Aaaand.....Go!
We love our Hyundai Sonata Limited hybrid. It’s gorgeous and the gas savings are phenomenal. With both Hyundai and Kia you get a LOT more luxury for your money than any other brand. We looked at and researched Honda, Toyota and Ford, but would be driving a base model for the same price as our decked-out Sonata. There’s also a LOT of leg room in the back seats of the Sonata, which is great since my 12 year old is nearly as tall as I am.
The have this all electric Mercedes that can go 180! Fits two though and I think costs a half a mil.
My daughter likes her Prius though you would have to get the bigger one for a family.
We have a Toyota Camry Hybrid. I am 6’1 and fit fine in the back seat, my husband is 6’3 and has no issues. If we are driving 4 hours or so, we will have the 3 kids sit in the back and they survive, longer trip and we take our SUV. We went with the Toyota mainly for safety factors. Toyota’s are some of the safest vehicles out there, and we hope the Camry (2012) and our Highlander (2013) will be the cars our 11 and 9 year old drive when they are driving.
The Camry gets 41.9 MPG right now.
When we got the Camry we went to look at the Prius V. It’s about the same size, but the dealership wouldn’t budge on price, so we went witht he Camry - plus I personally prefer the Camry to the Prius.
Lots of choices out there now, basically everything comes in hybrid.
Well, we have had a Toyota Prius since 2007 and it has been great. It averages at least 50 MPG and we have used it for lots of longer drives (from NW GA to Florida, South Carolina, and Mississippi) as well as local drive around town. There has been minimal maintenance–when the big battery goes, it will be expensive, however with the amount of fuel saved, it has been worth it. We only have two smaller kids (one now 12) and are smallish people ourselves, so I don’t know how well it would work for tall folks. I have heard that it’s not great in hilly/mountainous areas, so if you live somewhere like that, you might want to do some more inquiries.
This is only a sort-of related answer, but I have a Ford Fusion. I bought it the year before the hybrid came out (darn!). If I could have my current car in a hybrid, I’d definitely do it and probably will when I replace this car. I can’t comment on the pick up/handling of the hybrid since I haven’t driven one. But it has the same body as my current car, I can tell you that it easily fits my family of 4, and when we have to take one of the kid’s friends with us, we can fit 2 boosters and a 5-point car seat all in the back seat.