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Back to the new plug-in Prius--the people it will make the most sense for are people that have 1-20 mile daily commute, who also need an economical vehicle for longer trips.
It would be great for us. We don't have a commute - we're retired - and most of the regular things we do (grocery shopping, library, rec center, workshops) are all within the electric-mode of the plug-in Prius. And it would be great for longer trips.
But we're happy with our '06 Prius, and don't see anticipate trading it in for many years to come.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jazzlover
If I traded on a new Prius (and I'm making the assumption that the plug-in wouldn't cost more than the current model, which I'm sure is false--the plug-in will certainly cost more), I would have to bring close to $20K to the table with my trade-in. Assuming that the Prius cost nothing to fuel with electricity (again, a false assumption), at $40 per month in fuel cost savings, it would take me 41+ years just to pay the net acquisition cost of the Prius (ignoring additional registration costs, insurance, interest, etc.). So, for my short commute--which is exactly what the plug-in Prius is designed for--keeping my existing vehicle makes far more economic sense. Now, if I had no vehicle currently, or my current one was total junk, the premium price of the plug-in Prius over a comparable new "conventional" vehicle might make payback sense over time, but it would still take awhile.
At some point in time, you'll probably replace your current vehicle with another. If you buy a vehicle of any make/model/type that gets more than the 25mpg your current vehicle gets, would you do the same calculation? If you found a vehicle that satisfied every requirement you had for a new vehicle but only got 23mpg, would you keep looking, or would you buy it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by NJGOAT
Your example is the perfect one of the "total picture". I have posted numbers previously pegging the Prius base model payback versus a similarly optioned Corolla to be over 200k miles with current gas prices.
People just love to compare the Prius to different makes and models of vehicles that are "similar", as if such comparisons mean anything at all. They don't.
Compare a Civic with a Civic hybrid; a Fusion with a Fusion hybrid; etc. These are legitimate comparisons. But there is no gas version of the Prius, and comparing a Prius to a non-Prius is meaningless.
I can't speak for anyone else who owns a Prius, but I bought a Prius because it gets me where I need/want to go while using less gas (about half as much) as the vehicle it replaced. The objective in buying the Prius wasn't primarily saving money on gas (although that's nice), but rather, to simply use less gas.
Whether gas is 2 bucks a gallon or 5, I'm using 50% less gas than I used in the small SUV I traded in on the Prius, and I've been doing that for 5 years now. Projected savings due to using less gas never influenced my decision to buy the Prius - it was all about using less gas, and doing what I could as an individual to (1) reduce our dependency on oil and (2) help the environment.
look the only reason i don't like thr prius is I find it ugly and non ispring to drive so yeah a honda accord Hybrid or a ford fusion or Escape hybrid would be my choice for the fact the look like normal cars and if you took the hybrid badge off no one would know the diffrerance.
that is the type of hybrid I like the one where no one knows it is a hybrid at all not designed to go around annoucing that you drive a hybrid just by the shape which for the prius is very ugly and weird type of design IMO but that is just my opinion
I can see myself driving this ford escape hybrid shown below
but not so much driving the toyota prius shown below.
It would be great for us. We don't have a commute - we're retired - and most of the regular things we do (grocery shopping, library, rec center, workshops) are all within the electric-mode of the plug-in Prius. And it would be great for longer trips.
But we're happy with our '06 Prius, and don't see anticipate trading it in for many years to come.
It is great as long as everything you need to do is within the 13 miles of electric range it will give you and you are willing to spend an extra $5k for that range.
Quote:
At some point in time, you'll probably replace your current vehicle with another. If you buy a vehicle of any make/model/type that gets more than the 25mpg your current vehicle gets, would you do the same calculation? If you found a vehicle that satisfied every requirement you had for a new vehicle but only got 23mpg, would you keep looking, or would you buy it?
His comparison was based on total cost of ownership. In general a Prius isn't doing much more in terms of "requirements" than a typical compact car would. For him right now, it doesn't make sense to trade, but on the day he needs to buy a new car, his math makes sense. If car X gets 50 MPG, but costs $6k more than car Y that gets 40 MPG and they both perform the same functions otherwise, is it worth it financially to spend the extra $6k for the increased MPG? The answer is no, unless gas is much more expensive than it is now.
Quote:
People just love to compare the Prius to different makes and models of vehicles that are "similar", as if such comparisons mean anything at all. They don't.
Compare a Civic with a Civic hybrid; a Fusion with a Fusion hybrid; etc. These are legitimate comparisons. But there is no gas version of the Prius, and comparing a Prius to a non-Prius is meaningless.
It's not meaningless, it's actually quite valid. The Prius is an efficient commuter car, why is it not valid to compare the costs of purchasing/owning one to other efficient commuter cars?
Besides, have you ever wondered why Toyota made the Prius a distinct model? It was for that exact reason, to set it apart, to make it seem special, it worked. To reinforce that, they refuse to license their hybrid tech to anyone who is building a dedicated model hybrid only vehicle.
