Orcrone,

Remove the hybrid factor from the discussion for a moment: would you replace your truck with a car for comfort/safety/etc? I had a Nissan pickup that I loved, but when the kids came along, it never got used. We sold it for a minivan that is used heavily. Getting rid of the truck worked for me, but it wasn't replaced with the TCH.

I bought a TCH. Love the thing dearly, and it fills our needs perfectly because we have our minivan when we need more passenger/cargo space. Our family would not be able to function as it does today if we only had the TCH.

Our TCH also replaces a Dodge Neon with 170,000+ miles. Everything was failing on it, so it needed to be replaced. A hybrid is a perfect choice if there are other factors revolving around replacing a car. Be leary of replacing a car (or truck) simply for better gas milage. If a new TCH gets 40 mpg, your 10,000 miles a year would save you only about 185 gallons of gas a year (not figuring your Explorer savings). That's around $600 a year. Weigh in higher insurance and a new car payment, I bet you'd be better off staying with what you have.

By the way, the Prius gets better milage, holds more stuff (with the back seats down), and costs less. Just a thought.