Just finished the Houston to Dallas to Houston trip 2x's on 2 weekends (Dallas is approximately 260 miles or so from Houston). My back was a wreck at the end of the trip! I don't care about the gas savings, we are taking our Honda CRV next time to save our backs and sanity. Anyone else with similar experience?

One the plus side:
1. Cruising at 80-90MPH was not really an issue (39-40MPG at that speed)
2. Cabin noise was surprisingly low even at 80MPH+
3. My Valentine One worked to perfection

Actually, I've been pleased with the comfort of my HCHII during some recent 1000+ trips. Of course, prior to my HCHII I was making the trips in a 1998 Pontiac Grand Am that shook like a belly dancer at anything over 45 miles per hour.

I did a trip from LA to Seattle in July. I had no driver seat discomfort during the long ride up and back. In fact, it was an absolute pleasure. The only issue... complaints that it was hot in the back seat due to all the glass. I've since tinted the glass to solve that problem!

Richard - Your one-way drive is like a long work day for me (so far averaging just over 1,215 mi/wk or about 175 mi/day). This past weekend was a 1,360 round-trip to Milwaukee for their Hybrid Gathering for this month (I won the award for the most miles driven). On the return about the last 400 miles were done in one stint give or take the one 4-minute stop for the co-pilot. No issues at all but you have to work *with* the car to find that perfect position for the headrest, knee-to-parking brake, seatback angle, etc. Trust me - put in a 400-mile day and those trips of 200 miles will be nothing at all (more of a long errand run).

Anahymbrid's trip to Seattle is definitely longer and much more scenic (I'm jealous). I am planning a Pittsburgh-Dallas trip in April which is 1,200 miles one-way so that will be my longest trip when it occurs. I'm hoping to hit 700 miles/tank on that trip also but we'll see.

--> Averaged 685 miles/week and 49.0 mpg in first year (35.7k miles from Aug 7, 2006 to Aug 7, 2007)

I noticed that the Prius has somewhat more upright front seats; this is a big plus fort older folks who aren't so flexible. One way Honda gets good mpg is to keep the roofline/total height low. To do this they have to keep the front seats low, which requires that your legs stretch out more in front of you,not underneath you. In the Prius my lower leg-below the knee hands at pretty close to 90 degrees.In the HCH2 and our old Accord, my lower leg was at more like 60-70 degrees.This always stressed my back,and made it unsuitable for long trips.
Our Pilot on the other hand, has a nice comfortable seating position; we do the 1500 mile trip to Flagstaff,AZ stopping just for gas, food,and dog walks.It takes about 28 hours-total trip time.
I have the same problem with our 2001 Prizm; I'm only good for 30 minutes before my back starts yelling.
Thanks,
Charlie

if you need to bend your knees to 90' in order for your back to be comfortable in sitting, you have tight, shortened hamstrings, which pull on your pelvis, eliminating the normal lordosis of your low back. a rolled towel in the small of your back should help.

Note to Self: Stay out of assist!

Matt-thanks for the tip,I'll give it a try.Unfortunately,I also have 2 bad knees-55yo- that are more comfortable with a 90 degree bend.
My hamstrings might pull a bit-one of the knees has an unrepaired torn ACL(since 1968), and I tend to emphasize leg curls over leg extensions in an attempt to stabilize it a little.I do both, but I probably save my best efforts for the curls.I do do leg presses, extensions along with the curls, but my best efforts are on the curls.
I will give the towel a try. In fact, I'm uncomfortable in the Prizm after about 2 minutes.
Thanks,
Charlie
PS-My wife-63-has no problem with it, but she teaches ballet, and is very flexible.

People's body shapes tend to vary greatly, thus seat comfort is a very subjective thing. I have 26,000 miles on my HCH II and have had no issue with the seats.

I didn't have a problem with my HCH II - and my daily commute was almost 170 miles/day.

I just did the reverse of this trip over Thanksgiving and didn't find it any more uncomfortable than my previous cars. I too found it to be quieter than I thought it would be at speed (60-70mph). Strangely I found coming back up to Dallas I got better fuel efficiency than going down to Houston. I guess wind resistance factors more than elevation change as I had a head wind going to Houston (51.5mpg) and a tail wind coming back up to Dallas (53.8mpg). I think wind speed was around 15mph both ways.