It makes about as much noise as a home computer, has the power of an average mid-size car, and it gets nearly 60 miles to the gallon of gas. It's a gasoline-electric hybrid car, and some say it's the future of private transportation.
"Toyota has come out and said, Automotive News this week said, if you're not in the Hydrid business, then you're going to be out of the car business very, very soon," said Anthony Ficociello, Rosemurgy's Autorworld.
Ficociello says the cars are priced competitively with their all-gas powered relatives and have become a favorite of the employees at Rosemurgy's Autoworld.
But while the high gas prices have helped hybrid car sales, the same effect hasn't taken hold in Wausau’s public transit department.
"We don't have many of the factors that you'd find in a large urban area, Madison, Milwaukee, or Chicago for instance," said Greg Seubert, Wausau Transit Director.
Seubert says, along with high gas prices, the availability of parking and traffic congestion in larger cities convince more people to ride the bus.
But that's not true of smaller cities, like Wausau where the car, at least for now, still is king.
