I had hoped that my next car would be an all-electric. However those seem to be discontinued and you could never buy them on the east coast anyway. Besides, my wife was concerned about being stranded if we couldn't find a place to recharge. So, a hybrid seemed like a good compromise.

We looked at both the Prius and the HCH. The Insight was not considered because it's a two-seater and we're a family of four. I personally like the styling better on the Prius. My wife, whose tastes are more conservative, preferred the HCH. What won me over to the HCH were three things

1. The HCH is noticeably quieter
2. It had the option of a manual transmission
3. The Honda dealers were hungrier for my business

Sadly, the clutch was too firm on the manual, giving both my wife and I sore ankles. It was fun to drive a stick shift again for a while though. Kudos to the Honda dealer though for letting me take the manual version home for my wife to test drive. A round trip of about 75 miles.

So, we settled on the CVT version. Got it in a nice light blue color.

The ride is nice, and on some types of pavement, all I hear is the rustle of the wind. The seats are comfortable, the backseat can hold two full-sized adults (my head bumped the roof of the Prius in the backseat and I'm only 5'10"), and the IMA (electric) gives the car enough acceleration so that merging onto the highway is not a problem.

One other complaint though. I can't rest my arm on the door and hold the wheel with that hand at the same time. I can rest my arm on the window sill and hold the wheel, but the window sill is a little high to be comfortable.

I've only had the car for a week, but it's been great so far. In choosing the HCH over the Prius, I picked comfort over making an environmental statement. The Prius is recognizable as a green car, while the HCH looks like all the other millions of Civics on the road.

In this review I did not touch on the "hybridness" of the car. That has been covered in other reviews and I wanted to convey that I picked this car because it's a good car, not an environmental statement.

UPDATE July 2003
I've been driving for about 9 months now and 15,000 miles later I'm still happy with the car. Some things I've learned though
0) Since the car gives instant feedback on fuel consumption, I keep trying to optimize fuel usage. This has gotten me to drive much closer to the speed limit (which is good for my driving record).
1) I've had the best gas mileage (avg 51mpg) in the Spring/Fall on dry roads without air conditioning on cruise control going between 45 and 50.
2) You get the best mileage with cruise control on.
3) It takes a special oil, 0W20. At the dealer, this adds about $3 per quart to the price of an oil change.
4) As of June 2003, my local service station did not have any maintenance instructions in their database so they could not service the car. I had to go to the dealer. My local mechanic was disappointed too because he really was curious about the hybrid.
5) Clarification on tax break: It's a deduction from income, not a credit to your refund. In the State of Maryland, there is no sales tax on the hybrid.
Amount Paid (US$): 20000
Condition: New
Model Year: 2003
Model and Options: Hybrid CVT