Great car, awesome fuel economy, a tad expensive

I bought the Prius when I found my daily commute bumping up from 5 miles to ***60*** miles. It's a no-brainer if you're looking for a vehicle that gets high fuel economy and saves at the pump.

The car has plenty of power for the typical driver. There's plenty of cargo space and it can comfortably seat 5. There's a few gadgets/gizmos to keep you entertained and the smartkey system is fantastic (no more hunting for the key or the keyhole in the door). The audio system is decent, environment controls are above average, and it drives real nice.

The only real downside to this car is the cost and the wait to get one. When I bought mine back in September, it took about a month before it was here. Now the wait is even longer as I understand it. It's not an inexpensive car by any stretch and the features at each price-point don't help that any. For example, for about $600 over the base package, you get the reverse camera, smartkey system, and vehicle stability control. BUT, if you want to upgrade the radio and get bluetooth, you're looking at another 3-4 grand for that next package. THAT'S irritating.

At this point, if you don't need one yet then you may want to wait until the 2010 model comes out in mid to late 2009. That model will get slightly better fuel economy and is supposed to be a plug-in hybrid.

If you're looking at the raw numbers, trying to fit together a cost benefit deal, give it up. The benefit here isn't just in how much $$$ you save; there are plenty of other cars with lower total-cost-of-ownership (TCO), although not many that will give you the same features and size of this one.

Typical fuel economy (FE) is 45mpg. With some basic hypermiling, you can easily get that up to 50-55mpg. My wife can pull 65mpg on a 60 mile round trip to certain areas. Note that if you live in a hilly area this car does suffer greatly on hills; it gets up and down them just fine, but you lose a lot of FE on steep hills.