Anti-Hybrid: Deemphasizing.  It's a trick that dates way back, used by the insincere for ages.  When you cite measurements & statistics, they respond with their own... not entirely related to the topic being discussed though, but rather close.  An example that's quite popular is when the anti-hybrid provide data from a manual transmission vehicle.  The discussion was about automatics.  That's the type of real-world samples you wanted to hear about.  But instead, they deemphasized your point by providing something else instead... something that was just barely similar enough to spark discussion about.  People have had the choice between manual & automatic for decades.  The overwhelming & undeniable favorite is automatic.  They didn't choose manual before, why would they now... especially when a hybrid like Prius delivers even better MPG without requiring the driver to shift.  Don't allow them to alter that decision.  Emphasize the fact that you still want an automatic.

Anti-Hybrid: Quoting Out-Of-Context.  This is the all-time classic, used in written reports, television new stories, and now messages on forums.  All they have to do is exclude the part of what you said that they didn't like to completely change the meaning of what was actually said.  A wonderful example of this is when I pointed out that the Atkinson engine pumping cycle was the only way (currently known) to achieve increased efficiency and reduced emissions.  An especially devious anti-hybrid person simply dropped the "and reduced emissions" from his reply.  Then he repeated that truncated sentence over and over and over again, pointing out to people that I had absolutely no clue what I was talking about, there are several other methods of achieving better efficiency.  Quoting me out of context like that allowed him to mislead.  He fought hard too, saying I didn't mention anything about emissions in the original message.  And since that forum so conveniently buries older posts, that made it extremely difficult to prove which message was actually the original.  Consider yourself warned.  Think about replies carefully.  The antagonist will seek out the chance to manipulate what you say by not quoting correctly.

Anti-Hybrid: Twisting Events.  The number of times this happens is quite frustrating.  The antagonists take full advantage of how stories quickly get distorted when passed from person to person.  But rather than it being a natural interpretation side-effect, they introduce the twisting intentionally.  Skewing of events is simple too, all you have to do is mix up the timing.  The alternate chronology allows a different outcome to be assumed.  Along with the poor natural of online communications, the opportunity for misunderstanding grows with the greatest of ease.  After all, how do you think urban legends are established... lack of concise information, just like what happens with the hybrids.  And when the only facts available are twisted, the outcome is never good.

Anti-Hybrid: Irrelevant Comments.  How many times have you wondered why a comment was made?  Perhaps you should ask yourself that more often.  All too frequently, totally irrelevant comments, things have nothing to do with the specific topic being discussed, are added to a message.  The purpose is illicit, an attempt to divert attention.  They trick you into thinking it is important though, since it will typically be another popular subject often present in forums.  The thing is, it serves absolutely no purpose in that particular spot.  But since it is a topic of interest, side conversations will emerge in that same thread.  That dilutes the discussion, providing a victory for the anti-hybrid by the unknowing people that found what they had to same interesting.  They don't realize they helped to reduce the effectiveness of what others had to say.  The topic is essentially sabotaged.

Anti-Hybrid: Avoiding Questions.  A huge source of annoyance comes from anti-hybrid people avoiding questions.  They pretend they were never asked, no matter how many times you repeat it.  They understand that well thought out questions can result in an incriminating answer.  So, they choose to remain silent.  It gives them the opportunity to spread false beliefs too.  A wonderful example of this is when they say how unfortunate it is that Prius isn't also offered with a manual transmission.  I respond by asking, "What benefit would you get from being able to shift?"  They absolutely refuse to provide any type of feedback.  They know quite well performance increases, such as downshifting, are already available in Prius.  When additional power is needed, the engine will start up and/or the motor will join in.  No shifting is required.  For that matter, gears aren't even necessary.  You just push harder on the pedal.  The antagonist attempts to lead you to believe something is missing, that you are getting cheated by not have also having a stick to provide manual adjusts with... which is why they avoid answering the question.  Because if they did, it would reveal that the stick serves no purpose, that the ability is already included using the basic interface.

Anti-Hybrid: Ignoring Facts.  If the antagonist doesn't like something, they just ignore it.  Countless times I've seen enthusiast messages that were treated as if they never even existed.  The clich� "out of sight, out of mind" is quite fitting in this circumstance.  Only a single mention of something in a forum is virtually impossible to find.  They know that.  So they challenge themselves to never make any comment about it, hoping others will simply forget that it was ever there in the first place and reducing the odds of it being found by searches.

Anti-Hybrid: Being Vague.  This is by far the most popular deception technique.  Simply by not be specific enough, progress is impeded.  The lack of detail makes discussions ambiguous.  Agreement becomes a struggle.  People cannot follow lines of reasoning.  Intentionally withholding vital information will even lead to misunderstanding, which often feed misconceptions.  It's a sad reality, one that thrives online.  Both brief messages and lengthy nonsense are easy to propagate when just text is used.  So many aspects of interpersonal communication are completely absent in such an environment that you can get away with horrendous amounts of meaningless banter.  Derailing topic threads becomes a source of entertainment for the anti-hybrid, thriving with so much opportunity to impair.  Being vague is the key.  For example, a message states the person got 50 MPG.  What does that actually mean?  Is it a lifetime average?  Is it a record high?  Is that data from just one season or annual?  What kind of transmission did it have?  What kind of driving was that?  What tire-pressure was used?  How many miles was that?  Was the value displayed or calculated?  How was full determined when filling the tank?  What kind of gas was used?  Was the car already broken in?  You get the point.  Excluding details is a simple way to mislead.

