If you don't buy a car under four years old, you'll probably never buy a hybrid. They've been out in the US now for six years, the Prius and hybrid Civic both came onto the US market for the 2001 model year, and there are almost none listed in any of the used car guides. The ones that are have salvage histories.

Oh, and both have been available in Japan, Korea and Hong Kong for a a few years longer, figure them to be about 8 or 9. So for the people who want five years of experince, it's there.

I've known three Priuses (Priusi?). Two were from the first year they were in the States, one was bought replace the one that was in accident three years later. In that accident, it ate a lot of gaurdrail after finding black ice on the highway, and the only thing the driver had to show for it was the air bag skinned the tip of his nose. I've seen few other things that are as tough, and most of those have treads.

All three have logs for them that were maintained by the drivers, and all three averaged just over 50mpg. Keep in mind, there is a lot of "down" around here, and the recursive breaking that the Prius has gets put to good use. For those who aren't familiar with it, keep in mind that if you turn something with electrity, you have a motor; if you turn the thing, that motor turns into a generator. The Prius' batteries are charging when most of are coasting down a long hill in idle.

The other thing to keep in mind is that a true hybrid, which is not the same as an electric car with an onboard generator, really doesn't have much of an edge in highway driving becuase the engine is running almost always. In urban usage, the engine runs as needed and the electric motors, which are fine under 40, are at their most efficent. If you buy a hybrid and expect to stomp something like a Civic or a motorcycle in highway mpg, you aren't going to.

Hybrids aren't magic. The basic principles are all electromechanical engineering. The real trick has been waiting on the batteries to catch up. (I understand that Honda's aren't as good as that used by Toyota, which supplies them to Ford.)

However, if you have a hybrid that is getting in the low 40s for mpg, you have a problem. It needs to go into a dealship and it needs to be looked at. You might have bad motors (even if your engine is fine), or the battery pack is screwed up. Those are the only humbugs to the hybrids. The batterypack is a fairly green one, but it's expensive, and on the first generation Priusi(?) they were only rated for about ten years. I have no idea about the current ones, they changed the battery pack when they redesigned the frame, nor do I know about the Hondas.

The one really big hesitation to them that I have is the one Malpaso raised. That's why a lot of hybrids around here have stickers in the windows telling emergency crews where the safe-cut spot that isolates the batterypack is. And if an agency doesn't have that info, I'm not terribly sympathetic- if you asked a dealer and they didn't give it to you, they are are deep trouble when you contact the manufacturer for it. There is one Honda dealer that I know of that didn't want to share that information with the local fire departments, so the FDs contacted Honda. Guess which dealer is at the end of the line when it comes to anything in great demand, and is feeling the pinch? *nasty grin*