I'm not a fan of the Prius appliance, but if my brother wanted to buy one so what. Life is too short to worry about such things.
^This.
If he was inclined to get a GTI or something sportier he would try to do that...then the OP would be "brother tries to have me chip in to buy him a GTI"...
Btw, I would love to see how you can get a 500e and GTI mkV, or even worse, a S2K with the "change" out of a $10K budget :mad0259:
He wants a Prius, let him get it.
If he wants some extra uuumpph when on e mode, he could also look into a Volt...that thing has some torque, and so does the 500e, but rear passengers are far worse with the Fiat.
If he doesn't commute yuge miles a day and charging is not an issue in his area, 500e lease is a steal.