It’s the king of the hill as far as gas sippers go, kids–the Toyota Prius is still, for at least two years running now, the best vehicle as fuel efficiency goes outside of a horse-drawn hay wagon.

But there have been plenty of changes to the 2010 model–changes in horsepower, in fuel use style, in gear shifting, and plenty more.  You may not be aware of this, but the user manual for a Prius weighs in at over six hundred pages.

So if it’s a hugely fuel efficient vehicle you’re wanting, then the Toyota Prius is absolutely the car for you.  But be prepared– you’ll have a lot to learn about this buggy before you can even drive it any length.  After all–if you don’t relish the possibility of getting stranded in the middle of nowhere because you were driving in EV mode when you really wanted Eco mode, then you’ll definitely need to hit the books first.

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I suppose it might come as a surprise, if you haven’t read a newspaper or watched any TV in the last six months or so, that the luxury car market is collapsing.  But what’ll really surprise you is the depth to which it’s falling.  For instance, the total sales for luxury car sales this year has fallen fully one third from this time last year.

A third of the market, just gone.  That’s bad enough for anybody, but he luxury car makers aren’t taking this lying down, no sir or ma’am as the case may be.

A recent BMW marketing push, for example, pointed out that its diesel sedans were the most fuel-efficient in their class.  And Bentley offered up incredible financing rates on its catastrophically priced car that was almost the same deal as a GM pickup’s rate.

I’m not really surprised that luxury car makers are finding things tough in the new economy–when pundits bust out lines like “frugal is the new black”, you really have to wonder about the whole mess.  But this may be a sign of much more systemic weakness in the overall economy, and that’s something we’ll all have to watch for.

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