Reply #5: I drive my Prius fairly aggressively, i.e., I have a 25 mile one way

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commute through rural 55 MPH roads that most folks (me included) are doing 70 on. Not much stop and go. I get 52 MPG in the colder months, 55 in the warmer part of the year. On a long road trip, I'll average 49. If I see a lot of stop and go, it will avaerage into the high 50's. These are the numbers from the dashboard computer, not my gas station fill up calculations. So, I'm a little under the EPA 61/51, but not terribly so, and I've never had a car that got the EPA mileage anyway. No complaints so far. It's a lot zippier and nimble than you'd expect, and the quietness and smoothness are nice.

I've seen some of the news stories about the hybrids, and I think it is a certain amount of propaganda. I certainly didn't buy my Prius with any notion of financial payback in mind, I like the technology, the fact that I'm polluting and consuming less, and the statement it makes. After all, no one worries about the payback on those thousand dollar extra leather interior packages, or the extra cost of a 4x4 over a 2wd.