Good move, but they could have bought 250 Prius and 40 Camry's and 10 Highlander's.

Oil crossed $80 / barrel closing price for the 1st time.
Highlander is not the right hybrid model with its V6 engine, atleast they could have gone for Escape Hybrid with V4 engine.

Day is not far when Americans have to think about smaller vehicles.

Hope they reconsider the decision.

I'm not entirely surprised they are getting some of the Camrys. I was shocked to find out that the Prius with side air bags was actually more expensive than the Camry. I wound up buying the Camry (hybrid) rather than the Prius simply because it's a lot more car for less money (not to mention that there was one on the lot that I could actually drive away in). My teenagers aren't complaining about the extra room either.

Nice...but Im waiting to see all those Police Interceptors crushed once and for all.

@ Max:

The Highlander and other larger hybrid SUVs (the forthcoming Tahoe and Durango) can do things that the Escape cannot -- towing, for instance, and increased overall capacity. Chicago runs a lot of Escape hybrids already (and Priuses, but no Highlanders at this point). The article isn't exactly right anyway: you can see from the whole contract on Chicago's website that those quantities are "estimated only" for orders over the next several years.

It does stink that the City of Chicago will send American taxpaying dollars to support a Japanese company. And do not give me that clap-trap about the vehicle being made here by Americans - the PROFITS to the COMPANY all flow back to Japan.

The City is funded primarily via property taxes from homeowners. Homeowners who get their salaries from the steel mills, assembly lines and other staples of America. Buy a Japan car, put an American out of work, he does not buy a home and pay taxes and soon your city will be Detroit, Cleveland, Gary, etc.