Thanks for all the answers.

I apologize for the rant but I got a lot on my mind about my next car

Hearing that the sweetspot for the HyHi 4Wd seems to be 0-40 miles per hour is great for me! This is what I was hoping as this is what my commute is. On the freeway it seem to do as bad/good as the average sedan (which is not that impressive). So for me in my current situation it seems to make "sense" (in that I will pay a premium for a hybrid but do good for the environment).

If I can get close to 30mph (if I try all the techniques here) then it would be great and make sense over the (guessing) 15-18 mpg for the volvo in "city" traffic driven the same way.
I find that in my commute to/from work I can create a game of FEy and then it would be nice to still have the umph to impress people with for other times (I love to drive cars!)

So it seems that buying a SUV hybrid instead of an efficient Station Wagon makes some kind of sense in that I will help the environment a bit while sending a signal to car manufacturers that I like the idea of environmentaly sounder cars.

Next question is, would the explorer hybrid get a lot better mpg?
I must confess that the idea of buying a ford (SUV) is not that appealing but I'm trying to keep an open mind.

The funny thing is that I "hate" SUVs. I've been making fun of people driving them for years. SUV's are huge on the outside and small inside exactly the opposite of what you want! It makes no sense! Compare any SUV to the volvo v70 station wagon and see for yourself the volvo wins in all categories that you use a SUV for. In the volvo you get better seats, more room and storage and a lot better MPG and let's not even talk about saftey.
So now you can imagine how much fun my SO and friends have on my behalf when I mentioned the highlander!
I wish someone would make a SUV station wagon or at least an SUV that doesn't look like it wants to go off road (i.e real cross over). The Explorer and the Highlander just look silly to me. The rx400h looks ok but it's quite an expensive car and I while my ego appreciate the hp I would like to see it do better for FE.

Toyota is going the "wrong" way with the HyHi and rx400h they should at least offer two driving modes (commute and sport) and spend some more effort on FE (at least with the SW). If they could shut down cylinders in commute mode for lower speeds that would be great!

I would love to get a prius as it makes almost real sense but it seems just a notch to small for me (escpecially since my SO drives a Ford Focus). I'm 6'4" so headroom is of concern and I also need room for one (soon to be two) german shepherd in the "trunk".
I wish volvo would make an SUV, I think the 5 cylinder volvo would be a good hybrid candidate (it's already reasonably FE) . My next hybrid candidate would tthe Ford Freestyle redesigned to look even less stupid SUVish. Unfortunatley for me volvo is going down the disel route (which is very popular in Europe) and while it also makes sense I can't get a diesel for several years in the North East. I was also hoping that Toyota would but it into the element or similar car.

I read rumors on edmunds.com that the highlander will be redesigned next year. Has anyone heard this?
The picture they show looks really cool and I would buy that hybrid in a second would they announce it as a 2007 (available in 2006). What are the odds?

Thanks for letting me rant!

/Robert
I've already adapted a lot of techniques for FE here and I've noticed that my tank in my Maxima empites slower. I think driving smart can increas FE with maybe 20% and it's actually fun and more "active" as well as safer