[jyl]

We have a 2007 Prius.

We get about 44 mpg in daily summer driving (all city, short trips, a big hill every day), 50 mpg in surbuban-type driving, 50-55 mpg on freeway at 70 mph, about 58-60 mpg on freeway at 60-62 mph. This is real world mileage, and quite good. The VW diesel is the only car sold in the US that comes close. The only time we get unimpressive mpg is in winter - temps in the 20s/low 30s, snow tires, cold engine on short trips, and the local winter 10% ethanol gasoline puts us down to 35 mpg. Still other cars are getting 20 mpg in similar conditions.

This is a modern car, with all the active and passive safety, traction/stability control, navigation/entertainment stuff that people expect (and the law requires) today. That's why you can't compare the Prius to a 50's Austin-Healey Bugeye or a 60's Mini or a 70's VW Rabbit Diesel on an 80's Izuzu iMark diesel or any of the fuel economy champs of past decades. None of those cars would be legal to sell today, and few would buy them if they were.

The stuff about a Prius being environmentally unfriendly to build is wrong. This has been debunked so many times, I'm tired of it. Basically, building any new car consumes resources and, yes, for maximum eco-friendliness we should all drive our existing cars as little as possible and bicycle everywhere else. But if you're going to buy a new car, the Prius is not more resource-consuming than any other high-content modern car. Sure it has an electric motor and a battery, but it has an exceptionally small gasoline motor and a particularly small transmission too. Yes the battery's materials come from a mine and are shipped around the world, what do you think the supply chain for steel, aluminium, plastic, rubber looks like? None of this stuff grows in organic farms right next to the Toyota factory.

Is the Prius fun to drive? Not in any "sportscar" sense. It is fun to play the fuel economy game, though. In daily driving - humdrum city commuting in 30 mph speed limits - I find it more interesting to squeeze an extra 1/10 mpg than to never get out of third in the 911.