Quote:
I can't speak for anyone else who owns a Prius, but I bought a Prius because it gets me where I need/want to go while using less gas (about half as much) as the vehicle it replaced. The objective in buying the Prius wasn't primarily saving money on gas (although that's nice), but rather, to simply use less gas.
Whether gas is 2 bucks a gallon or 5, I'm using 50% less gas than I used in the small SUV I traded in on the Prius, and I've been doing that for 5 years now. Projected savings due to using less gas never influenced my decision to buy the Prius - it was all about using less gas, and doing what I could as an individual to (1) reduce our dependency on oil and (2) help the environment.
look the only reason i don't like thr prius is I find it ugly and non ispring to drive so yeah a honda accord Hybrid or a ford fusion or Escape hybrid would be my choice for the fact the look like normal cars and if you took the hybrid badge off no one would know the diffrerance.
that is the type of hybrid I like the one where no one knows it is a hybrid at all not designed to go around annoucing that you drive a hybrid just by the shape which for the prius is very ugly and weird type of design IMO but that is just my opinion
I can see myself driving this ford escape hybrid shown below
but not so much driving the toyota prius shown below.
So you would buy a butt ugly escape, to me that is, that only gets 34mpg but would pass on a butt ugly, to you, Prius that gets 50mpg and cost thousands less.
So you would buy a butt ugly escape, to me that is, that only gets 34mpg but would pass on a butt ugly, to you, Prius that gets 50mpg and cost thousands less.
yup only because they don't make a F250 super duty that get 40 plus MPG yet. which beats the crap out of my current daily driver which is 91 F250 that get's a best of 13-14 MPG FWY and around 11-12MPG city here is a shot of her in winter 2010. (she goes real slow with the hammer down and pulls into every gas station I see pretty much.) but that is my truck which is full of character not bad a for a 20 year old beast IMO either
To compare a Prius with and Escape Hybrid just because both are hybrids makes about as much sense as comparing a Camaro with a 4WD pickup because both have V8 engines. The Prius and Escape are built for two very different purposes--if they are actually used as they are intended and designed.
To answer another post, for years I've endeavored to replace any vehicle I've owned that has reached the end of its useful life (I usually keep a vehicle 10-15 years, at least) with one that gets at least 30% better fuel economy than the vehicle it replaces. That used to be pretty easy to do, as technology improved fuel economy of vehicles fairly drastically over time. That hit a plateau about 10 years ago, and not many vehicles built since have improved in fuel economy very much compared to a similar size vehicle. In some cases, the newer vehicles now get worse fuel economy. Just as is the case with oil production, the cheap and easy stuff has already been exploited--from now on the gains will be much more difficult and expensive.
It would be great for us. We don't have a commute - we're retired - and most of the regular things we do (grocery shopping, library, rec center, workshops) are all within the electric-mode of the plug-in Prius. And it would be great for longer trips.
But we're happy with our '06 Prius, and don't see anticipate trading it in for many years to come.
At some point in time, you'll probably replace your current vehicle with another. If you buy a vehicle of any make/model/type that gets more than the 25mpg your current vehicle gets, would you do the same calculation? If you found a vehicle that satisfied every requirement you had for a new vehicle but only got 23mpg, would you keep looking, or would you buy it?
People just love to compare the Prius to different makes and models of vehicles that are "similar", as if such comparisons mean anything at all. They don't.
Compare a Civic with a Civic hybrid; a Fusion with a Fusion hybrid; etc. These are legitimate comparisons. But there is no gas version of the Prius, and comparing a Prius to a non-Prius is meaningless.
I can't speak for anyone else who owns a Prius, but I bought a Prius because it gets me where I need/want to go while using less gas (about half as much) as the vehicle it replaced. The objective in buying the Prius wasn't primarily saving money on gas (although that's nice), but rather, to simply use less gas.
Whether gas is 2 bucks a gallon or 5, I'm using 50% less gas than I used in the small SUV I traded in on the Prius, and I've been doing that for 5 years now. Projected savings due to using less gas never influenced my decision to buy the Prius - it was all about using less gas, and doing what I could as an individual to (1) reduce our dependency on oil and (2) help the environment.
You are one of the few who will freely admit that you bought the car for reasons other than trying to save money because buying a Prius is not a good way to save money on transportation costs. It's not even the most economical car Toyota sells. Calculating price per mile driven the Yaris is far better. Not that there's anything wrong with it but lots of people buy hybrids to make a political or environmental statement.
i miss my all gas 1984 honda crx, that thing used to get me 40 mpg mixed, easy.
now they bring it back as a hybrid, the honda cr-z which gets up to 37 hwy.
over 25 years of newer technology and it still cannot match the old 1984 mpg.
strange how that works
Yeah but it doesn't have airbags, NAV, HIDs and it weighs like 800 lbs less. That said, the CR-Z is a huge disapointment.
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