Fair pricing

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Chrome @ Nov 8 2006, 01:35 PM) [snapback]345803[/snapback]</div>

Would you be referring to me?[/b][/quote]
He is our resident grouch. Simply adopt his own rules concerning reading messages by other posters and ignore him.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Chrome @ Nov 8 2006, 01:35 PM) [snapback]345803[/snapback]</div>

I'm surprised by some of the above comments. I find the Prius to have better acceleration than many conventional cars, though it is not a muscle car. Some of the components are expensive to replace, but Toyota reliability is so high that you'll spend more repairing an American car over the life of the car, and note that the Prius has no clutch or transmission (big repair items in conventional cars). OEM tires are cheap, but easily replaced. The traction battery is recycleable, and Toyota pays a "reward" for turning it in, to cover your cost of doing so; so the battery materials are re-used, not thrown away. Rear brakes don't do much of the braking in any car, and in the Prius most of the braking is re-gen anyway. I suppose if you drive it like an all-out sports car you want optimum brakes all around, but ABS and VSC make the Prius safer than rear disk brakes would do.

Finally, I wonder what "type of driving" benefits from the engine shutting off at stops, but not from the full range of strategies employed by HSD.

The only real reason for not getting a Prius that I can see above is if you need power for towing. And I think in an earlier post you said you wanted a larger car, though the Prius has more interior space than a Camry.

The Aura really seems like an odd choice.

Whatever you choose, I hope it works out well for you.