Hybrids.(Letter to the editor)

You allowed a basic accounting error into your calculation of the five-year extra cost of owning a hybrid car in April's "The Dollars & Sense of Hybrids." You included both the purchase price premium and the extra depreciation. Any accountant will tell you that only the depreciation should be counted as a cost. Correcting this error by removing the price premium flips the economics in favor of the hybrid in the case of the Honda Civic and Toyota Prius, while greatly reducing the cost differential for the other four vehicles you list.

ROGER IKEDA PLANO, TX

We apologize to our readers for indeed double counting. The revised report and charts detailing the comparative costs of hybrid ownership were posted online shortly after we learned of the error and are still available at www.ConsumerReports.org/autos2006.

I don't believe that manufacturers or the people who like and have bought hybrid vehicles have ever pushed the idea that hybrids should be bought because they save you money. Hybrids have been promoted because they are an improvement in terms of miles per gallon and may pollute less than other equivalent vehicles.

JAMES R. MORGAN YORKTOWN, VA

While the hybrid purchaser may not save money overall, the money is ...