My Jetta was in the shop one night this week so I rented a Toyota Prius from the dealer. It’s a really nice car. There are a lot of high-tech features (like the touchscreen and audio system). The mileage was good (~44 in mixed driving), but that’s pretty equivalent to the TDI. (Honestly I was surprised to put four gallons in it after only one day of drving, though we did take it all the way out to Leland and then back to Bellaire). The very small engine is surprisingly noisy when it’s on. When it’s off (running on battery power) the car is eerily quiet. The engine powers the electric motor so there didn’t seem to be any transmission… the engine would just spool up higher and higher with no shift points. All-in-all it seemed a little bit too much like a well-appointed go-cart for my $23K.