The cost of gas is higher than ever. Not that we’d really notice.

We’ve owned our 2006 Barcelona Red Toyota Prius for almost nine months. It’s hard not to feel smug about gas prices when you’re driving the most fuel-efficient car on the market. Because we [still] get a lot of questions about the car, here are my thoughts a few months “down the road”…

Fuel economy: The first question everybody asks is, “What kind of mileage do you get with that thing?” What we don’t get is the dubiously-calculated 60 MPG EPA estimate; almost no Prius owners do. What we do get is a consistent 48 MPG in warm weather (as with all cars, fuel economy goes down with temperature). With Beth’s 70+ mile daily commute, that adds up to thousands of dollars in savings on fuel every year.

Hybrid confusion: The next most common question is, “Do you have to plug it in?” There are apparently a lot of misconceptions about what a hybrid is. A hybrid vehicle isn’t an electric vehicle; it’s a vehicle. You drive and maintain it the same as any other car; you just get much better fuel economy.

Our friend Jon had a smart observation about why the Prius and other hybrids have been so successful while other electric vehicles have failed: If you took somebody from the 1960s or 1970s who’d never heard of hybrids and put them in the driver’s seat of one, they would be able to drive the car without needing to learn or know anything different.

We also frequently hear, “So can it go at highway speeds?” or “Can it go fast?” The answer is again, yes, it accelerates the same as any other vehicle. I don’t remember what the zero-to-sixty time is for the Prius, but it accelerates like a fairly peppy four-cylinder. It’s not a V6, but it’s no slowpoke, either.

Digital interior: Although the actual act of driving the Prius isn’t really that different from other cars, sitting inside one feels like stepping five years into the future. The Prius is nearly all-digital inside. It has an 8-inch touch screen in the center console that controls most of the interior features, including climate and sound. Upon getting in, many people ask, “Is that a DVD player?” Many of the same controls are also accessible from buttons on the steering wheel. It’s rare that you need to take your hands off the wheel while driving — a great feature.

Our Prius also has a backup camera (an option). Besides the hybrid technology itself, this is probably the biggest “wow” factor. Put the car into reverse and the console screen switches to a video feed from a camera mounted in the rear of a car. The backup camera makes parallel parking a breeze, even for people like me who aren’t that good at it.

Comfort and feel: Another reason to love this car is that it handles beautifully, rides quietly, and is comfortable inside. The Prius is rated as a mid-size car; there’s lots of room inside. It seats four comfortably and five without much shoving. It’s very well insulated, meaning that road noise is kept fairly quiet. Of course, the car itself is almost completely silent when in electric mode, and still very quiet when running the gas engine.

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Overall, we love the car. It’s been a great-looking, great-driving, fun vehicle to own. As Beth said in her original post, we didn’t think we’d be driving a new car this soon, but nine months later, it’s good to be driving a Prius.