Money saved on gas with Prius

I really think that there is no solid logic in using any fuel savings justifications/arguments for buying/validating a hybrid unless one purchases the absolute lowest priced model with zero options. Otherwise, we're not really trying to 'save money' when we pile thousands of dollars in extras on it. Greener yes, more fun and entertaining watching neato displays yep. Gas savings just icing on the cake.

 

I would have to disagree with you on this one. I just got rid of a diesel truck for a prius. And in 2.6 years the car is free on fuel savings alone.

My facts: 1) 15,600 miles a year 2)Truck avg: 15 MPG 3) Prius avg: 45 MPG 4) Todays fuel prices per gasbuddy in my area - Diesel: $3.43 per gallon/ Regular Gas: $2.89

Gallons used per year:
Diesel: 1040 x $3.43 = $3567.20
RegGas: 346.67x $2.89 = $1001.88

Fuel savings per year: $2565.32

I bought a used 2005 prius, loaded up with NAV/Bluetooth/HID for $6700 / $2565.32 = 2.61 years til FREE CAR.

 

Well, I did buy the lowest priced model. The math depends on the car. A Civic's "hybrid premium" yields an MPG improvement that should save you almost 900 gallons over the course of 100,000 miles. A Prius's "hybrid premium" over a Matrix will save you about 1500 gallons. A "hybrid premium" on an Escape will save you about 1000 gallons. However, the "hybrid premium" appears to be roughly the same for all of these vehicles, ($7-8k) so you're definitely going to take a longer outlook to make the Civic and Escape's premiums make sense financially over the lifetime of the vehicle, even at $4/gallon gas. The Civic's economic problem, in part, seems to come from the fact that more extras are "standard" on the hybrid, which presumably adds to the cost. Both the Civic and Escape suffer from the fact that the hybrid systems just don't improve MPG as much as the Prius's advantage over comparable vehicles, yet the price increase is roughly the same.

 

Sounds like the logic of Detroit as they hemorrhaged revenue to Asian brands for decades. Why must I save money on features and toys first, putting off fuel saving until there is nothing else left to cut?

On the other hand, many of us here did buy the lowest priced Prius with zero options.

 

I spent a little time inside a Matrix while I was getting an oil change yesterday. It definitely feels smaller than a Prius. The first thing I noticed is how close my head is to the A pillar. I'm only 5'11" and I had to rake the seat all the way back. I stretched out my right arm to see how wide the interior is and my fingertips are about 1" away from the passenger seat belt. The fabric is kinda meh. The plastic dash has the fake metallic silver, so not only is it trendy, but a poor attempt at that. The trunk is the worse. It is completely plastic. At least in the Prius, the rear seat backs and the wheel humps are fabric lined. The interior width of the Prius is approx 2-3" wider, judging by the shoulder space and wingspan method. Its interior is plasticky too, but at least it isn't faux metal. Prius cloth is smoother to touch and looks better but I question its durability. I know some don't like the bridge design but I'm indifferent. I like the flat, angular buttons, as opposed to the circular dials in the Matrix. I saw another Blizzard Pearl from a distance, directly from the side and I admired the shape and the short front and rear overhangs. I've said it many times before here on PC and its the main reason why I love my Prius: It's damn good looking. The overall sillouette and the stubby wedge and angled beltline is what won me over.

The Matrix's interior is decidedly a downgrade and I wouldn't consider it in my math even if it was half the price. Sorry to any Matrix owners here.....just not for me.

 

Good eye. Effectively, it is smaller, despite a similar passenger volume. When looking at the specs, it becomes obvious that it sacrifices leg room, shoulder room, and hip room, but makes up for it in headroom. That extra headroom may appeal to some people, but it's wasted on my family.

 

I purchased my 2010 Prius mostly for selfish reasons. I like the styling, I like that it doesn't burn much gas. The price was within what I was budgeting for a new car. It had all the options I wanted and none that I didn't want. I like that I have a car that can go almost 900 km before I have to fill it up again. Lets face it, I purchased my Prius because I like it. Plain and simple. I like the car. I could care less about TCO and how much it is worth when I am done with the 5 year loan (which I will have paid in 3 years). I will keep the car 5 years and trade it in like I always have in the past. By that time the newer technologies will have been on the market for a few years and will have had most of the bugs worked out.

 

I had a paid off V8 4runner lifted with heavy all terrain tires that was getting 15mpg. Even with a new car payment of getting a new prius, I'm saving like $200/month. My commute frequency and distance has increased greatly and gas price went stupid high. I had enough with paying $80 for every 300 mile. Even though it was a huge change in vehicles, I'm loving my Prius and it's $35-40 every 500-550 miles.

 

I sold my 04 Land Rover to get the Prius new job a lot more driving the Rover did not make sense anymore. I purchased a 2005 Prius loaded with all the options for the year for 7k with 98k miles I added leather interior for 600, new tires for 415 installed a scangauge 160 courtesy of Prius chat and an Enginer kit for 3100 installed plus PacificEv BMS 360 and Led lights for 60 dollars so I have 11,695 invested in car and I drive an avg of 1800 miles a month with prius I avg before kit 60 mpg and with rover 12 if I was lucky. Prius I run 87 with Rover 93.

