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I had two.
Camry Hybrid and Highlander Hybrid
Both were stellar cars.
Personally, I am firm, a hybrid is the best of both worlds. All they need is a better battery.
Your mechanic, OP, is simply stuck in his ways, does not want to familiarize himself with that tech, hence, he says - meh, they are bad. It's basic Fox and the grapes situation.
Any hybrid will outperform eclectic on range and refueling time and any ICE on MPG. Well, maybe not the older VW diesels.
Certainly, not every hybrid is made reliable, that's normal. GM is the good example. But, Toyota has it figured out. Just like Subaru has 4WD figured out.
The Early Honda hybrids were pretty much crap unfortunately, things like the Insight and early Civics. Very high battery failure rates. The newer ones may be better, remains to be seen. I wouldn't worry too much about regular hybrids but if you're buying for the long-haul I'd skip on the plug-ins. They're less reliable and also just due to the battery size have a similar problem to EVs in prohibitively expensive battery replacements should one fail. If you're only interesting in 5-10 years though PHEV would be worth looking at.
My opinion is that the people who want them should be able to buy them. If they work for you, go for it. Me, I don't want one, and so far I am not forced to buy one. So far.
In 2012, my wife and I bought a used 2007 Lexus Rx400h with 80K miles on it. We drove it for 7 years/100K miles before gifting it to her sister. Never had an issue with the drivetrain and was a simple vehicle to maintain. The only repair we did was the plastic radiator end-tank leaded at 120K miles. Cost $80 for the replacement and $60 for the 20 minutes it to install it and refill with coolant. Car gave a consistent 28mpg with "pulse and glide" driving, which was about 20% better fuel economy than the non-hybrid variant.
My sister-in-law loved the car until the car was totaled from a rear-end collision. The Rx400h still looked fine, but the crumble zone underneath the car was completely compressed. They got a used 2019 Toyota Highlander Hybrid to replace it. Her husband is a mechanic and has fixed various hybrids that their respective manufacturer dealerships could not fix. Unfortunately you'll find more knowledge on car forums and YouTube than you will at your average service center.
Like another poster said, your mechanic seems stuck back in the day. Toyota RAV4 hybrids and Prius’ are used as reliable taxis doing abusive driving work constantly. Also, their “eCVT” transmission uses a reliable planetary gearset.
Subaru might be getting Toyota’s hybrid system to use in their vehicles, with the Forester first.
Not sure how reliable Honda and Kia/Hyundai hybrid systems are?
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