I've driven a Prius as my work has them as pool cars. To answer your question about costs, the Prius does make good sense. It's a typical Toyota in terms of reliability, the Hybrid Drive setup very rarely experiences failures and Prius Taxi's in NYC have run to 400k without incident. I presume you're looking at a used second generation 1.5, servicing is fine because any garage can do it as its just a basic 1.5litre petrol engine. Insurance costs are low and other consumables are on par with everything else in the sector.

It has no conventional starter motor or alternator so thats two things which can't go wrong, it does 50mpg on cheaper fuel than diesel and they rarely go wrong.

Hope this helps.

Hi there, we've got one of the little Lexusssss (what is the plural of Lexus?) based on the Prius; it's great because we do mainly urban driving and our fuel usage has gone through the floor as a result. It's been absolutely reliable and we're coming up, in July for a year's ownership. We're paying for servicing on a monthly deal and the car has been a delight, it's quiet, refined and, in general quite comfortable although the ride on the 17" rims is slightly on the firm side, but not the firmest I've ever experienced...

We do an occasional 100mile journey, and it's not as good as a 2.0l diesel in terms of m-way economy but, in terms of 90% urban driving we've reduced our fuel bills to just 1/4 of what we would have expected in our 5y/o 1 series Beemer. It's £45 to fill up, and this lasts us all the month until our 100m each way journey. Plus, still no VED and we get Lexus roadcare for two more years saving us another few quid as well.

To sum up, ask yourself where you do your driving. If it's in London or urban, seriously consider a Prius or another form of hybrid. If it's mainly M-way or A-road you'd be much better going for a reliable diesel.

Hi, I'm a long-term lurker on here, finally broken silence :-)

In September last year, I was made redundant, and was lucky enough to get a job more or less straight away. So, as a treat ( subjective, my opinion, please respect that !! ), I bought myself an 07 Prius T-Spirit all specced up. It's the "old" 1.5 version.

I did consider diesel, being a general diesel head.. ( pug 1.5 / 1.9 / 2.1 engines, with 2.0 HDI in the family too ), but considered all the things that could go wrong with big money ( yeah.. and bought a hybrid.. I know ).. I know the 1.8 Prius is different, but when you look at the 1.5, it's simply a Yaris engine, on the Atkinson cycle rather than otto, with a hybrid bolted onto the side.. all the normal engine service bits are simply "yaris".

Previously I had an R-Reg Vectra 2.0DTI estate, and have owned a mix of mainly diesel cars but a couple of petrol ones too.

Additionally, in my last job, I got to drive a variety of bland (subjective) hire cars, as well as the occasional Audi A4 S-Line TDI and BMW 520d.

Without doubt, this is the best "personal" car I've had. Sure, it's not perfect, drives like a barge, is lacking a little power at the top end, but the overall package is great.

I'm consistently getting a measured 59-60mpg (MFD says 62) on brim-brim, usually putting about 43-44 litres in at each fill of the 45L tank. Ambient temperature and wind direction obviously play a part.. warm = good. Headwind = ok, tailwind = better.

My driving style depends.. On A-roads I'll tootle along with the traffic, anticipating what's happening up ahead so I don't need to brake and lose momentum. Sometimes I'll do the traffic light GP, which is fun as long as the road is dry ! On Motorways, I'll usually do somewhere between 60 and 80 depending on the conditions and whether I'm in a rush. In town.. well, what can you do lol. There's a stretch of the A60 near me where I can do just over two miles with the MFD maxed out at 99mpg instant, yet the engine is on.. purely because the engine is providing only the power needed to move the car.. it's not fixed at xx rpm for xx speed which it would be with a manual gearbox.

My daily commute is 14 miles each way, a mix of urban and country, where I can be doing 50-60 for about 5 of the miles, mixed with 0-40 areas for the rest.

The car had 90,000 (miles) on the clock when I bought it, it's now got 104,000. To date it has cost me ... 1 x tyre and 1L of 10w30 semi-synth oil. The service history receipts show nothing other than service items and a 12v battery - a known weakness ( no cambelt, clutch, DMF, DPF etc.. ) It's about due for a service which will be around £150.

As far as I can tell from the history and looks.. it's on it's original 4x disc / pad combination, with plenty of life in all of them.

People often say how quiet it is when cruising, which it is.. it's just when you boot it that the "cvt" sticks the revs up and off you go. They also comment that the mpg must be really bad around town... fundamentally missing the point of the hybrid - the mpg actually goes up in town driving IF you change your driving habits.. (even so, it's still very impressive if you drive it like an oaf ).

Getting the economy isn't difficult, if you think about what you're doing a little more.. to be honest, I've always tried to get the best economy from various cars, notably the Audi above I got 62mpg indicated (not brim) from Thetford to Nottingham using the A17 and A52 - that was driving like a grandad though.. the usual keeper averaged about 40mpg on the same trip.

Equally impressive was a hire car - a Kia Ceed 3, which was the diesel with an auto.. again, Thetford to Nottingham I got 50mpg (brim) from it. That wasn't too much of a grandad trip either.

Anyway, sorry for the disjointed ramblings, hope some of it is useful.. again, remember, only my opinion, and my subjective thoughts.. you'll noticed I haven't done any "car bashing".. please don't start on me ;-)