[beef]

"The moral of the story is...

Buy both. A Duramax V8 diesel Hummer H1 is a great utility vehicle for the special occassions. A gas-sipping Prius is great for a daily driver."

Good point. I did. A Ford E350 Powerstroke extended van and a Honda Insight. As a side note, the mileage champ Insight has a lousy resale value. I believe this is a direct result of it being dissed by Consumer Reports and the herd mentality of its mostly liberal readers.

Anyone who wants to try a hybrid might want to look at the Insight. It gets excellent mileage, can be bought cheaply used, and is a great commuting car. There are downsides, though, and I think these are issues with all hybrids:

- poor performance when the battery is low. This happens more often than you think.
- the dealers and their staff are clueless.
- battery replacement will be a big, expensive problem.
- more systems that are generally more complicated.

All in all, I think hybrids are a flash in the pan. If you want good mileage, get a small car with a small engine. If you want better mileage, get a diesel (any size) and run it on used fryer oil.

[Spktyr]

The Insight has the same problem - it's a hybrid first and a car second. Honda has remedied this with the Civic and Accord hybrids.