Regarding the NAV question,

What i did in my situation is that i bought a 3rd party unit; it's called a garmin 2720 about 2 years ago you can research about it at http://www.garmin.com/products/sp2720/

I found this to be better because:

1. you can take it out of the car and bring it inside (hotel, home) to plot your trips.
2. if you decide to take it to another car you can do that too.
3. it's not a DVD based NAV unit, it's got a built in hard drive so that means
it loads faster and can be updated via USB through your computer.
4. it costs significantly less, i bought mine 2 years ago for $1300CND including tax.
5. when you finally decide to get rid of the car few years down, you dont have to get rid of the nav unit which you paid $3K for.

If you decide to get a prius, there is a nice spot where the garmin unit can sit, it's on the left side behind the steering wheel opposite of the middle console on the flat surface; no glueing required, the unit comes with a bean bag stand which prevents it from moving around even on bumpy roads. You can plot your trip first inside your home or hotel and then place it into your car, there it starts up automatically and it gives you directions from there. The good thing about it is that it mentions the street names like this " in 200 Meters, make a right on Bloor st." and not " in 200 meters make a right" you can change the voice to female, male, british female, german female, etc.. whichever you prefer.

If you're interested, I think there are new units now, i think the latest is called a Garmin 7200, it's got a 7" touch screen loaded with satelite radio and extra space in the hard drive for MP3s, etc....

http://www.garmin.com/products/sp7200/


Ultimately it's up to you, I chose the 3rd party because NAV untis are not cheap, I own two cars and i drive both to different places. Having one unit helps me a lot; also, when i'm sitting inside my hotel, i dont need to worry about going down to the basement garage to plot out points of interests for the next day. i can do it all inside the room and program it in the unit.
I think this unit has about 6 million points of interest programmed by the manufacturer for all of north america: canada, USa, and mexico.


I know you're debating over which car to get,
i would say test drive both and see which you like.
buying a car, to most people, can be a very personal thing.
i personally went for a prius because when i go for long trips my
fiance likes to bring her whole warddrobe and bunch of other "useless" things, and i found that we always end up bringing 3 large size luggages. Those all fit easily in the back of the prius. Finally, some people dont want to be seen in a hybrid and want to "blend in" but still buy a hybrid. Nothing wrong with that. But for me i just spent $37000 dollars (yes I save up to buy it cash but was worth it) and i am proud of my new car I want everyone to see it. Nothing wrong with that either.

anyway good luck, let us know what your decision is in the future.