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Apologies for hijacking a previous thread. Here's a recent review from Edmunds.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWigWOB1IHo

I would buy the Camry over a PII hands down.

But then looking at your mpg in the car. Its not any better at all than our 05 Accord. Last tank in the Accord was 40 mpg. Wonder what kind of mpg I could get out of a TCH?

It's hard to say. How much urban driving do you do in Okmulgee?

It's hard to say. How much urban driving do you do in Okmulgee?

80% or better hwy driving.

With the Accord on carpooling days. I drive the hwy miles to get myself to the office. The wife takes over and drives city miles to her office and her running around through the day. Then picks me up and I do the hwy driving back home. So the Accord can and does see 90 to 130 miles a day. Just depending whats going on.

And to be quite honest I have never been to a yota dealer that I didn't feel like I was being screwed over and lied to. And I did not like the current gen Camry at all. But now that Honda has completely screwed up the Accord in the 8th gen and seemly has no interest in making a hybrid Accord. They have been taken off the table as a possible car for purchase.

The only TCH's I see are the ones that go flying by me on a interstate and the ones I pass in a fas on two lane roads in Arkansas. The PII's are much the same. They pass me on interstates and I pass them on two lane roads. Which shores up Yotas reputation of being the new world order Buick.

But the TCH does interest me. PII? Slamming my finger with a hammer is more interesting.

I hear you on the new design of the Accord - I don't get it either. I think their Accord hybrid concept was similar to Lexus' current approach (more for added performance than strictly fuel economy).

There are a large number of Prius and TCH drivers that pass me by as well. My drive is 85-90% urban/city driving with a relatively short (8 miles/18-22 minutes - each way) drive time.

My current mileage is based on that type of driving. My ride to work starts out in school zones with the ICE running to get up to temp (I hate that part) and my ride home starts out in a heavily congested downtown area with lots of unsynchronized traffic lights - again with the ICE running to heat up so it takes a while to get to S4.

On the every other weekend trip (about 65 miles each way) out to my parent's house, I easily get 44 to 46 mpg driving the posted speed limit (60 mph for about 30 miles, then 65 mph for the remaining 35 miles) without any drastic techniques - mostly a little pulse-glide and the occasional draft (safe distance) of a trucker when I can find one who isn't hauling A. I recently got a sustained 52 mpg for about 30 miles when I lucked upon a Winnebago with his cruise control set at 60 mph and I was able to get several car lengths behind him. No one seemed to ever want to get between us (they would go around both of us) so I got a really good return on that trip.

If your getting 40mpg with your current ride, I don't know how much better off you would be with the TCH - it shines in congested urban driving more than highway driving. My 06 Camry V6 only got about 19 mpg in the city so 36 mpg (an improvement of 17 mpg - 89%) is fantastic for me. The Prius really is a great vehicle if you want maximum mpg - I just need something a little more traditional and low key. I don't mind the hatchback design - but I just cant get with the Prius' instrumentation and controls.

Because we have a number of Toyota dealers here in Houston, maybe they have to be a little more customer oriented. The dealership I got my TCH from is the 2nd car I've bought from them. They didn't deal much on the price of the TCH, but they gave me a really good deal on my trade in of the 06 Camry XLE.

Maybe you could do an internet search and get a better deal than your local folks will offer. I once bought a VW Passat from a Dallas dealer because no one in Houston would deal with me. I used Edmonds or MSN (this was 1999) to enter in the options/price I wanted to pay and got a phone call in about 7-10 days from a salesman at Rusty Wallace VW in Dallas wanting to know if I was still looking. I worked out the deal over the phone - drove my trade-in up to Dallas and drove the new car home that day. I think when a dealer is wanting to sell cars and they come to you they are more willing to work with you. That being said, hybrids probably aren't going to get the same flexibility as other cars right now.

Want to avoid dealing with the dealers? Shop on the internet. I did and the only thing I had to deal with a deal for was taking the test drive of the vehicle I was buying and him taking me over to sign the papers. My internet sales guy told me he can give me the price he did while the regular sales guys won't because he doesn't get paid on commission. He said he gets paid the same no matter what the car sells for. You can haggle between 2 or 3 internet sales people from you computer and it won't take long. Just tell them you are dealing with someone else online and they will soon get to their bottom numbers.

FYI My current tank is at 47mpg per the MFD which means it's probably at 45mpg by hand and i am just starting to get into hypermiling. Also there is about a 200ft drop in elevation between my office and my house over a 40 mile span.