I looked at all of the mid-size cars out there and while they may have been cheaper than the Prius (initially) by the time you added any options on them the price was very near the $24,000 I paid and not one of them would get the MPG the Prius got. I routinely get 44-46 mpg and drive 3 weeks before needing to fill up my 11.9 gal. tank.
The Prius may not be everyone's idea of beautiful but I like it. It looks futuristic and I like not having to put a key to start it up. Its really a computer on 4 wheels. I feel like I'm driving a car of the 21st century.
My wife drives an '07 Yaris Liftback and gets about 34-35 mpg on a regular basis. She also fills up about every 3 weeks. All in all we are very happy with our cars. We also got something that you can't get with any other car I know of, for less than $900 we can take each car to our dealer and get the oil changed for the life of the car up to 4 times a year. Thus, our maintenance costs are fixed for as long as we own them. Gotta love it.