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That's right. I did it. I bought a Hybrid. And something about it feels good.

I wasn't necessarily in the market for a new car, but my old car was, well, old and I'm not the kind of person that can, shall we say, maintain an older-model vehicle. So, I started thinking and looking for something newer (read, under warranty.)

I drove by an auto dealer on a main thoroughfare in Nashville and saw a 2005 Toyota Prius, black and beautiful and thought to myself, "Well now...a used Hybrid? Who knew there were any to be had?!?"

But before I could turn the car around and head back to investigate, it was gone.

So, my wife and I headed then headed to another part of town, chasing a hot tip. We heard about a "good deal on a Honda" which of course turned out to be "too good to be true."

We did however take a spin in a new Honda Civic Hybrid and my expectations were met and exceeded. I turned the key and didn't even realize the car had started. Its electric-ness (that's a word, right?) was used to crank it up and suffice it to say, I heard no cranking.

The engine shuts off at stops and just as you pull your foot off the brake, it hums right back to life.

There are of course some very prominent "feel-good" gauges to show me what kind of fuel economy I'm experiencing at any given moment, and they certainly do their job. It felt good.

But, as I mentioned above, a good deal was not to be had, so we headed for home a bit wiser and with money still in our pockets.

An astute friend however came across a year-old Civic for sale in a grocery store parking lot and emailed me a few pictures along with the owner's phone number. I called. I drove. I bought.

And I love it.

Now, I know there's plenty of people out there are skeptical that it's even worth the slightly higher cost to buy a Hybrid due to some environmental concerns, so here's why we chose to go this route:

• We wanted a car under warranty, so we decided to consider a Hybrid
• The Department of Energy says the Civic Hybrid gets 50 MPG, and the car it was replacing got 24
• That translates into a $1.63 savings in gas per 25 miles driven, or about $1,000 saved in gas per year
• And as far as petroleum consumption, we save about 310 gallons of petroleum each year
• And as to greenhouse gas emissions, instead of emitting 7.6 tons per year, we're now only emitting 3.7 tons

All those numbers made sense to me as far as impact on the environment and I figured if we could justify, and then (more importantly) afford the cost difference between the Hybrid and the Civic EX, we had made a decision.

The Hybrid costs about $3,000 more to purchase than the mid-level Civic EX. We buy cars on the five-year plan, so we looked at the gas savings over the course of five years.

The annual fuel savings come out to be $368 x 5 years = $1,840. And as of 2006, the tax credit on the Civic Hybrid was $2,100, which according to my research, would knock roughly $500-$700 off my tax bill.

That totals to about $2,500 in savings, which for this cowboy was sure as shootin' close enough to make the choice to emit less gas while consuming less gasoline.

I feel good about supporting alternative energy. I always have. If I could find it, I'd reprint for you the "award-winning" paper I wrote in 8th grade called "Hydrogen: The Alternative Fuel of The Future."

So, the next time you're in the market to replace your automobile, first consider if you really need a car at all. If you can get by on public transportation, give that a shot. But if you're in need of your own personal mode of transport, consider a Hybrid a very viable economic and environmental option.

And for fun, check out www.fueleconomy.gov to compare what's currently in your garage with some of the available Hybrid models out there. You might just be compelled to, in the words of Michael Jackson himself, "make that change."