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11/07/2003 Entry: "2003 Alternative Drivetrain Survey"

J.D. Power and Associates sent me their 2003 Alternative Drivetrain Survey. What a hoot.

The survey centered around normal gasoline engines, clean diesel engines, and hybrids. More or less all the questions boiled down to "Are you willing to pay more for better fuel economy". There were some interesting questions on it though, like "Should the U.S. decrease its dependence on foriegn oil ?", and "How much to you expect gas prices to change in two years ?"

Surprisingly there were no questions about my willingness to buy foreign cars. The only thing I don't like about my Insight is that I had to go to Honda to get it, and that still after almost a year and a half, there are still no U.S. hybrids available. I might be willing to buy a domestic hybrid if it did slightly worse in fuel economy, say in the 52-54 mpg range as opposed to the 55-57 mpg range I'm getting now.

It seemed to me the purpose of the survey was more to raise awareness of clean diesel, than to impact auto manufacturers, like the survey's cover letter claimed. But hey, they sent me a dollar, so I returned it with the predicatable rabid hybrid-happy responses.