<p>I drive the model prius before they went all ‘modern’. There’s no spoiler across the back. When I drove the new one, I didn’t care for it thanks to that black bar across the back window. (The fact the sales-guy was a jerk, telling me how to drive in my own neighborhood, despite my saying repeatedly ‘yes, I live here’, didn’t improve the experience for me either.)</p>
<p>Miami – The new Prius is an elegant vehicle with many high-end features (push button start, NavSys, etc). Just as a Lexus (Toyota’s high end brand) can be compared to the best European cars, so can the new Prius. A lot of Hollywood drives them and if they weren’t comfy and elegant, not all the ‘green credit’ in the world would get those celebrity tushes to stay in the car. </p>
<p>And if you are really not going to buy a Prius or do anything but pooh-pooh their existence and price quality, what are you doing here? They are great cars that do what they say they are going to do. Get good mileage and get you from place to place comfortably and with less planet-guilt.</p>
<p>I’m on my second Prius. I got the 2003 - no hatchback. When the hatch came out in 2005, I traded up. I have 88k miles on it and still love it. I averaged about 54 mpg on the original tires, but they are not great tires so I got better ones recently and the mileage dropped a bit. I expected that though. For those who have never been in a Prius, I can guarantee you won’t believe how roomy they are. They are as roomy as a Camry or Fusion. The head room is great. I have always been happy with the pick up. The back window took some time to get used to - just a few days though - now I never think about it. The battery has a 100k mile warranty. I believe the batteries are built - now anyway - so that individual cells can be replaced. It is unlikely that the entire battery would need replacing. Here is some info I found on battery failure. </p>
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<p>I usually love Toyota’s cars but the two Priuses we have at work just do not do it for me. I would never buy one. I would go with a Corolla.</p>
<p>Novelisto,
I like to be comfortable, I never consider elegancy, but it was not what I meant. I meant the way car goes. It is hard to explain, but Audi has different feel compare to Toyota, which is very comfy car also. I had no idea about it and never consider any of that which my S. has always mentioned to me,… that is until I started driving it. We bought Audi only because Toyota Avalon that we came to buy did not have traction control and Audi happen to be the same price. But I do not know how hybrid drives and I probably will never buy one, unless they develop better and cheaper batteries.</p>