I went with the Prius, two years ago.

Now imagine this...in three more years it's paid for.

Then one extra year to pay for the EV-10 (or 20 or 30) upgrade, that will give me FULL electric use, a plug-in, and if I run out of juice, the ICE will not only kick in, the "extra" energy generated by the ICE will charge up the batteries.
(Pricing on Prius EV-Kits keep dropping every year)

So, over the span of 6 years, I have a decent EV car that is highway capable.

Upgrading a Jetta TDI to be able to do EV-mode, would cost how much?

If you don't get a hybrid asap, you'll be left behind along with millions of car owners desperately trying to get EV's and hybrids, out of assembly plants barely able to build 30k units a year.

Hell, the Prius can also be fitted with CNG, there's more than enough room in the back to house a 100lb tank.
Tri-Energy capable future-upgradeable car.

Or, like 90% of the world wide population - can't even view said video, as it is US only.

Adoption of this video format - instead of YouTube or some other video hosting, means this website should be renamed.
How about www.USONLYgreendaily.com ?

What really irks me, is that this video has no copyright value.

Makes you wonder for the underlying reasons for the existence of this Blog and AOL's involvement.

"The requested video cannot be displayed in your region"

Yep - syndication is definitely a good idea. America only for America - the rest of the world doesn't count?

Our family only buys free range eggs.
For a dozen, it's 5$ instead of 3$, not exactly bank breaking.

Also, we don't eat chicken/pork/beef, but to answer what Paul said - it's not the same chicken that are bred for eggs or meat.

Much like cows, dairy cows and meat cows are cousins, very different.

So you can also buy meat chickens that were raised free range. They are not the Grain Fed, usually you cannot buy free range chicken meat at the regular store, only from a specialized vendor. Or your local butcher might be able to find for you.

In my case, I bought a 2006 Prius *instead of* a luxury car like a Lexus or an Audi, or instead of an SUV.

Look at how man luxury (over 30k$) cars & SUV's on the road, these are all people that can easily afford the Prius with all the bells & whistles and the extended warranty.

Those luxuries outnumber the Prius 1,000,000 to 1.
Plus they are the worst polluters.

If you buy a Prius to replace a Civic, Insight, Tercel, Echo, Yaris....don't !!! You're not the target market, and you're not part of the problem.

My Prius monthly payment is more than TWICE that of my wife's 2006 Yaris.

The extra cost between the Yaris & Prius, you'll never make up the dollars difference, unless you drive in excess of 2,000 miles per month in traffic.

I wanted an equivalent Monthly + Gas to my Toyota Sienna, and dollar-to-dollar, exactly the same.

What's important in a true hybrid like the Prius, it is possible to do electric-only at reasonable speeds and acceleration. So after the initial 5 years, once paid for, it will be cheap upgrade to Plug-In.

The other plus, that doesn't void your warranty, is using the HV battery pack to run a computer rack-mount UPS system to deliver a true 110VAC @ 15 amps. Under 1,000$ to do, and can run 24/7 forever, just ferry regular gas to the Prius with another car.

Compare that to existing solutions. You'd need two Honda generators, alternating eight hour duty cycles (manual labor). Each generator is about 2,500$.
Oil change every 3 or 4 cycles. Generators are N-O-I-S-Y and quite polluting, much like lawnmowers.

In the 1998 Quebec ice storm I know lots of people that paid over 4,000$ for a generator that they ran 24/7, and after less than a week it was dead, 2k$ of repairs, not covered by warranty.

I sure wish I had my Prius back then !

Check out my comments and others on Dvorak's blog today, on how Toyota is now #1 surpassing GM.
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=11047

When you factor in general maintenance, gas savings, and extremely high resell value, the Prius is by far not very expensive.

Plus the fact that you can easily have it upsized to Plug-IN EV-30, for a total combined price cheaper than a Mini Cooper Electric or Zap's -X eletric car.

For myself, if I had the Stealth Switch (in Canada/US not present) and EV-15 plug-in, I would be 95% gas free usage every month.

I justified my purchase to (Canadian $) :
Toyota Sienna
- 500$ per month payment
- 300$ per month gas
- $ maintenance

To
- 750$ per month payment
- 60$ per month gas
- much much lower $ maintenance

Brake job alone on the Sienna cost me 800$ after four years.

I got back about 25% of the initial purchase $ for the Sienna w/130,000KM.

With 50%+ with the Prius, I now have a rough equivalent dollars wise.

The environmental benefits are free!

Article made me laugh !

Misconception - Hybrids / electric cars are NOT green, they are greener alternatives to a regular car. A true "green" person doesn't own a car.

As a Prius 2006 owner, I can upsize my EV-2 car to a plug-in EV-30 for a cheaper combined price of this 59K$ Mini !

Plus I still have my gas engine for highway speeds, long trips, roomier interior, more storage, and SAFER (my car has four airbags & side curtains).

I plan on converting to Plug-IN EV-30 when it's paid for 5 years, unless Toyota makes a newer plug-in model.

If Toyota makes a 2010 Plug-IN Prius, I will resell my current 2006 Prius for over 50% of it's purchase price.

I've been using a Buffalo TerraStation, that I bought in August 2006. 4x SATA 500gig drives in Raid-5 NAS enclosure for 1.5 T.

You can do Raid 0, 1, & 5. Easy web interface to configure it.

The killer is the price. I paid 1,200$ Canadian for it! I don't get all those other closures that are more expensive and not even Gigabit Ethernet.

Next year I'll swap out the 500gig'ers for 4x1000gig'ers and upgrade 2 PC's in Raid-1.