lexus is rolling out the hybrids, so why not Lincoln? Expect an announcement this week at the New York Auto Show that there will be a 2011 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid.

Not that big a stretch, really...given that the MKZ is a derivative of the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan, both of which have hybrid models. We loved the Milan Hybrid...but will the MKZ be different enough to justify the Lincoln price tag?

The Detroit News talked to at least one analyst who isn't so sure. Story here.

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Mazda To License Prius Hybrid Technology From Toyota

You'll see Mazda hybrids on the street in 2013, but there'll be Toyota technology helping to power the new Mazda Sky engine.

Full story from The Detroit News here.

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Unanimous: Harrison, NY PD Agrees: Driver Error, Not Unintended Acceleration

The one on the right is the gas pedal. The one on the left is the brake pedal. The chief of the Harrison, New York Police Department says, yep...the 55 year old woman who crashed her Toyota Prius hybrid into a stone wall two weeks ago...the one he said couldn't have been driver error at the time.....was, well, driver error, the most common cause of fully investigated unintended acceleration incidents.

Captain Anthony Marracccini says his department's investigation confirms what Toyota and the NHTSA's found...that the throttle was wide-open at the time of impact...with no sign of any application of the brake.

AP story via The Detroit News here. Conversations among Prius drivers on the PriusChat forums.

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Harrison, NY Police To Announce "Runaway Prius" Findings This Afternoon

Yes, we know...in fact, we told you on Friday...the NHTSA says the 55-year old woman whose Prius crashed into a wall in the NYC suburb had her foot on the gas, not the brake.

But instead of saying..."yeah...what the feds say....", the Harrison PD plans to announce their own findings this afternoon. It should be interesting, given that the police chief started by ruling out driver error at the scene two weeks ago, then amended his position to a definite maybe last week, before the NHTSA announced the results of its investigation.

The PriusChat forums are talking about it here.

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Lexus CT200h Premium Compact Hybrid A Go

Last month, the Geneva Auto Show, next year, your dealer's showroom.

The Detroit News is reporting that Lexus will launch the CT200h hybrid early next year.

It will be Lexus' second compact hybrid. Read our take on the HS250h here, and Prius owners are talking about the video above and the car in it on the PriusChat forums, and there's a second thread about it as well.

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Lexus LS600h Hybrid Review

The truth, although a lot of people don't know it, is that hybrids aren't really about saving money. Yes, gas mileage is usually better than a conventionally-powered version of the same vehicle, but on gas price alone, you'd have to drive that hybrid for about nine years in most cases to make up the price difference in gas savings.

No, hybrids are about saving the environment and making statements.

The Lexus LS600h Hybrid certainly aces that last part.

                     

Making statements is about getting noticed....and the big Lexus does that for you. The re-design of a couple of seasons ago turned the LS from the anonymous luxury car into a head-turner. It's not the shape...there's still a lot of "large Toyota Camry" in there...rather, it's in details that just scream "money". And the LS600h turns them up several notches.

Really, it has to. You see, you can buy the "base" LS,  the LS460, for $65,380.

The LS600h starts at $108,800.

Nope. Not a typo. $108,800...$42,620 more than the LS460.

Find the right dealer on a good day and you might be able to take two LS460s home for the price of one LS600h.

Now, you get the long-wheelbase, which would cost you five grand extra on a gas-powered LS....and the hybrid engine here packs 438 horsepower, compared to a mere 380 in the LS460.

That means 0-60 in 5.5 seconds....but wait! The lighter LS460 gets there in 5.4.

And here's the kicker: Buy the gas-powered model...and you'll get better gas mileage. At least on the highway. An LS460 is EPA rated at 16 city/24 highway. The LS600h is 20 city/22 highway. 

With that small a mileage difference and that big a cost difference, you won't live long enough to recover the extra money spent on gas savings.

                     

So why buy one? Because it's the ultimate Lexus LS. If that's what you're after....this is where you get it all, the finest materials, most-cutting edge options, extra engine power  (quiet about that 1/10th of a second slower to 60 part, okay?) and green status to boot (as long as no one thinks about it too carefully).

And that means you'll probably pop for the few available options as well. What's an extra $5280 for the rear power seat package and $2850 for the Lexus Pre-Collison System and Dynamic Radar Cruise Control?

Put that together with $875 for a delivery fee and you have, equipped like our tester, a grand total of:

$117,805. 

Plus tax and license, of course.

Greenpeace members with a Platinum card, your ride is ready.

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UPDATE: NY Prius Case Human Error

NHTSA says the Toyota Prius driven into a wall by a 55 year old woman in Harrison, New York last week did not experience sudden acceleration. Investigators say their technical analysis of the vehicle show the throttle was open and no brakes were being applied.

That's what's called human error...and as we reported last week, that's the most common finding once investigators dig into allegations of unintended acceleration.

So it's two down as Toyota battles back against sensational stories of Priuses that allegedly defied driver attempts to stop.

Full story from The Detroit News here and discussion on the Prius Chat forums here.

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VIDEO: NBC Nightly News Monday (3/15) on Jim "Runaway Prius" Sikes

After a week of media hyperventilation, it's nice to see solid reporting that prioritizes the salient facts.

NBC Nightly News' coverage of Monday's Toyota news conference played up the most telling fact...that instead of braking as hard as he could, the evidence suggests Jim Sikes may have been riding the brakes on his Prius...off and on the gas and brakes as much as 250 times during his alleged unintended acceleration incident a week ago.

And, they actually interviewed someone who knows something about cars and drivers...former Car and Driver editor-in-chief Csaba Csere.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

ABC has grasped the significance of the 250 applications of the brake pedal, too...CBS makes no mention of it.

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WATCH: Jim "Runaway Prius" Sikes' Least Favorite Video: Toyota Preliminary Findings On His Car

"It would seem that the account of the driver is inconsistent with the technical investigation."

That's Toyota's single-sentence sum-up of the teardown of Jim Sikes' car. Want to see them say it...and what happens to a speeding Prius when you do one of the several things that will stop it?

Just click play.




And don't think Toyota's going to go quietly. They dropped the nugget that the evidence suggests Sikes was on and off the brakes and gas 250 times during his wild ride...in contrast to his statement to police that he was standing on the brake.

And the news release has this solid punch of a sentence:

These findings suggest that there should be further examination of Mr. Sikes account of the events of March 8.

Read the complete news release from today's news conference here. 

Related link: The Prius chat board discusses the findings.

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