Ok! Soooo, we looked at both the captiva and prius v today!!

They both are around the same price tag drive-away.

One thing that REALLY suprised me is that the Prius is actually more spacious inside it has 3 full sized seats on the second row and was able to fit the car seats with much more ease (ie the seats weren't jammed against eachother...we have S&S Compaq carseats). and the layout of the seats in the full configuration actually leaves more room for storage. I was suprised.

The other thing that is in favour of the prius (for us!) is that it is fully-loaded. there is no model tiering (like the captiva has a base model, middle and luxury). it has rear camera as standard and touch screen etc.

I think for us it will be the car we get. it is just a nice, simple zippy car that will not freak me out to park in very tight inner north melbourne sidestreets lol.

The ONLY bummer is that we won't (in most likelyhood) be able to get second hand as it is brand newish on the market If anyone is selling one let me know