I almost bought a Prius for about $20,000. I finally went for a nice Civic sedan. Good room, good mileage, nice to drive and can get out of its way if it needs to. It cost about 1/3 what the Volt costs. The $24000 I saved will buy a lot of gasoline!
A few years ago we bought a used 2001 Civic with 60K miles for my husband’s commute. Not only does it keep going, and going, and going, it gets nearly 40mpg in the summer.
A friend has Prius and complains her mileage is terrible in the winter if she runs the heater. Hard not to do here in Michigan.
A silly hybrid, let alone an electric, probably wouldn’t have the torque to get out of our driveway in January.
I bought a new Honda CRV. So new it was still wrapped and had only 38 miles on it.