sorry that your Prius isn't meeting your expectations. Mine consistently gets in the 48mph range (it's an 07) but as you state, that is still under the EPA rated 60MPG. Of course, those EPA ratings have long been criticized as they are determined under optimal (read: impossible to mimic) condition that we just don't see in the real world. The Jetta sounds like a great alternative though it's too small for our family (3 kids all in car seats/boosters) and we still have a dearth of biodiesel available around here.

 We do hope that by the time my wife trades in her vehicle, we can go the biodioesel route. that's the plan right now. I know that Honda is planning to intro a line of diesel vehicles for their larger autos (she drives a Honda Odyssey Minivan right now). when those are available, we'll likely make the leap. until then, we'll just drive my prius whenever we take trips and offset the CO2 we are responsible for.