But I can tell you there's high interest outside Berkley. I live in Boston and I own a Prius. Not a month goes by that someone doesn't stop me in a parking lot or on the street to ask how I like the car. That doesn't sound all that frequent, but that's people approaching a complete stranger, sometimes while I'm stopped at a light, to ask how I like the car. And there are a ton on the streets up here, they probably get approached too.

(I'm pretty sure).

I thought I had heard that the Explorer Hybrid is experiencing significant supply problems. Does anyone know to what extent the disparity in sales between it and the Prius can be attributed to supply?

... it'll be a Prius (or something very much like it). I had the pleasure of renting one for a couple of weeks, back when they were still relatively new and not as common. Great car.

With 4x4, dualies, extended bed, extended cab, and a fifth wheel trailer to tow behind.

I've already made my purchase but a few months back I dithered between the green value of a brand new Prius and a 10 year old used Honda Accord. Eventually price (I saved $20k) won out but I still wondered if the fuel efficiency of the Prius vs a car that's not-too-bad in fuel efficiency made up for the manufacture of yet another vehicle. It takes oil to build these things too.

Though I've already bought my car I'm still curious. Is it better to reduce (your gas) or reuse (a car)? Anyone wanna weigh in?

There are literally dozens of new technologies just around the corner--it is really a bad time to buy a new car.

From direct electric drive (where the wheels are motors) and pluggable hybrids to fuel cells--there is lots of stuff in the works. Most of it is coming from Europe and Japan--not so much from Detroit.

Can Detroit hope to compete? I really doubt it. Talk about stoopid--the writing has been on the wall for over 30 years and they still are trying to sell 3/4 ton pickups with 14 mpg.

Colorado tax credits for hybrids are by far the best in the nation, are better than the federal credits, and are added on top of the credits. With the Colorado tax credit there is no question of whether you will save money buying a hybrid -- you definitely will.

http://www.revenue.state.co.us/fyi/html/income09.html

For 2008, the base Prius gets a credit (NOT deduction) of $2,015 and the touring edition gets a credit of $3,106.

The biggest credit available is for the Lexus LS 600h -- a whopping $13,779.

****Explorer Hyrbid Supply Problems

I thought I had heard that the Explorer Hybrid is experiencing significant supply problems. Does anyone know to what extent the disparity in sales between it and the Prius can be attributed to supply?****

Yes there is a severe supply problem for the Explorer hybrid....it doesn't exist. You may be thinking of the Escape hybrid....but reviews of that car are mixed. Supposedly the Escape hybrid suffers from poor A/C performance in the summer.

unless you happen to need transportation other than the bus.

I was sick of my gas-guzzling Chevy hooptie's repair bills, I had to take the plunge. Didn't want to roll the dice on used & was short the funds for a shiny hybrid with its shiny pricetag. Split the difference & went Toyota Yaris. Low price, hi MPG.

My boss says he'd never seen a hybrid credit before this year. Suddenly we have a whole slew of clients filing taxes this year with hybrids, all of them Toyotas. The big pity is that a couple of them missed the deadline and this year there's no more credit... but honestly, none of them seem to have timed their purchases for the phaseout, they just wanted a Prius and sent us the paperwork on the off chance that they'd get some extra cash back.

Obviously the lack of tax credit isn't hurting them!

But as I'm sure you know, we no shoes wearin god fearin hillbillies put whale oil V-10 engines in them and paint rebel flags on the roof.

One would think, even if it's true, that the hippy posers in Oakland would take the damn bus. Or ride their Jerusalem Cruisers (Birkenstocks).

Don't drag Oakland into this. Andrew said Berkeley -- that's where all the hippie posers are. Oakland has hipsters.

Has anybody else noticed the date? There aren't 20,634 Prius' in Berkley. Let alone that many sold in the last month.

... that a lot of this country is built on the assumption that fuel would be cheap forever. That isn't working out very well, and we continue to make the problem worse with new construction.

Maybe we should give some thought to producing goods closer to the customers who will buy them, and selling them from stores that are closer to the customers.

Also, communication continues to get cheaper even as fuel gets more expensive. Maybe we don't really need to move huge numbers of people many miles each day to get to work. I'm sure some of those jobs could be done remotely. I've been telecommuting for over 8 years. My 1999 automobile only has 12,500 miles on it, and I only have to fill the ten-gallon tank once every five or six weeks. My employer benefits by not having to provide office space for me, and also by getting some of the time I would have spent commuting as extra work time.

For stating what I thought was just durned tootin' obvious...

there may not be 20,000 priuses in berkeley, but a couple of days ago I counted sixteen while walking the two blocks between my house and the nearest supermarket. I do believe they are breeding independently.

All the rest of that post is true, by the way.

There may well not be 20,000+ Priuses in the People's Republic. But I dare anyone to do a Prius drinking game in the Berkeley. I can't hold liquor (as I don't drink), but even the most hollow of wooden legs wouldn't stand a chance.