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What's Brewing

Cars like Prius may free us

By SUSAN THURSTON
Published October 7, 2005

Richard Lehfeldt goes to the gas station about as often has he pays bills - once a month.

It has nothing to do with his driving habits but everything to do with what he's driving.

Lehfeldt drives a 2002 Honda Insight, one of the first hybrid cars to hit the U.S. market. He bought it four years ago at the urging of a college friend who had one.

"I drove it and fell in love with it," he said. "I love the ride and the look of it."

Lehfeldt, who lives on Davis Islands, takes pride in being one of the first in Tampa to cruise in a car powered by gas and electricity. Today, he's one of an ever expanding crowd.

Soaring gas prices and environmental concerns are prompting more and more people to hop on the hybrid bandwagon. And it's about time. Places like smog-filled Los Angeles and green-loving San Francisco jumped on years ago.

Leigh Toborowsky says demand for hybrids has climbed since she started selling cars at Stadium Toyota a year ago. Demand spiked after Hurricane Katrina hit - guaranteeing sticker shock at the pumps.

Great gas mileage is the biggest draw. The Toyota Prius gets up to 60 miles per gallon in the city and about 50 on the highway. (Unlike gas-only cars, hybrids use less gas around town than on the open road.) Pronounced PREE-us, the name Prius aptly comes from Latin, meaning "to go before" - another perk for wannabe auto pioneers.

Eugenie Bondurant and her husband, Paul Wilborn, the city's creative industries manager, bought a 2005 Prius in January from Toborowsky, their neighbor in Old Seminole Heights. Bondurant had been drooling for a Prius for three years, ever since a friend in California got one.

Admittedly, she was too cheap to take the plunge. Cars aren't her thing, especially flashy ones hot off the line. Her last car: a 1993 Ford Escort.

One spin in a new Prius and she was hooked. She especially liked the color, seaside pearl. Reminds her of the ocean and earth.

"It's amazing," she said. "You feel really good when you drive it around."

Bondurant feels good every time she fuels up, which is almost never, and every time she thinks about the car's role in helping the environment.

Driving a Prius from Anchorage to Miami reportedly produces fewer smog-forming emissions than using one can of insect repellent.

Call me a simplistic tree hugger, but you can argue that hybrids will help save the world. Use less gas and we won't be so dependent on Middle Eastern oil barons. Use less gas and maybe we won't be so adamant about Iraq.

And lest we forget the possibilities closer to home, guzzling less produces fewer emissions, reducing global warming. Cooler air means cooler water, which (insert drum roll here) perhaps could translate to fewer hurricanes.

So drive a hybrid and avoid Katrinas!

Saving the world will cost you. Hybrids generally cost a few thousand dollars more than a comparable car. Bondurant spent about $30,000 on her loaded four-door Prius, with its leather seats, multidisc CD player, global positioning system and Smart Key System, which automatically opens the driver door.

Depending on what features you want, getting a hybrid can take a few months, which is actually down from last year. Stadium Toyota has a waiting list for the Priuses; they seldom reach the lot.

Owning a hybrid includes membership to a brotherhood. Owners brag, swap stories and trade gas mileage records about their cars. Strangers constantly ask, "Do you like it?"

Plenty respond, "Heck yeah."

Mark Saul bought a tideland pearl-colored Prius less than a year ago. He wanted to be part of the hybrid evolution and thought it was the smart thing to do, says his wife, City Council member Linda Saul-Sena.

It's his car, but she snags it at every chance.

"It's really attractive and comfortable," she said. "It's really zippy."

So zippy that their 15-year-old daughter is already eyeing a less expensive hybrid SUV expected to come out next year.

She's fired up about the future of hybrids, and we should be too.

THE LAST DROP: The Tampa Museum of Art's latest exhibit, "Georgia O'Keeffe and Her Time," is off to a respectable start. Attendance reached more than 1,200 during last weekend's debut.

- Susan Thurston can be reached at 226-3394 or thurston@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 6, 2005, 08:25:09]