Nokoon,

I was pretty much in the same situation that you find yourself in it sounds like. I was waffling back and forth between an EX manual transmission and the Hybrid. I live in York, PA so the climate should be pretty similar to Cincinnati - Low's in the 20's and occasionally 10's in the winter - highs in the upper 80's occasionally low 90's in the summer. My commute is short - about 2.5 miles with 6 red light! - is I am working on a "worst case" scenario for my daily drive. Auto-stop does NOT come on for me. I'm getting 30-33mpg in that driving. At night and on the weekends I do a fair amount of highway driving - probably two or three 40-50 mile trips/week. One of my routes has some significant hills and I'm getting around 42mpg at 65 on that trip (I don't care for the cruise control on hills - I will say that!). The other route has some light hills - it's in the 45-47mpg range. I'm not really trying too hard for mileage (yet).

For me the choice came down to three things. 1. The Hybrid is COOL! 2. The total cost of ownership over 5 years (including the tax credit) is probably equal to the EX even despite it's higher initial price. 3. If we have another gas price spike (to say $3 or 4/gallon) then I'm ahead. I miss driving a manual transmission car and I wish the Hybrid had a sunroof - but I like the car. I will be just fine with this car. Was it the right choice? Who knows? But the car will work for me.

Good luck with your decision

Eric