[jyl]

The only hybrid I have much knowledge about is the Prius. It is reliable, minimal maintenance, no penalty for the complexity. We have about 70K miles on ours, had the HID headlights replaced under warranty and that's it. My father has something like 125K miles on his gen 1 Prius, nothing has gone wrong. A replacement battery is something like $3K now (or you can go all DIY and rebuild a used one), he still doesn't need one.

Real world MPG is indeed high, but is sensitive to how you drive - I get 5 MPG better than my wife - there are habits/tricks to maximizing MPG, you have to learn them, and she ignores them all, accelerates to stoplights and so on. Resale value is generally good, currently is very high given the shortage of Priuses on dealer lots but that will be cured by year-end.

That said, for lowest spend, it is hard to beat a used econobox. The MPG may be lower than the hybrid alternative, but buying used wins out almost every time. Further, it is a bad time to buy a Prius or other hybrid now - production disruptions in Japan have created a major shortage of inventory, plus high gas prices has driven demand up. In general, late model used car prices are high. All this is easing but has just started to ease.

I'd wait until early next year and/or buy a used car.

BTW I've heard good things about the TDIs. If you do a lot of city driving in traffic, a hybrid is better since the engine shuts off. On the open highway, the TDI is every bit as fuel-efficient as the Prius. I'd be irritated at diesel prices though.