One of the most unique features of hybrid cars, like the Toyota Prius that I drive, is that it starts and runs so quietly that you barely know it’s running. A couple of weeks ago, that quiet in my car became a quake, a loud violent rumbling that sounded like a truck engine having a coughing fit. “It’s a bomb!” screamed my son, who may have watched too many John Grisham movies over my shoulder. Confused, but sure, at least, that it was not a bomb, I turned it off and back on again. More rumbling. It was so loud that it caught the attention of a kind man loading a moving truck a few parking spaces away.