Anti-Hybrid: Making It Personal.  There is absolutely no reason a debate should turn personal.  You should stick to the topic and argue the facts.  The anti-hybrid don't.  They do everything in their power to use your own personal experiences against you.  They don't stay distance & objective.  They don't even care about being constructive.  For that matter, they feel no shame in making up evidence.  Because that's personal, getting away with it is very easy.  Lurkers (those reading posted messages without ever joining in discussions) just assume the anti-hybrid person has somehow acquired privileged information.  Others just don't feel it necessary to question personal choices.  So they get away with it.  Purpose is lost.  Conclusions cannot be drawn.  Interest fades.  That all happens because it was made personal.  Hybrid enthusiasts want to focus on the vehicle & technology, not the owners.  Hybrid antagonist prevent that by intentionally changing the focus.

Anti-Hybrid: Parts & Repairs.  This one shows true signs of desperation.  The fear of local high-volume production freaks out the anti-hybrid supporters.  Currently, part availability is scarce and repair expertise uncommon.  They know that will change.  So the best they can do is keep your attention focused on the rare events of the past.  Someday, those arguments points will no longer exist.  Then they'll have to face their greatest fear, the fact that the new from-the-ground-up design was engineered with reliability as being very important.  Throughout automotive history, components have been improved... to the point now where they cannot get a whole lot better.  So when you study Prius, you'll see that the next step was taken.  Rather than attempt further refinement to squeeze out a minor improvement, they started from scratch.  Using the latest technology with the benefit of a massive budget and a goal to revolutionize the industry, weaknesses of the past could finally be overcome.  And they were.  Know it's just a matter of time before people discover that... making the consider about parts & repairs just a topic of trivia.

Anti-Hybrid: Disqualify Goals.  The anti-hybrid mindset is one of denial.  They quite simply do not want to acknowledge the success of the past.  So getting them to even consider what the future will bring is virtually impossible.  They'll insist growth cannot happen, that those whom have purchased hybrids already were crazed environmentalists or obsessed with making a statement.  Convincing others that the market is saturated is their goal, disqualifying the idea that anyone else could in any way be interested in getting one.  Goals like Toyota's intentions to build & sells 1,000,000 hybrids per year by 2010 get labeled as wild dreams with no basis in reality.  They're desperate to halt progress.  You'd be amazed at how many reasons they'll come up with to disqualify goals... but none are that compelling, even when combined.  It becomes increasing clear from each reply how much effort they put forth to fight the hybrid enthusiast... to the point of actually being amusing, since their reasoning simply doesn't make any sense after awhile.  And if you watch closely, you can even catch them accidentally contradict themselves.

Anti-Hybrid: Burying Replies.  Just repeating the same message content over and over and over again happens far too often.  Rather than actually answering questions and providing the necessary detail, they just continue to rehash the same fundamental remarks.  It's absolutely awful.  Nothing gets accomplished.  Posting messages of little to no value ends up making the original discussion very difficult to follow.  They bury that information by senselessly replying.  Eventually, you'll abandon the thread and move on to the next just out of frustration due to lack of anything constructive being posted.  Evidence of this can be found everywhere.  It is far more prevalent than people care to admit too.  In fact, it could even be considered the forum equivalent to email spam.  They just waste bandwidth, telling you about stuff you have already been told countless times already.

Anti-Hybrid: Topic Changing.  Abrupt topic changes are a dead giveaway that a hybrid enthusiast was winning a debate.  The antagonist will suddenly mention something completely off-topic out of the blue.  There is literally no reason whatsoever to justify it either.  They just know exactly the right thing to say to cause anger, knowing quite well that someone will take the bait.  That ends up diverting attention from the topic originally being discussed, preventing anyone from getting the chance to draw a conclusion.  It's rather blatant too.  Even newbies see it.  But preventing a response to the off-topic comment is very difficult.

Anti-Hybrid: Shortcomings.  All vehicles have actual shortcomings.  If they didn't, they'd all look the same at this point.  In reality, there are Sedans and Hatchbacks and Pickups and Minivans and SUVs and Coupes.  Serving a different purpose is what makes them different.  To add to the confusion, you also have the choice of trim level for each type... everything from basic economy to plush luxury.  Anti-Hybrid preaching will lead you to believe this is somehow a fault of the hybrid design, rather than a concept that has been true for non-hybrids for decades.  They do this by concentrating attention on a single vehicle, rather than acknowledging that the technology inside could be installed into any vehicle.

Anti-Hybrid: Already Solved.  There were genuine problems in the past; however, antagonists sight them as if the still have no solution yet.  The original tires on the Classic Prius are a prime example.  They were bad.  The rubber was so horribly soft that the car would leave marks on the road just from rounding a tight corner.  That caused them to wear out extremely fast.  Not paying attention to tire-pressure accelerated the aging even faster.  Toyota had fixed that by the third model year.  Owners had found quite a few alternate tires to choose from, even ones that offered improved traction in addition to much long-lasting rubber.  The anti-hybrid don't tell you that.  Instead, they point out problems solved quite awhile ago, making it appear as though the owner had just learned to live with it.