NBC's Hybrid Mania, Courtesy Chrysler

As folks who are privy to Chrysler Group's Firehouse blog, we're sometimes frustrated with the site's Detroit-centric view and other times impressed with the straight shooting that comes out of it. And we have to say this bit from Jason Vines — regarding a Today Show piece on gas prices — is worth sharing. Click through for a quick, clean stab at the mainstream media.

"[T]he juiciest part of the whole bit was interviewing a guy who traded his — brace yourself — pickup truck (a Toyota by the way) for a Prius. All well and good, until the happy Prius owner threw out a doozie that would make Joe Isuzu look like a piker. He said that he used to spend $60 a week in fuel for the pickup and now spends $25 every SIX weeks for the Prius.

Let's do the math together, shall we? So, it's $60 a week and let's guess 15 miles per gallon in the pickup. He can travel about 300 miles that week. OK? Now, let's say he hits (generous here) 50 miles per gallon all the time in the Prius. The $25 buys him 8.5 gallons roughly and a range of 425 miles. A week? No! He said 'for six weeks.' Did he stop driving once he bought the Prius? Yet, the Today Show eats it up like candy."

Y'all know that our Detroit and Los Angeles bureau squids both drive Chrysler Group SUVs and that Wert seems have been invited to every unveiling of a new-tech tappet and thamofraz DCX's American division has released in the last few months. That said, we think this is a fabulous illustration of how little the mainstream media in New York actually gets the auto industry.

Our solution? Move the 909'ers, 209'ers and 530'ers to Detroit; ship the Detroiters to all corners of the 310/424 Westside Metroplex (Compton, Santa Monica, etc.), and allow nobody within the NYC city limits to say anything about cars unless they drive regularly. Or unless they've got enough influence to get The Fall Guy out on DVD. Yes, Vines' company just released a product called a "Sebring" and another something called a "Compass" and will follow that up with a third something apparently known as a "Patriot," but honestly, the guy's got a point we can't front on. Now that you're on-message with the whole firing-squad-at-the-rivals thing, let's see if we can't do something about your product situation, Chrysler.

Related:
Something Rotten in Detroit: Autoextremist and Jason Vines Spar on Incentives [Internal]