[jyl]

My father has a 1st gen Prius. By now they've put over 60K miles on it. Runs perfectly, he can't think of any unscheduled maintenance/repairs, and he gets 45 mpg. His wife, who is a smoother driver, gets >50 mpg. This is in daily commuting from Fremont to SF, which is highway rush hour traffic conditions.

My next new car will be a hybrid.

However, I'm not convinced my next car will, in fact, be a new car. The amount of energy used to build a new hybrid car, plus the cost to me of buying it, suggests that buying a used car that gets 1/3-1/2 the gas mileage might well be a better deal, both environmentally and financially. Anyway I don't regularly commute by car, so I drive <6K miles/year.