Does anyone have a citation for an actual peer-reviewed article on this? Because I'm not particularly inclined to believe this random article from somewhere just on its own . . . and it doesn't seem to include a citation to anything.

Precision != Accuracy

You can be very precise in your measurement and your measurement can still be very wrong.

For example, if I had an extremely precise height measuring system (a super ruler) and I measured my height to be 82.23535cm, and later found out that I had mis-calibrated the system and my height was actually 182.23535cm . . . well, my previous measurement was still very precise. However, it was not accurate. That's the difference.

So, the conclusion is that no matter how good your instruments and observational techniques, if your calibration is wrong, or if you interpret the data wrong, you get very precise inaccurate numbers.

Gets better mileage?

You need to look into that. The prius gets ~45mpg in the city (fueleconomy.gov has it rated as 48mpg city and 45mpg highway). I won't dispute your other claims, since I haven't driven a civic or a fit (or a prius for that matter), but the mileage certainly favors the prius (and insights get even better mileage than Priuses. My little insight gets 50-55mpg around town) . . .