Hybrid reliability is a dangerous mystery.
You're at a red light, and you hear the quiet purr of your gentle hybrid whining down and shutting off. You smile, because you know you're not polluting while standing still, and you're saving buckets of gas. When the light turns green, you hit the accelerator and slowly start to creep. You're used to this now, because you bought the so-called full hybrid, and you assume that it's probably just the electric motors doing their thing.

That makes you smile again. But something is wrong; people are honking and you're still going 3 mph. You get to the middle of the intersection and, oh oh - the darn thing clicks off and dies.

You're not smiling anymore.
Of course, automakers have run their hybrid darlings through tough tests that simulate real-world conditions. But buyer beware -- this is the same crowd that suffers through constant recalls on cars they've been building for 20 years. Granted, all hybrids offer warranties of around 8 years/100,000 miles, but even the best warranty can't call a tow truck, make your 5-year-old behave on the side of the road, or live with the upheaval of vehicle repair. The fact is, like the ratings given for fuel economy, it's nearly impossible to accurately gauge how a car will stand up to the daily grit of traffic jams, run-and-gun drivers and hard braking. Sure, hybrids such as the Honda Insight, Honda Civic Hybrid and Toyota Prius have survived the first generation largely unscathed, but these are small cars, and the powertrain technology of today's hybrid vehicles is more complex. The end result is the potential for breakdowns, costly repairs and wasted time. Common sense dictates that smart buyers will wait to see how the first raft of these more powerful and complex hybrid systems perform on the streets of America.