Nelson_nel, that's not the case. Check out this month's Consumer Reports, which gives a review of true 5-year ownership costs of all cars, taking into account maintenance and depreciation as well as fuel costs. Prius was number one in it's segment (mid-size I think-- not compact).
I love my Prius but ultimately we'll be moving to electric cars and plug-in hybrids. The 2004-2010 hybrids are just getting the door open and getting people used to the idea of reducing oil use, and it's been working extremely well. Now the electrics and plug-in hybrids are starting: Tesla Roadster and Fisker Karma on the high end, and in the cheaper segments Aptera in 2009 then Chevy Volt and Plug-in Prius in late 2010/ early 2011-- by which time Project Better Place will already have people driving cheap electric vehicles all over Israel, Denmark and (if negotiations continue to go well) Hawaii. Meanwhile hopefully city buses will continue to move toward fuel-cell power as they have been doing in Europe on a trial basis. Combine all that with a new president instilling a little positive vision toward getting us off oil, and we'll get at least off mid-east oil within a decade.