Autopia suggests to buy used cars instead of Prius...

[JPaul]

the Toyota Prius get great gas mileage but it takes 113 million BTUs of energy to make one. Since there are about 113,000* BTUs of energy in a gallon of gasoline, the Prius has consumed the equivalent of 1,000 gallons of gasoline before it reaches the showroom.

See more at: Go Green ** Buy a Used Car. It's Better Than a Hybrid | Autopia from Wired.com

Just thought I should share... Now why didn't they suggest to buy a greener car, instead of an old one? Like you know, a...

[curtis]

yeah, i ahve been saying this for months, the Prius is bogus, did anyone happen to catch the story on Lexus flying a Lexus Hybrid to Paul Mcartney, this whole green thing is a scam and a money maker...even walmart sells recycled canvas bags (made in china) at the checkout that have some lame save the earth slogan printed on them probably with some toxic ink. From what I have read a Hummer H3 leaves a smaller carbon footprint then a Prius when all is said and done.

[Red_fortwo]

Go further. The manufacture of a Prius uses much more energy than the manfacturing of a similar-sized conventional car. At the end of its life, though, you have so much more that will have to be carefully recycled/disposed of properly. What do you think it takes, energy-wise, to recycle the components of the Prius' battery pack? How about all the on-board electronics? These aren't things you can just heap into the landfill. You can expect at least 25-50% of the manufacturing energy will be needed for every Prius that is safely decommissioned.

It may make people who can not follow the complexity of the issue feel better about themselves, but though the Prius gets great gas mileage it's not a truly "Green" vehicle anywhere but in the halls of Toyota marketing.

[Old smart]

Add to all of the above the news that Toyota dealers are jacking up Prius prices sky-high during this "gas panic."