Mass Hysteria, Maybe...

This is something I have been thinking about the past couple of days, but I can't say I am an unbiased observer when it comes to the Prius.

Spike in Prius complaints may not be all it seems - Yahoo! News

But as long as reports of Prius profile keep rolling in — just look at the extensive coverage given to a single crash in that New York suburb, something that would have gone utterly unnoticed a year ago — expect complaints to keep rising.

"We are basically anticipating them happening, and we may be prone to jump to conclusions," said L.J. Shrum, a marketing professor who specializes in consumer psychology at University of Texas at San Antonio

The story focuses on how the number of complaints has skyrocketed, not surprisingly, in conjunction with the media attention.  And the second high profile story of a Prius crash yesterday would have gone completely unnoticed by most.

It's hard to know what's true or not at this point.  People are reporting things they never reported before.