My wife has a major diagreement with the designers / stylists of the Prius - I don't find it offensive but not exceptional in regard to asthetics.
I think the Ford Escape FWD Hybrid would be able to pretty well double the fuel economy of the PT Cruiser.
I've spent a few more hours looking at info on the web and find that maybe the Toyota Camry Hybrid may make a better car for me as I like the styling a little better than the HCH and while it's economy is not as good, it has more interior room and potentially a better hybrid system than Honda's.. Not knocking Honda but so far it would seem that only Ford's Escape Hybrid and the Toyota / Lexus offerings are the only ones that are true dual mode. I drove an Escape Hybrid 4wd last week for over 5 miles in EV mode starting from many dead stops - never firing the ICE until it needed to start replacing lost charge..
Still gathering data.. Thank you for all the pointers and feedback folks..
