Hi, Erin --

You might try reading the archives of 2004-Prius (which should hit showrooms
by November), toyota-prius, civic_hybrid, and Honda_Civic_Hybrid, all on
Yahoo.

A hybrid car, either a Honda Insight, Honda Civic Hybrid, or Toyota Prius
(old style or newly redesigned) might be right for you.

If you're doing most in-town driving, a Prius is probably a good choice.
Then your question becomes one of whether to buy an '03 (old design) off a
lot somewhere, buy a used '01-'03 Prius, or wait til this fall and try to
get your hands on a newly-redesigned '04 (which have a lot of pre-orders
already -- November is not an unreasonable ETA for this car. Depending on
the number of preorders in your area, it might even be a little later.

More information than I could ever hope to share can be found on the lists I
list above.

peace,
Linda