Heather Peters, who took Honda to small-claims court, is not the only hybrid Civic driver suffering a bad case of buyer's remorse. Jeff Wald of Cary and Aneil Mishra of Durham say their hybrid Civics also deliver poorer and poorer fuel economy these days, too (see today's Road Worrier column with reader comments).

Local Toyota Prius drivers beg to differ.  They protest that the broadly worded print edition headline ("Hybrids not satisfying owners") should have reflect the column's more narrow focus on the gripes of Honda customers.

And they proclaim their continued happiness with their non-Honda hybrids ... [MORE]

Interested in test-driving a plug-in electric hybrid Toyota Prius? If you're in Raleigh, today's your lucky day. Find out more here.
 

Anyone interested in test-driving a plug-in electric hybrid Toyota Prius should high-tail it to the farmers market on Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh today.

Toyota has supplied four of the cars -- three for test-driving and one for display -- plus a hybrid Highlander for test-driving.

The plug-in Prius will have a fuel efficiency as high as 100 miles per gallon but won't commercially available until 2012. The standard Prius on the market now can't be recharged from a wall outlet and gets about 50 miles per gallon.

The Japanese auto maker has dedicated 600 of the plug-in cars for a global demonstration project, with a quarter of the vehicles to be showcased in the United States.

Raleigh is only the fourth market in the country where the public has been able to see and drive the plug-in Prius, said Sherman Fantroy, Toyota's director for events and operations.

August 3rd was a real lucky day for Danny Roberts.

That was the day the Rougemont man won a 2010 Ford Mustang on CBS' "The Price is Right." (The show aired Nov. 2.)

Roberts was in California visiting his niece whose going to school out there. She had tickets to the show hosted by Drew Carey, so Roberts and his wife Joy, daughter Melanie, son Dan, sister Sheila and sister-in-law Sharron attended.

But it was Danny who was called on down.