The Prius seems to fit those three requirements pretty well, but are there any in the US that do better? (‘Decently’ defined as under 23k or so new, and high-mileage as over 40 highway)
The new Honda Insight is a bit cheaper than the Prius, but has slightly lower mileage. The design of the Insight is pretty similar to the Prius, as well. The Honda Civic Hybrid also fits your criteria.
You can go to www.fueleconomy.gov and search for all vehicles with highway mileage greater than 40mpg. They unfortunately do not include the 2010 model year, so the new Insight doesn’t show up, but what does show up are the Civic Hybrid and the Prius, and well as the diesel Jetta and the Smart. I think all those come pretty close to your criteria, although the Prius, Civic, and Jetta are all clustered around $23K MSRP.
Yeah, the Civic looks a lot more appealing than it did last time. Would it be worth spending a bit more on a used car to get a navigation system, given that I may be moving to a completely unfamiliar city next year and would appreciate easy directions?
The aftermarket GPS units are pretty cheap and good these days. I helped pick one out for my mom last christmas… you can get cheap but adequate units for $100, and really nice ones for $500. So unless the built-in navigation system is really good, I wouldn’t pay much extra for it. Depending on your point of view, a GPS unit that you can put in multiple cars and can take out of the car when you leave it parked could either be a feature or a bug.
Fusion Hybrid. Exceeds your price a bit, but it’s a much nicer (“normal looking”) car.
Enh. Appearance doesn’t matter much to me, and unfortunately it’s not on Carmax anyway.