They are embarrassing to drive, but they really are good cars. My friend has one and if I could just get over the whacky liberal reputation of the car I would get one. I didn’t know the Prius had a “power” button that converts the car to internal combution only and gives it more power for acceleration.
Top Gear reviewed the Honda CRz Hybrid. Starts around $21k, and looks pretty nice. Not much of a back seat though.