Generally, I can tell you that the older HCHs were much cheaper than the Prius was, so my guess is that they would also be cheaper as used cars. You'd have to find one, though, and you'd have a lot more specific information to go on then. I don't know if there's much of a market out there for used HCHs, just because they're pretty new and still really popular. I think it might be hard to find a deal when there are people willing to line up for new ones.

As for maintenance and reliability, I can't give you any Prius-specific advice, but from what I hear, Hondas last forever. I have no particular reason to expect that a hybrid Honda will be any less reliable down the road. My experience has been uniformly positive so far- only the regular maintenance costs: oil changes, and a 10k tuneup because I'm cautious.

When I was trying to decide between a Prius and the HCH, a friend told me a story. He'd been driving a little red Honda for years, back and forth across the country on business, with a ridiculously long daily commute from a remote area of Washington State, and it was getting close to half a million miles. The car was nicknamed 'Big Red,' and it was old, but still in really great shape.

He told some friends about the approaching milestone and said, 'Well, it looks like I'm going to have to retire Big Red at the half-million mark.'

Weeks later, they were surprised to see Big Red pull up at the meeting in Chicago with my friend inside. 'What happened?' they said, 'Weren't you going to retire Big Red?'

'Why, yes,' he replied, 'See the new tires?'



Anyway, he told me I should get a Honda.