I just got a car a little over a month ago, and I looked into the prius. I ended up getting an impala with 30k miles on it for less than half of what a new prius would cost. I figure, I can drive a bigger safer faster car, and even at $5 a gallon... I doubt I would recoup the initial costs. And besides, I live in minnesota. You don't exactly want a light weight car when you're driving in snow-and-ice conditions regularly.
I'm averaging 33mpg highway, 28 overall on my first 1.5k miles on a pretty nice V6 with decent giddyup in her.