Not only does it seem that almost nobody is actually getting that fuel economy, but the reliability is not for certain. The Prius has a CVT transmission. Those are known for all types of problems. I'm not surprised by the fact that they are having problems with the gas engine not wanting to start back up. Think about it. If you turned off your engine every time you stop at a stop sign, red light, etc., how fast would this wear out parts on the engine. As 2coff mentioned, the owner is going to have to replace the battery packs and I believe I heard those cost around $5000 dollars to replace.

Hybrids were made for one type of customers. Extremest Environmentalists. The type that were obsessed with the Yugo. The ones that want high fuel prices so then others will buy these disgusting cars.[:'(] They prevent us from building oil refineries, from drilling oil in Alaska, and make us have tons of different rules and regulations for the fuel producers to follow (there are supposively 42 different grades of gas due to environmental additives required for different states) to make sure this happens. They claim that they want us to use alternative fuel sources but they themselves don't do it either. Most of them do not own cars equipped with FFV capabilities, or buy diesel powered vehicles that can be converted to run biodiesel in them. They buy these hybrids instead and preach to us about what "earth killers" we are.

Not all hybrids are selling that well Matt. Some Honda dealerships are having trouble selling them. Why do you think Uncle Sam had to offer a tax incentive to help sell them to the customers?