People are buying these cars for a number of reasons, including some who actually care about the environment. Perhaps if Mr. Haines actually drove one of these cars, he’d find out that the engine is off when the car is stopped at traffic lights and at other times.

If Mr. Haines want to spend time and energy telling people to not buy a certain car, how about picking on gas-guzzling SUVs instead? With my newer 2004 Prius, I took my family of five on a 3,000-mile road trip, averaging more than 50 miles per gallon. Can another car do that?

I’m also the proud owner of an ever-more amazing car, the RAV4 electric vehicle. I charge my car at night about every four days, costing me about $2 to be able to go more than100 miles. I usually go at least a month and a half before having to fill up my Prius.

The real future is a plug-in hybrid, where the use of gas can be skipped entirely for local commutes, but where gas is available on longer trips. Some Prius owners have already converted their cars to plug-in.

As far as Mr. Haines’ shameful attack on teachers, I guess there are still a few disgruntled souls left from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s last election. I always thought that if you increase teacher pay, you will attract more of the best and brightest college graduates to this very important, yet sometimes thankless occupation, improving instruction in the process. The truly uneducated will unfortunately always see education as a taxpayer burden.

I trust the general public to be able to figure out a good car when they see one and bad propositions on ballots.

— Bill Garner, Ventura