Well, I returned my Prius.<br><br>I really wanted the Prius, but for my style of driving it just did not work out. <br><br>For those of you with a Prius, I'll have a twinge of regret whenever I see you on the highway. You have a very cool car. I love the efficiency aspect of getting regenerative braking, and that 'no vibration' at stop lights is way cool. <br><br>For those who have NOT yet taken delivery or ordered, I offer the following observations<br><br>As Sam Williams pointed out in an earlier posting, the Prius is not fuel efficient for short &lt;5 minute trips. <br>If both the following statements are true: 1) You make a large number of 5 minute trips AND 2) you care about MPG; then it is possible that the Prius is not for you<br><br>For myself, I drive high speed freeway (where the Prius is not efficient) and short in town (where the Prius is not efficient) with zero stop and go (where the Prius IS efficient) with the result of real world mileage that was actually worse then a Camry. That, combined with other frugality negatives; the battery costs at 8-10 years and high priced "Toyota only" servicing, made the financials just not worth it.<br><br>Buy a Prius because you like the technology, because you want the newest coolest thing, because you are a hard core environmentalist.<br><br>Don't buy a Prius with the idea that it will save you money, unless you spend a huge amount of time in stop and go traffic. For frugal folk like me, before you plonk down $23K on the Prius spend a little time with your calculator. Compare it to fuel efficient cars like the Civic HX (which also has variable speed transmission) which cost many $K less. For my own purposes, a larger car (2001 4 cyl Camry) purchased after year one depreciation ($15.5K with 13K miles) is a lot cheaper over the life of the car, even if gas prices do double. Plus, I get a bigger car, and options like power seats that are not available on the Prius.<br><br>If your motivation to purchase is primarily ecological, and you love Toyota products, you should be aware that Toyota is just now making available the electric version of the RAV 4. This has a realistic range of 100 miles, so if you live closer then 50 miles to work and have a "second" gas car in the family for the odd longer trip, this may be the car for you. It makes more sense to lease, since Toyota can write off the batterys, and they are quite expensive. But you get quiet, quick, emission free, roomy, car-pool OK (In California) transportation for literally pennies per mile operating expense. Lot's of govt. incentives to go electric. I know of at least one Prius owner that switched to the RAV-4

Sorry about your loss.<br>But I think you got some facts wrong.<br><br>Although it is true that short 5 min or less trips are bad fuel economy, But that is true for ALL cars. Cold engines are stiff, Oil is dense, Warmup time just sitting idling wasting fuel (which is not to be done in a Pius).<br><br>Second Highway speeds are not bad for fuel economy unless your are going well over 60 MPH like maybe 80 MPH. Again ALL cars get terrible MPG at high speed. Nothing new there.<br><br>Lower MPG in these situations is just more in your face with the MPG display.<br><br>In both cases the Prius still gets significantly better MPG than an equvilent car driven in the same conditions.<br><br>I drive freeway 30 miles each way at speeds from 45 to 75. About 80% highway, 20% city. My summer MPG average was 52 MPG for all 3 summer month over a total of 5045 miles, 96.92 gallons,. That is true calculated MPG not from the display.

We didn't pay $23,000 for either of our Prius. Besides, in Oregon and other states, we get a $1500 credit and then there is the US credit/deduction depending with you choose to file for.<br><br>When we looked for new cars, since our 83 Tercel Wagon and our 88 Honda Civic were finally at the end of the road, we did the research. Finally, someone designed a car that basically does it all. Decent milage, low pollution, etc. <br><br>We asked ourselved, if not now, when? We didn't buy the Prius to save money, just save the Earth.

Just curious: When you say less fuel efficient than the Camry, do you mean the EPA reporting of the Camry, or the Camry measured doing the exact same driving.<br><br>Also, my commute is about 20 miles with 80% of that freeway time. My mpg on the computer screen just hit 50.0 at around 1000 miles (never been reset). During the first 100 miles mine was in the twenties too. <br><br>Good luck with you Camry!<br><br><br>Steve

Hey Steve - I mean actual mileage (Camry =1987 4 cyl manual)- for the same driving my Camry averages 30 mpg and the prius averages 28. The dealership checked it out on the computer and it was fine, and on their test drive they got 33 mpg. Interestinly, that particular Prius never went into "all electric" mode at speeds over 2 or 3 MPH, while other Prius' I have driven I got up to 20 mph and over on all electric. So it could be that exact car and not Prius' in general that didn't work out. <br><br>Interestingly, we saw a couple Prius for sale in that paper called the owners to see why they were selling. One gentelman had our same expereince - with 10,000 miles on the car, he was still averaging mileage in the twenties. So is it driving habits or a couple of Prius' that need reprogaming?

If you are unhappy about any gas vehicle's performance in your &lt;5min trips, might I suggest the Civic GX - natural gas might be something you haven't considered.

Assuming the 5-minute trips are spent at speeds around 30mph, they're only about 2.5 miles anyway. Might as well take a bicycle, Razor scooter, or walk it if you have 40 minutes to spare. (Assuming the weather allows.)