The MPG of the prius is amazing
 

I got to drive a rental Prius for two days as provided by the Lexus dealership which was doing the recall campaign on my dad's Lexus ES350. So anyway, since the gas tank is that bladder thing and I reset the MPG indicator a few times because I wanted the MPG to be specific to the trips I was doing, I'm not sure how confident I can be in my findings. I drove the car HARD in a number of instances which would then lead me to reset the MPG indicator.

So if what the computer says is correct, then one can get really freaking good mileage out of the Prius. I was driving a 2009 Prius and according to the Prius computer, I found that I could average like 84mpg in the city if it's 70F+ outside and 70mpg when it's 50F outside. I was a bit disappointed with the highway mileage as I was only able to average at best 63mpg on the highway cruising at 55mph, 70F outside.

But this brings up a bigger question, if I can get this kind of mileage out of a Prius, what about the first generation, manual transmission Insight? I just wish I could have a normal looking car that came with a manual transmission, had excellent mileage AND was a hybrid.. The two seater M/T insight isn't practical enough which means it limits its audience too much.

Depends on what you are after. For the type of driving I do 98% of the time, my Geo Metro is too big a car. Yet, with the hatchback and fold-down rear seat, I can carry lots of big stuff (like a security door a few days ago). Yet I'd probably be just as pleased with a first-generation Honda Insight. Or a Honda 600.

Was the Civic hybrid available with a manual transmission?

Over at cleanmpg.com there are some insight guys who have done these types of "challenges" where they all get together and do a specific route in the same car and see who gets best mileage. I've read of 120+mpg from the manual trans insights on such an occasion.

Were they able to compare it to the prius on the same route? I was somewhat aware that they were able to get 150mpg out of the insight but part of the problem is those guys are allowed to drive really slow and there are sometimes few if any stops along the routes.