h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

On the motorway tonight we were overtaken. Not a biggie, granted, except...

...we were overtaken by a Toyota Prius.

So you got overtaken by something that is usually passed by stationary objects, it's no big deal whatsoever. Keeping your pride and joy safe is more important than just your pride.

Absolutely, considering earlier on in the evening some muppet in a 4x4 pulled out right in front of us on the Edinburgh bypass, causing EV to hit the brakes

But to recover some pride, when the Prius went past we were slowing down to move onto the slip road

And the Prius was going downhill. With a strong wind behind it.

They do have petrol engines as well though?

The annoying thing about the Prius is that while Toyota may make big statements about its MPG figures they rarely achieve them in real life. You can actually get better MPG from some diesels these days. Yet it is the Prius that is exempt from London congestion charges not 'normal' cars that actually pollute less. I really dislike the Prius but it does have a place as a test bed for better electric hybrids.

The pinnacle of these at the moment has got to be the Lexus RX400h a big (although not very good) 4 wheel drive car. The beauty is that little 'h' which means hybrid, all the goody goody liberals who hate chelsea tractors are faced with one that actually pollutes less than their own cars!

I maybe a big petrol head and car fan but I understand about oil running out and hybrids will one day be able to give us supercar performance at supermini fuel consumption...

There's a really funky mini hybrid which isn't a real hybrid. It's an electric car which has a petrol generator in it so that you can recharge the battaries while out and about. Plus it's four wheel drive and has a very good top speed, 150mph, and a 0-60 time, 4.5 secs, better than a Porche 911. Also it's British, made by PML.

I think biofuels may be the way forward myself. And if they've already started supplementing petrol supplies with it that means no messy conversion work

Oh yeah, this made me giggle http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/12/kamikaze_prius/