convince him to let you get a diesel VW or Mercedes. if he tells you that hybrids are better for the environment tell him to do some research THERE NOT. the amount of pollution from creating and discarding the batteries and hybrid systems far exceed the pollution they save. a diesel jetta gets 50mpg and will out last any hybrid on the market (the batteries only last about 150K miles and they are very expensive to replace). a diesel engine will easily reach 300K+ miles.