Laughing all the way past the gas station

MARISA O’NEIL

When I heard that gas prices at some Southern California stations are

edging toward $3 a gallon, I laughed.

When I read Friday morning that Orange County gas prices had

reached an all-time high of over $2.50 a gallon, I smiled and

shrugged.

Getting 50 miles to the gallon has that affect on a girl.

This week, I joined the hybrid revolution. I bought a Toyota

Prius, which uses technology that combines an electric motor with a

gas-powered engine to scoot some 50 miles on one gallon of gas.

That’s nearly five times further than the same gallon can take the

average behemoth sport-utility vehicle. And, no, my Prius doesn’t

have to be plugged in.

Rising gas prices have spurred many folks, like Costa Mesa City

Councilwoman Katrina Foley, to go hybrid. Foley, a mother of two,

passed her minivan along to her husband and bought a fuel-efficient,

environmentally-friendly Honda Civic Hybrid for herself.

“I want to support this kind of technology, so that more cars will

be made that are fuel efficient or not reliant on fuel and are better

for the environment,” she said.

And her sport-utility-vehicle- driving friends are jealous. She

recently took a round-trip drive to Las Vegas in her hybrid on a

tank-and-a-half of gas. Her friends spent hundreds on plane tickets.

Cost to fill her tank? About $30.

“All my friends drive SUVs, and they are actually anxious for the

hybrid SUVs to come out,” she said. “Even die-hard SUV friends are

going to switch over.”

But those friends will have to wait.

The Ford Escape Hybrid already has lengthy waiting lists at

dealerships. The hybrid versions of the Toyota Highlander and a Lexus

sport-utility vehicle have yet to be released.

And soaring gas prices have sparked a feeding-frenzy on the Toyota

Prius.

Virtually the only Prius cars in stock at Toyota dealers are ones

ordered by other people who gave up waiting and bought another car.

Ordering a Prius means you might get one in four to six months.

Or, like me, you could get lucky.

I checked some local dealers last weekend and found a scant few

Priuses -- all the top-dollar, fully-loaded models -- in stock.

Other prospective buyers were already eyeing them.

So I ordered the most basic, stripped-down, cheapest model --

which still has plenty of bells and whistles -- and hoped I’d see it

before Christmas.

Three days later, a salesman from the dealership called to tell me

they had just unloaded that exact car, same color and all, off a

truck. The person who had ordered it opted not to buy, and it was up

for grabs.

So I grabbed it. And I love it.

I love the key, which looks like an alarm remote that lost the

key.

I love the push-button start that reminds me of my Macintosh

computer.

I love that the gear shift sits inconspicuously in the dash and

that another button sets the transmission in park.

I love that come tax time next year, I’ll get a $1,500 credit for buying a fuel-efficient car, and if the feds cooperate, I’ll get to

drive in the carpool lane alone.

It worried me at first, but I love that the gas engine sputters

out when I stop, then whirrs to life again when I step on the gas.

Most of all, I love that my onboard computer tells me that, in the

170 miles I’ve driven since I got it, I’ve averaged 50.6 miles per

gallon. And I still have two-thirds of a tank of gas left.

To top it all off, my 2-year-old son, Liam, whose child seat fits

easily in the back seat, likes Mommy’s new car.

So although high gas prices are nothing to laugh about, at least

they won’t pinch me as hard from now on.

* MARISA O’NEIL is a Daily Pilot staff writer covering courts and

public safety.