Civic HX vs Civic Hybrid vs Prius vs Insight

[itripper]

Finding a decent hybrid in that price range would be hard, only gen 1 Insights can be picked up that cheap ($6k-$8k for a nice one) and unless their batteries were very recently replaced you will have to do some battery maintenance to keep them going. If you like Hondas, CRX's are incredible cars, but very hard to find a good one. Prius is a nice car, but not likely to find one in that price range either.
I have a gen 1 Insight and I love it, I do have to rebalance the batteries periodically with a grid charger as they are very old, other than the batteries (new cost is $2k for better than orig battery pack) I have had zero problems with my Honda driving over 50,000 miles. BTW the batteries on gen 1 Honda Insights can be disconnected completely with an easy mod and the car will drive fine and just be slightly slower/less mpg.
Hondas normally have a high resale value, I think closer to 5k for any Civic that is in great shape.

[wasabi2u]

I had a 2007 prius that I traded in a fe months ago, It had 198000 miles on it, and it was the cheapest car I have ever had to maintain. I replaced the brakes at 168000, because I was getting ready for winter, ( i realllydidnt need to) there Great on gas and NO maintenance issues, change the oil, rotate the tires, ( thats something you have to do) other that that I kind of miss my little go cart. I bought a Subaru outback, knowing I was going to spend more on Gas, But i can put a trailer hitch on it and Its great for the Mountains in the snow, AWD. I bought the prius in 2007 because i was driving 150 miles a day and living on the Pacific coast, and gas was 4.11 gal, Ive calculated that I saved about 27,000 dollars in gas having the prius, versus the Toyota Tundra I had,,,,,,, i am also considering buying another New Prius, You save so much on Fuel and maintenance cost. Do the math, for a minimum of 50 mpg, Ill bet you can afford to buy a new model Prius.

[Ferrigamo]

Hybrids are best at city driving. If you can find a non hybrid civic with Eco mode, using cruise control and aren't afraid of slow accelerations and coasting into exits and to intersections, then you might be surprised at the results. I average on almost a 100 mile round trip of close to 50 mpg with a 2013 ex-l.