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The honda insight is much less expensive per driven mile if you are OK with "eco mode" limiting the peppy acceleration. You should try it out at the car dealer, it runs off the electric motor primarily.

MSRP Prius: $23,115 MSRP Insight: $17,810. The eco mode increases the MPG from (41-44) what is stated on the sticker to (48-52) (my real world results), comparable to Prius at far less cost.

http://www.cars.com/go/compare/trimCompare.jsp?acodes=USC20T...

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How can the eco mode make that much of a difference? That seems unbelievable.

Any other advice for buying one?

It makes a huge difference because it stops you from using the engine inefficiently. They don't put it that MPG on the sticker because if a car drove like that normally people would not buy it. You step on the gas a little and you only get a little bit of acceleration. But you learn to live with it and you get as good a MPG as the Prius at much lower price. You can stamp on the gas and it overrides the eco mode.

One issue is that the air conditioner shuts off when the engine isn't charging, but I compensate for that by setting the temperature lower than normal so it fluctuates where I want it to be.

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