Prius driver for a week

We returned our Prius to the dealership on Saturday. Here are my thoughts on being a Prius driver for a week. Overall, I liked it well enough to get one (alas, no red, which was our first choice -- here's to another silver car for the next decade!).

Strengths:
- Drives mostly like a normal car (though with a somewhat quirky shifter)
- Tight turning radius
- Quiet inside
- Bosts cool gadgets like the keyless start system and rear-view camera
- Can't beat 56 mpg, which was what I got with a week's worth of driving (about 360 miles of 80% freeway driving on about 6.5 gallons of gas)

Drawbacks:
- Poor rear visibility due to a beam bisecting the rear window
- Handles ok, but sure isn't a sports sedan like the Mazda3 or BMW 3-series
- Artificial feeling power steering requiring too many turns of the steering wheel

It's amazing how polarizing the vehicle is. Search for groups on Google or Facebook, and you'll see camps hailing the Prius as the technological wonder which will save us from global warming as well as "hater" camps who can't stand the self-righeous smugness of Prius owners.

While I don't believe the Prius is going to single-handedly solve global warming -- but it does point the way towards the next-generation of high efficiency, low-compromise cars. I imagine that ten years from now, a majority of the cars on the road will be hybrids or high efficiency vehicles such as clear-burning diesels (probably not too many fuel cell cars on the road). And auto historians will look back at the Prius as the one that started the mega-trend. In the meantime, it's a nicely executed car with lots of cool gadgets, typical Toyota reliability, and breakthrough fuel efficiency.

More when we get one of our own.