Wow this post is so much fun! I've just seen so many things on the few days I've been away I can't even remember them all, I quoted a few but then I had to stop.
They did do it, it was called the Gen1 insight, it got destroyed in sales by the Prius, then Ford chose to use that hybrid design too (I'm pretty sure they have an agreement to share patents.) In 2004 when the Prius became a much better every day family car it represented almost a 100% improvement over city MPG for an auto Honda Civic, one of the best selling cars in North America. Last I heard none of their engineers have been “silenced”.... The patent on the Prius HSD is going to expire soon (
Radical New Toyota Prius in the Pipeline - Motor Trend), do you really think any R&D department is going to listen to the engineers about spending money to develop lean burn when they can just use proven tech for free soon?
For a system to pass the new car tests for emissions they have to show projections that after a certain amount of millage (I think it’s 100,000miles) the emissions will be below a certain threshold. Most areas that do smog checks will allow cars to go well beyond the threshold set by the EPA for a new car system. So just because you passed an end user smog test does not mean the same tech would pass for a new car maker to use.
If you remember from some of the previous replies that was an issue with current European diesel engines more so than gas. It was easier to ensure that new diesel tech met the new car standards than it was for them to prove that they would still meet the standard after they aged.
If you spread some of your research away from engines to techniques usually used by people trying to deceive you, then you would notice a lot from the above.
First people who want to deceive you will throw in extra info to support their findings and make them sound more credible. Often this information is not relevant at all. Does it matter that the police officer is Jay’s father? Does it matter that he is the most highly decorated in northern Nevada? Does it even matter that he is decorated, highly decorated or even the most highly decorated? That sounds great, but there is litterly only 1 person like that in all of Nevada. What are the odds? Ok so maybe he's not the most decorated officer, so now we know the person telling the story lied, so what else did they lie about? Also if he is that great of an officer would he be involved and use his connections to get information that could get those people fired for giving out? If this had really happened the only way Jay would know about a finger print match is if they found a guy and charged him. He may know if they arrested him and charges fell through, or were not pursued but there is no mention of that part. That would be a pretty logical step but why was it not in the story? So wouldn’t a person telling a true story write something like. “Jay turned the paper into the police, they got a finger print match and charged the person…” All the other stuff is filler information to make it sound like it holds water.