Considering a 2014 Toyota Prius

Reading between the lines...you want this car. You'll be happy with it. Go for it.

 

2.80 isn’t that bad. The cheapest chevron I filled up was $3.99 on Sunday.

if the Prius ICE temperature is at optimal, for sure you’ll get around 40 mpg in town. Short rides like a few miles from cold soak start, mpg ball park in the 20s. You’ll end up taking up gas as much as a regular car, maybe even pollute more from not burning fuel at optimal ICE temp.

 

Like I said, not sure what I'm doing right/wrong, but I'm getting mid to high 40s after cold soaks on shorter trips. Yesterday I started it up after it had sat for two days without being started. It was ~50-55 degrees and I drove it a mere 3 miles at 25mph. Got 45mpg for that trip according to the computer.

But I drive pretty conservatively and could've gotten 24-25mpg (per scangauge) in my CRV (rated 20 city) on that drive.

 

I feel the newer hybrids (2020 RAV4HV here) I get 40 MPG even on short trips, agree Gen3 might not be so good but 10 mile one-way commute is not much shorter than my wife's 12 miles commute and she was into 50 MPG's easily on a Gen2. Of course she is gentler on the gas pedal than me. In summary 10mile commute is fine for hybrid benefit in many cases.

 

Once you're out as far as 10 miles it's not even hard. We were regularly getting 36MPG out of an Accent on 10-mile trips.

A car with an $1100 blue book value that will never need a traction battery.

 

theres another quick fix like mine, buy the new 2020 rav 4!