I'm looking at both the Civic and the Prius right now, and I'm torn. I've been reading through the comparison threads, and I'm STILL torn. I'm leaning away from the Toyota solely because my local dealer annoyed me so much when I went in to look at one that I refuse to give them my money and the "next closest" dealer is not all that close. Still, that's not the greatest reason not to buy a relatively maintenance-free new car.

Since this will be my "around town" car, interior cargo space and carrying capacity aren't an issue. I would prefer a hatchback, though. I care about handling, the relative comfort of the seats and "driver fit", the interior fit and finish and visibility (out). An attachment for an iPod would be good, too.

What I'd actually like best is a Mini Cooper hybrid. Don't think that's happening this decade, though. I've considered waiting for a Honda Fit, but I found the interior quality very off-putting in the regular model I looked at. At 40+, I'm not driving a buzzy, uncomfortable crackerbox car around, no matter HOW good the gas mileage is.

Price is an issue as well - there are several dealerships in the Portland metro area that have Civic hybrids and they seem to be asking roughly list for them, whereas the Toyota dealerships are adding a hefty markup - all the Prius seem to be going for about $28-$29k, regardless of features, whereas I can get a Honda for $22k-23k. Once a car is getting mileage in the upper 40s around town, a couple of mpg is neither here nor there for me, so that doesn't favor either one.

So, I'll probably be a new hybrid owner, once I stop dithering and actually decide....

 

LOL, welcome to GH. I'm sure you'll get lots of opinions.

 

I’ve owned the 06 Civic Hybrid w/ Nav and have driven over 2400 miles with it and have been very pleased. Cargo space is OK even though you can’t fold down the rear seats for this size vehicle.



The handling in the HCH when compared to the Prius is probably a little better. I found the Prius was subjected to cross winds and was blown on the highway a lot more than the Civic. The interior fit and finish is very good in the HCH, I found the Prius had too much plastic. The visibility out in the HCH is good; you have to adjust to the driver side window pillar though. The Prius fixed the rear visibility when backing up with a rear camera, pretty cool.



The HCH comes with an iPod connection even in the model without Navigation.



Since purchasing the 06 HCH II, I’ve taken it on a 650 mile round trip and was surprised at the comfort or lack of adjusting I had to do when driving the first leg of the trip. With that said, the HCH II can move forward or rearward with manual tilt for the seat back and the ability to raise and lower the seat, along with tilt telescopic steering wheel. The Prius only can move forward or rearward with manual tilt for the seat back. (My 95 Saturn has more adjustment compared to the Prius)



In the end the HCH II w/ Nav was about $4K less than the Prius w/ Nav. The $1K difference in a tax credit between the two didn’t narrow the gap much.



Lucky for me, I was able to keep on separate nights a Prius, then the HCH II, drive it to work and then back to the dealership (Toyota and Honda were next to each other). The mpg difference was 1mpg in favor of the Prius. (46mpg Prius and 45mpg Civic Hybrid), but I found that the drivers ergonomics in the HCH was much better than the Prius. I couldn’t get comfortable when driving the Prius.



Did you look at the Camry Hybrid? Good luck in your choice, I don’t think you can go wrong whether you choose the Civic Hybrid or the Prius.

 

I just bought a new Prius from an annoying dealer. Toyota dealers have a bad rep -- they can behave badly because the cars they sell are so good.

It's a package 3 and I got it for $25,000 "out the door" (with tax and all the other fees they add on). I'm looking forward to getting $3150 off my taxes next year.

I pre-planned the deal and the negotiation (after reading a book called "What auto dealers don't want you to know" or something like that). Then I just said my piece then sat and waited while the guy ran back and forth, playing car dealer games. I got my deal. It was even more satisfying because of my earlier annoyance.

I don't know anything about the Honda, but today, when I was sitting in traffic and my Prius was utterly silent, I breathed a sigh of relief, and didn't breath in any useless fumes!

Remember the Prius can get up to 60 MPG in town so the milage advantage may be more than "a couple of mpg". Also, the tax credit for the Prius is higher than for any other hybrid.

