Aaron's (AD Video dept) Prius is a pretty nifty car any time I've ridden with him anywhere. He's been pretty happy with it thusfar and he's had it for several years now. Toyota just did a much better job of marketing their product. Going with an all-new design, rather than calling it a Corolla or Camry made it stand out from the others. It's not necessarily just an image thing. It was a terrific job of brand-creation in a new field of products. Prius has about the same name recognition of Kleenex, and Xerox.