Prius fever
Everywhere I go these days, there are Priuses.
At work, I occasionally amuse myself by counting the number of Priuses I pass in the parking lot on the way to my bike. (My shiny new Prius spends most of its time sitting in my parking lot at home, unused; I bike to work, and don't tend go anywhere else more than once every few days.) The number kept going up for a while, but it seems to have more or less levelled off recently. (Okay, so I don't actually count per se, just get a general sense of how many there are.) I still have the probably-annoying habit of saying, "Look, a Prius!" every time I see one while I'm out driving with someone. At some point, presumably the novelty will wear off, probably shortly before everyone in Silicon Valley owns one.
I think what's going on is that the only other car I've ever owned was not a common or popular one. There are two or three other Geo Metros in my neighborhood, but I only ever saw one maybe once every couple of weeks; it made me feel like I was part of a secret club of Metro owners or something, especially when I saw one the same color as mine. So that "Hey, cool, they have the same car as me!" reaction hasn't yet adjusted to the fact that the Prius is a far more popular car, at least in this area.
I now know six people/families (in various places, not just here) who have Priuses (though a couple of those are the older model): Jeremy & Amy, Jessica & Stewart, Jeff H, Lola, Vardibidian & co, Jay & Holly. I imagine that number will go up over time.
Especially since the tax incentives for hybrids are improving in 2006. Until the end of 2005, the incentive is a $2000 deduction (that is, you get to reduce your taxable income by $2000); starting in 2006, you get a tax credit instead, which is to say you get to reduce your taxes paid by an amount ranging from $400 to $3400 (depending on the car model). For some income levels and some car models, that won't be as good as the $2000 deduction, but for most people it'll be better. Looks like the Prius credit will be somewhere in the $2700-$3200 range. Note, however, that the credit will go away over time, depending on the number of cars sold by a given manufacturer; the credit may be cut by half for Toyota cars as soon as September of 2006.
What else? Vardibidian has some comments about the Prius; note that a couple of the pluses listed are also available in other cars. I suppose I could take this opportunity to give an abbreviated version of my own such list, but it's still pretty much the same as it was from the start:
Pros: Gas mileage; high-tech look; fairly roomy interior.
Cons: Bad UI design in most aspects of the dashboard (they really ought to hire a usability expert); very poor visibility (even compared to other 2005 cars) from the driver's seat to certain outside areas.
Also, the mileage still isn't where I would like it to be; I'm usually getting low- to mid-40s. Which is great compared to most cars, but not as high as I was hoping, and no better than my old Metro. I can probably continue to improve it slightly as I learn how to better coax MPG out of the car, but I'm already doing a lot of the things you're supposed to do. Actually, possibly my car's most salutary effect on the environment has been the fact that the mileage isn't as good on very short trips as on longer ones, so my desire to keep the MPG up has helped push me toward biking to work regularly. (As has the parking-space shortage at work.)
I did get my carpool lane stickers, and applied them to the car; they're not as intrusive as they initially looked like they'd be. So far, I haven't actually driven solo in the carpool lane during rush hour in my car, and the carpool lanes are getting crowded again (I think the Valley's economy is recovering, if increasing traffic levels are any indication) so I don't know if it'll actually provide any benefit for me personally. But a potentially useful option to have, and although I'm a little dubious about the idea of letting hybrids into the carpool lanes, I'm not so dubious that I won't take advantage of it should the occasion arise.
One more thing: I still haven't named the car. I enjoyed various people's suggestions for names, but none of them seemed quite right for this car. So if you have other suggestions, send 'em along. The license plate starts with NWD, which could be pronounced like "nude," but I don't think I want to use "nude" in the car's name.