In a message dated Mar/21/2005 10:21:21 PM Eastern Standard Time, Frank Mayhar <frank at exit.com> writes: >Gaertk at aol.com wrote: >> I'm looking at cars too right now, trying to find something cheap, >> reliable, and reasonably fuel-efficient. Right now I'm favoring >> the Toyota Echo; anyone here have any experience with one? > > If you are a city-dweller, I highly recommend the hybrids. It > impresses me a lot when city mileage is much greater than highway > mileage. Were I to buy a new car at the moment, that's what I > would get. I _like_ the idea of 50mpg or better. I'd love that too, but I can't afford it. From what I've seen, a Prius or Civic Hybrid will cost me twice as much as an Echo of equal age and mileage. And the Echo gets pretty good mileage too: Consumer Reports says 38mpg for manual transmission, Carmax says 35/43 for automatic. And I'm not actually driving very far (11 miles round trip to work). --KG