Well, you might not have been excited by the Prius, but we are. We bought one last year and absolutely love it. We calculated the savings from the enhanced gas milage (we've been getting about 47-48 MPG per tank since we got the car in November) and figured that we were saving just over $1000 a year in gas. That was assuming our driving miles of around only 20,000 miles per year and gas at $2.50/gallon.

For me, only 5 feet tall, the only downside in the driver's seat is a nasty blindspot created by the windshield side frames. I also find the engine plenty peppy enough.

Sorry to hear you didn't like it. But we love it.

Hi Lydia,

I definitely see how you could love it, though I am surprised to hear about your gas mileage being that high in Lake Oswego/Portland. The car I test drove kicked over to gas (or the gas/electric combo) when I went up even very small grades. The salesman talked about how the car trains the driver to maximize fuel efficiency, and the thought of trying to please that car was driving me batty, though I supposed that I would get used to it pretty quickly.

I wonder if the mileage estimates are inflated on all cars. Our new car has an "instantaneous mileage" screen (not the precise name) showing how many miles per gallon you're getting at any particular moment. Ours supposedly gets 28 MPG on the highway, but we don't unless it's a perfectly flat, straight stretch of road and we're on cruise control....

When my husband and I were in the market for a new car last year, I rented a Prius, drove it in town and then drove from Dallas to Houston in it. I liked it in town, but on the highway I drove through a thunderstorm and was blown all over the road. Passing trucks wasn't much fun either. I also test drove a VW Beetle TurboS. We ran a 10 year cost of ownership analysis on both the Prius and the VW and the VW ended up being cheaper to own, even though I didn't find the milage claims to be inflated. I got 50 mpg. At $5,000 less than the Prius, I bought the Beetle and love it.

You might want to consider looking at the Honda hybrids, (which use a different technology), or the VW turbo-diesels.

As I recall, Honda hybrids use the electric to supplement the gas, not to replace it in certain instances like the Toyota. This hurts mileage in some driving situations. Of course, you can also get an Accord that gets 37 mpg on the highway. You can even get the Honda hybrids with manual transmissions. The Hondas also have more energetic engines.

On the other hand, VW TDI's get roughly 45 mpg in-city or on the highway. (I think the actual numbers are 42/51 city/highway.) But they're diesels. VW's are expensive to repair even though they're not as reliable as Hondas or Toyotas. And they have plenty of pep.

The mileage numbers are not based on modern driving habits or conditions. It would be better to show the MPG in various terrains throughout the normal speed range, with and without a/c.

Speaking of diesels, a friend of mine here converted his diesel Mercedes to run on peanut oil, which he buys for -- well, peanuts -- at local Chinese restaurants. Now that man is saving some serious money!

Hi Gordon,

I recently bought a 2d generation Prius & love everything re: it, except for the bar that bisects the rear window. That bar is initially distracting in the rear mirror, but it presumably is required to anchor the rear windshield wiper because of the angle of the slope of the rear window. It is vastly improved over the 1st generation Prius which I owned in 2003. Acording to a Toyota salesman, Toyota plans to offer hybrid versions of most of its models in a few years. The hybrid Rav4 is al ready offered in CA. I also test drove the Accord hybrid, which is very much like a non-hybrid Accord except for a battery pack. I also owned 2 Honda Civic hybrids, which are very similar to non-hybrid Civics, again except for the battery pack reducing trunk space. I did test drive a Honda Insight & felt it drifted sideways too much above 55 mph. Toyota designed the Prius to be different from any non-hybrid car & have a "space-age" feel to it. Honda's hybrid Civic & Accord models are designed to be as similar to its non-hybird versions as much as possible. An analogy might be vegetarian fake meats to ease transition to a new lifestyle.

I own a 2003 model and get dozens of questions per week about it, even more now with rising gas prices. The real things is, and i don't see it being discussed here or elsewhere, is that it is an SULEV-> Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle. That is the reason behind the hybrid design and gas milage is a side effect. I currently get about 51 mpg (city/hway combined, in Seattle) after tracking for the past year using both the onscreen milage and pencil calculated milage (dist/gallons). But, my emissions per 2 weeks is about the same as an average car's emissions per day.

I can't believe it, my co-worker just bought a car for $15203. Isn't that crazy!

I live in UT and purchased a Prius. There seems to be no state tax credit for a Prius because it has no gasoline-powered model with the same name. Has anyone else run across this issue in another state? Also, does anyone have any ideas on appealing the issue? It seems a little prejudiced to me since the emissions verification clearly makes it a clean air vehicle.

I live in UT and purchased a Prius. There seems to be no state tax credit for a Prius because it has no gasoline-powered model with the same name. Has anyone else run across this issue in another state? Also, does anyone have any ideas on appealing the issue? It seems a little prejudiced to me since the emissions verification clearly makes it a clean air vehicle.

I don't own one, but they are certainly hot sellers right now. The USAToday has had at least one article about how hard they are to get and the fact that there is little if any negotiation involved. These thinks are hot.

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I heard the mpg decreases substantially in very cold weather (30 degrees and below) has anyone experienced this with a Prius??