I thought we needed a positive thread in response. :>

But seriously, my mom just bought a Prius, and we took it out for a little spin today, and I couldn't be more glad that I chose the TCH (same price as the Prius up here). After I bought it, I had a short period of wondering, did I make the right choice, the Prius gets way better mileage, do I really need a car this big, etc...

No more. After driving mom's Prius today, I really notice the differences. The one thing that I like better is her colour scheme, which looks a lot sharper than my somewhat bland Camry interior (after all, the Camry is not known as a flashy car). However, everything else is better: the car's ride is smoother, there's a lot more room (and I'm a bigger guy, so that's important), the noise levels (both engine and road) are much, much lower, and the whole package is just way more suited to my personality.

The one thing on which I'm still torn is that energy monitor screen - the Prius has everything you need to know right there on one page: outside temp, consumption, engine status, etc. My Camry just has the little tiny display under the speedometer, and while all the same info is available, it's split up into different pages. Seems to me they could've at least fit the outside temp onto all the pages. But the Prius energy screen is so garish and in your face, it actually put me off when I was doing my initial test drives, so all in all, I think I prefer not having it.

So hey, while I had a few doubts at one point, I'm happy to say that I have now put those doubts completely to rest. This is the car I want, and I'll probably drive it into the ground (or at least until they come out with the plugin version