Two years ago, hybrid vehi cles were selling out at dealer ships.

Attleboro Toyota had a seven- to eight-month backlog on the Prius.

Herb Chambers Honda in Seekonk couldn't keep Civic Hybrids in stock.

Now, despite a recent spike in gas prices, the craze has cooled.

At the new Boch Toyota (formerly Attleboro Toyota), hybrids are still in high demand, but the waiting list is down to three months, sales manager Mike Howe said. Toyota offers hybrid models in the Prius, Camry sedan and Highlander SUV.

Roger DaLomba, sales manager at Herb Chambers Honda, said there's no waiting list for a hybrid car, and sales on the vehicles have stayed about the same over the past year.

Honda offers three hybrid models: the Civic, which gets an estimated 50 mpg, the Accord, which gets gas mileage in the high 30s, and the Insight, which is adver tised at 70 mpg.

What is selling like crazy, DaLomba said, is the Honda Pilot, a V6 SUV that apparent ly is becoming popular with drivers of larger, gas-guzzling SUVs looking to downsize their vehicle, as well as their payments at the pump.

Though gas prices have dipped the past couple of weeks -- last week's average in Massachusetts was $2.86 for regular fuel, compared with $3.06 a month ago -- relatively high prices at the pump are prompting drivers to find more fuel-efficient means of transportation.

A recent consumer report found that fuel efficiency is the No. 1 concern for car buyers, even beating out dependability.

The hybrid, which works by combining a gasoline engine and an emissions-free electric motor, is just one of many solutions drivers are finding for the problem of high prices at the pump.

As drivers make fuel efficiency their chief concern, giant SUVs stay in park while mid-size SUV sales increase and subcompact cars like the small-on-the-outside, roomy-on-the-inside Honda Fit, Nissan Versa and the Toyota Yaris all grow in popularity.

`` I think (hybrid) sales have spiked and leveled off,'' said AAA spokesman John Paul. `` They'll continue to be popular with people looking for good fuel economy, or techno-geeks who want the latest and greatest, the next thing on the horizon.''

`` Yeah, it's a little bit cheaper when you go to fill up at the pump, but it's going to cost you a lot of money to start off with,'' he said. In addition to the higher cost, Paul said many hybrids are not getting the estimated EPA mileage advertised. He said hybrids function best in city driving conditions, not long commutes.

Howe, the Toyota sales manager, agrees.

`` People need to educate themselves on the type of driving that's going to benefit them,'' he said. `` Because if they're doing a lot of highway driving, they may not get the gas mileage promised.''

Toyota spokesman Wade Hoyt said hybrid sales have dipped recently, but only because of a limited supply. He said as soon as the cars come off the boat from Japan, where they were first developed in 1997, they are sold.

But Toyota sales in general reflect the fact that drivers are looking for more fuel-efficient cars.

Sales on the four-cylinder Corolla are up 17 percent, while the mid-size Camry sedan has stayed about even.

The three Scion models, a group of smallish cars aimed at the youth market, are up from 9 percent to 29 percent each, Hoyt said.

Not surprisingly, sales on the V8 Land Cruiser SUV are down 37 percent, and the even larger V8 Sequoia is down 31 percent.

Perhaps the biggest shocker is the increase in sales of the RAV4, a four-cylinder SUV and the smallest of the fleet, up a whopping 108 percent, likely satisfying drivers who want an SUV but don't want to pay for one at the pump.

Meanwhile, Nissan has been slow to jump on the hybrid bandwagon, but auto maker will roll out a hybrid model of the mid-sized Altima next year.

Ron Tondreault, general manager of Fireside Nissan in North Attleboro, said the cars will use the technology developed by Toyota.

He said with a higher cost to manufacture and buy hybrids, gas mileage that doesn't always live up to the advertised numbers and questions about how to dispose of the battery, he's not completely sold on the cars.

`` I've got mixed feelings about them,'' he said. `` But I'm going to have them and people are going to want them.''

Tondreault sees wise choices in other areas.

Last July he broke sales records and ran out of the four-cylinder Sentras, Nissan's small car.

Nissan is also rolling out a new subcompact car called the Versa, which starts at $14,000, and is currently introducing CVT, continuously variable transmissions which have no gears and improve gas mileage by about 10 percent to 11 percent, which Tondreault considers a better alternative to the hybrid.

`` CVT is great technology, but not at a great expense to the consumer,'' he said.

By December Tondreault said CVT will be in most Nissan vehicles.

CVT also comes standard in all of the Toyota hybrids, Hoyt said.

American manufacturers seem to be catching onto the fuel efficiency bandwagon, as well.

Ford and Mercury will offer hybrid models of their Escape and Mariner SUVs, and GM and Chrysler have both come up with Displacement on Demand, a cylinder deactivation system which amounts to a 2 percent to 5 percent fuel economy savings.

Amidst all the possible solutions to the problem of high gas prices, Kathy Lannon of Millis thinks she's found hers in the form of a five-speed, four-cylinder Civic Hybrid.

When Lannon first talked about getting a hybrid vehicle, everyone called her crazy.

They said the vehicle's high cost would outweigh the savings on gas, and she'd never recoup her money.

So, she went out and bought a hybrid vehicle anyway.

Turns out those naysayers might want to rethink their position.

Lannon's Civic gets 50 mpg as promised, she said, with one minor addendum.

`` The caveat here is I do drive like an old lady,'' she said. `` I'm a pretty conservative driver and I don't tend to speed.''

With only a 10-mile commute each way to work, Lannon said filling up her tank is an infrequent occurrence.

`` I actually have to remember to get gas now,'' said Lannon, a nurse and member of the board of health in Millis.

But Lannon said as fuel-efficient as the car is, buying a hybrid was as much about saving money as sending a message.

`` I always said that ever since 9/11, with all my big purchases I would aim toward gas efficiency and energy efficiency,'' she said. `` I think we need to vote not just at the polls, but with our pocketbooks '85 We need to vote with what we buy, that's the most effective way to change things.''

LAUREN CARTER can be reached at 508-236-0339 or at lcarter(at)(at)thesunchronicle.com.