Longtime lurker, firsttime poster, new owner

After having lurked these forums ever since the second generation Prius caught my eye months before it was released, today I post for the first time as a brand new owner of a 2011 Prius II.

What a fantastic piece of engineering. I moved from a 2009 Honda Civic (conventional, not hybrid), which was the best car I have ever owned. While the Civic was easy on gas, it still only got 27mpg at best in my daily hour-long commute in city traffic. I would have bought a Prius to start with, but when I was ready to buy a new car, Prius was in super-high demand and was selling for thousands over sticker. It just didn't make financial sense at that time.

However, here we are now at $3.70 per gallon prices and Prius prices, while rarely below MSRP, are at least not marked up... yet. I did all the prudent calculations, and it finally made financial sense. My conservative estimates indicate I stand to save about $1200 a year in fuel costs vs my Civic. That is good enough for me.

I'm looking forward to this being my daily driver.