My wife and I's 2008 Honda Fit (automatic transmission) currently gets about 35-36 mpg in mixed driving, although it is usually mostly highway driving (with a 30 minute weekday commute). It started out getting low 30s in March when we bought it, but has improved as the weather has gotten warmer and the car has broken in. We has never gotten worse than 31 mpg, even with many short trips. We think it's a bargain - considering the substantial extra cost of a hybrid (the civic hybrid starts around 22-23k, vs 14k for the fit, I believe the prius is even more), it would take a very long time before the savings in fuel would make the overall cost of ownership of a fit exceed that of a hybrid. Sure you get a slightly bigger car with more features, but we don't feel like we are driving an inferior economy car with the fit's nice mix of standard features, as well as its great utility (the fold-down seats are very very nice).