You can see from my name that I'm not biased or anything.

PriusNut

 

The Camry is just too big. We have a full-sized car already (the spouse's daily driver BMW 328is) and I want something smaller for around town. What I'd like is a small hatchback, like the old Civic Hatchbacks (the Insight is TOO small) . I've been looking at Golf TDIs, Scion xAs and Toyota Yaris in addition to hybrids.

I've also been doing some numbering crunching - this will be a third car and, from a financial standpoint, given the number of miles I drive a year and the cost of cars, it'd take 8-13 years to pay back the investment, depending on what I buy. So from purely a dollar-and-cent POV, a hybrid doesn't make sense for me. But there's more to the decision than that - it's insane for me to continue to drive the 15 mpg (city, about 22-23 highway, towing or not) Jeep around town on all of my errands/appts/etc, just given vehicle size and weight, no matter what the gas mileage is or what the spreadsheet says. The Jeep has several practical uses and gets as good gas mileage as the trucks we'd likely have to replace it with, so it stays in the family. I did look at replacing the Jeep with a hybrid SUV, but the HSUVs don't increase gas mileage enough to be worth it, especially not given the cost premium.

So - upshot, I'm still dithering. At this point I've driven most of my target vehicles (Scion, Yaris, Toyota Matrix, Prius, Honda Civic) and I haven't been able to say "yes, THIS one."

 

Here's an old post I wrote on this subject several months ago. It's slightly outdated- the stalling at high speeds bug has been fixed, I think, and the HCHII has navigation. Since your key thing seems to be price, you may end up going with the HCH, which I certainly recommend, as much today as when I bought it in August:

 

Hello, you said that this would be your around town car. the prius will get better mpg in city driving and the HCH dose a lot better in highway driving. i have taken both out on test drives and like the prius better except the big ugly bar that crosses through the rear view mirror. i dont know how people addapt to that.

 

As a wild card, consider buying a used hybrid from Ebay. Get one from a dealer to solve the title and inspection problems and then don't worry about it. You have time so wait for a good offer and you won't have to put up with 'dealer head games.'

I had to replace my wrecked Camry and one month later, bought a used, 03 Prius in Texas. The next weekend, I flew out and drove it back. The local Toyota dealer was asking for $27,000 and I bought mine for $17,000 and haven't had a single regret. But then, this car has become my hobby.

Bob Wilson

 

If I were to decide between the two cars (and i am on my 4th honda and love hondas) i would go with the prius for the following reasons:
1. i like that it looks different
2. the rear seat folds down, that means more storage space
3. my friends who have prius's say they have better acceleration

 

I thought I'd post a final update - after driving all the hybrids and even renting a Prius for 2 days, I reluctantly decided that it they aren't for me and I went with a conventional vehicle instead.

Why? Because I found the car too sterile, too much like driving an appliance. I'm firmly convinced, driving it around, that it's the car of the future, but I'm not ready for that future yet. So for now I have my 2003 Mini Cooper S - agile, fun, "quirky and cute" interior/exterior design, miserable gas mileage (26/34) but small, light and not a road hog. BMW is supposed to be in joint development on a hybrid, and when it goes into a car like the Mini, I'll be first in line with a deposit for that version.

But, if you are in the Portland, OR metro area, I strongly recommend Beaverton Toyota as a Prius dealer. I went to several dealerships looking at cars and they ranged from the downright rude (Vancouver Toyota, who wouldn't even unlock the car for inspection unless I was committed to "buy today") to the casual, friendly attitude of Beaverton Toyota. They are order-only (2 weeks to 2 months, depending on when the next shipment arrives), and they charge MSRP, but they are completely willing to spend as long with you as you want, to go for multiple long test drives, and they don't gouge, as so many local dealers do.

So - thanks all for the useful suggestions and the great website! It wasn't a total "alternate energy device" loss, as it got the spouse rekindled on an electric car project, and he's converting a 1989 BMW 325is into an electric car.