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They're expensive in the short term (esp. as I plan to drive my current car as long as it lasts -- and one should factor in the energy it takes to build a new car into the equation) and it wouldn't save me a great deal of money in the long term.
I currently drive a 99 Saturn SL2. It gets about 38mi highway/30mi city. My commute to work is only 6mi each way. The $30 it takes to fill up my tank every two weeks isn't any more painful than the $15.00 it took two years ago.
I only drive maybe 7000 miles per year. At that rate, even if I was to buy a new car, it would take me years to make up the $10,000 price difference between a Prius and a Ford Focus (or something similar).
Just for fun, I've run the numbers through one of those hybrid savings calculators (http://www.mixedpower.com/modules.php?name=Gas_Savings)and even with gas at $10/gal, I'd only save $10,000 over 10 years. And that's if the battery lasted 10 years. And that's also assuming I wouldn't cut back on my driving at 10/gal, and I'm sure I would.
And that’s why I won’t buy a Prius.
