A perennial favorite, the Honda Civic, is as good as ever. We love the wide range of bodystyles, engines, and equipment. Civic is a solid car that has good performance, a nice ride, and a high degree of civility. We also love almost everything about the Ford Focus, but were reluctant to rank it a Best Buy because it was new from the ground up. After a year of living with a ZTS model, we can say that the reliability is good. Focus ranks a notch below Civic in some areas but costs less.

Topping the crowded Recommended list are the Volkswagen Golf and Jetta. They easily could be Best Buys. However, they are among the most expensive cars in this segment. Other Recommended choices include the no-frills Toyota Echo, the sporty Nissan Sentra, and the roomy Mazda Protege.

Prius went on sale in the third quarter of 2000 and found 5562 buyers through year's end. Deliveries in the first nine months of 2001 were 10,616, nearly 60 percent of which came in the third quarter. That's remarkable in light of recent events, though understandable given widespread fears of gas shortages--and scattered attempted price-gouging--in the first weeks after September 11th.

Toyota officials recently told Bloomberg News that Prius is turning a small per-unit profit after some 75,000 worldwide sales as of late December 2001. Starting with 2002, the company will increase yearly Prius deliveries to the U.S. by about 40 percent to some 17,000 units. Even so, Toyota says sales will remain insufficient to offset research and development expenses, capital investment, and perhaps warranty costs. Bloomberg News also reports that by 2005, Toyota projects building up to 300,000 alternative-power vehicles a year on a worldwide basis, including hybrids, battery-electrics and engines powered by fuel cells and natural gas. It's a costly but necessary effort to meet new rules in Japan, Europe and the U.S. requiring automakers to sell more vehicles with zero- or ultra-low-emissions powertrains.

Meantime, Prius faces its first direct rival with the spring 2002 debut of Honda's Civic Hybrid sedan. Drivetrains are closely matched, but Honda's second hybrid-power car, depending on how it's priced, may well outpoll Prius with its more conventional design and driving characteristics. No word yet on how, when, or even if Toyota will repond.