I'm no tree-hugger myself. But, I have nothing against anyone buying a Prius. It's their money. it's their perogative. Who am I to tell them otherwise? Hybrids aren't ideal. But, neither are diesels. Here, diesels have a stigma of being smoky with choking fumes. It may be an exaggeration. But, that's probably why they're not very popular here even though they're bound to have very good fuel mileage.

Here, even in the worst rush hour scenario with bumper to bumper traffic, it's almost guaranteed I can roll down all 4 windows and not get a whiff of smoky fumes on my face. In fact, I do that often on the way to work. I credit that to strict emissions for regular petrol engines.

I don't think there's any single solution that's ideal. There's the hybrid crowd. There's the diesel crowd and there's the everyday petrol engine crowd. My personal preference is the regular petrol engine with strict emissions that's already in effect here.

If diesels can pass the emissions standard for petrol engines, then I might consider it. And that's not even taking engine refinement and hp into account.