Prius avg use of 30 gal. a month @3.25= 97.50 a month or $1,170 a year

Land Rover avg use would have been 150 gal. a month @3.50=525 a month or $6,300 a year.
For a yearly savings of $5,130 which equates to vehicle paying for itself in 2.28 years. If I add in the fact that I am avg 111 mpg since installing Enginer kit that time frame drops significantly.

 

Wow, I like all the $3.50 per gallon comparisons. But gas is $1.37 per liter here today($5.185 per gallon) and was up to $1.43per liter ($5.41gal) a few weeks ago... with prices of $1.50-$1.60+ per liter ($5.68 to $6.05gal) expected over the summer. We also have a $5000 credit on the cash sale of a 2010 prius.

Anyone want to re-work the math on those numbers?

 

Scaurex, I've saved $857 in the first six months of ownership. Those savings definitely pile up in the higher priced months for gas.

 

I forgot to add my total savings after 6yrs of Prius ownership. Here is the rundown.

Cost analysis for 134,000 miles driven: (truck numbers are hypothetical since I did not drive it during the time I owned the Prius)

2005 Prius
Purchase Price $28,000
Average MPG lifetime: 47mpg
Fuel cost Lifetime: 134,000 / 47mpg = 2851 gallons * $3/ga = $8553
Total cost for car and fuel = $36,553

2000 GMC Sierra Z71 4x4
Sold for $10,000 (purchased for $34,000)
Average MPG: 14mpg
Fuel cost if it had not been sold: 134,000 / 14mpg = 9571 gallons * $3/ga = $28,714
Total cost for truck and fuel: (134,000 miles + 82,000 miles from new till I bought the Prius) $80,285

If you take the $10,000 from the sale of the truck and apply it to the purchase price of the Prius you end up with $18,000. Now subtract the total fuel cost for the Prius from the fuel cost of the truck. $28,714 - $8553 = $20,161.

So the Prius has saved me $2,161 ($20,161 - $18,000) after being paid off. So now I have a paid off car that is 5 years newer than my truck and I will just continue to save on fuel. To make this look even better, buy a used GenII Prius and you'll make my savings look pitiful.

Owning a gas guzzler just doesn't add up when you look at long term costs.

 

I realize that, for this site, I'm leading with my chin here but your analysis confirms the analysis I did and conclusion I drew before I got my Prius: to economically justify a Prius based on fuel cost savings assumes you keep the car a long time and drive a lot of miles. My conclusion was I could not economically justify it--which, by the way, was not the reason I decided to get a hybrid; it was based on environmental reasons.

Your example shows basically a break even after 6 years and 134,000 miles (22,000 miles per year, which is roughly twice what the average driver does). I personally have never kept a car for half that many miles. Of course, higher gas prices mean shorter break even periods, but if you took the average driver (12,000 miles/year), in your analysis, it would take 11 years to break even. My guess is the average car is owned by an individual for around half as long.

 

I agree with you but you also have to look at it from the perspective that you will be owning a newer car and it could be paid off versus continuing to make payments + extra fuel charges. So in my case I have only accumulated $2000+ after the Prius was paid off. It doesn't sound like much but I have a 5yr newer vehicle and now my savings due to high MPG will help big time. With zero car payment to worry about I am saving $440/mo on fuel vs. my 14mpg truck. This is just accounting for my daily commute (2200 miles/mo) and doesn't include any other mileage. So in extreme cases like mine the math works out. Obviously if you buy a Fit or Yaris the savings are much lower when coupled with the low price of the car. But like I said, those are not comparable to the Prius.

So the real decision if you do not currently own a car outright is the monthly payment plus operating costs. The Prius is not an expensive car and really doens't have much of a non-hybrid equivalent so it's not like you can purchase a non-hybrid Prius for thousands less and save more in the long run. You either purchase a Prius or you purchase another non-hybrid for the same price but worse gas mileage. The savings in fuel more than make up for the monthly payment in a lot of cases.

 

I think your original analysis--which excluded financing aspects--was the correct framework. You had truck A, worth X. You traded it for car B, costing Y, so you have an incremental cost (Y - X) of Z. How long does gas savings take to make up the incremental cost?

To attempt to include financing only muddies the water. In fact, if your original vehicle was paid off, and now you finance the incremental cost of the new car, you have additional incremental costs (financing cost); but then you need to offset that against the opportunity cost of money if you paid cash. See what I mean?

Prior to getting my Prius, I did a "hybrid premium" break even analysis (since there's no non-hybrid Prius, I compared the Camry hybrid to a comparably equipped conventional Camry). I also compared the incremental cost of trading my previous car (a '05 BMW 545i) for a Prius. The break even period in both cases (even with going from a much more luxurious BMW) was much longer than I've ever kept a car.

 

I do. That makes sense. I conveniently ignore the loss of interest gain when I paid cash for the Prius. There are a lot of factors involved with the economics of car A vs. car B and sometimes it's easier to ignore the details and just remain happy with the purchase. No matter how you cut it though, a vehicle is always a money sink. lol

Thanks for the analysis critique.

 

Yeah, i bought my Prius to save me gas....vs. another car with good space, good stereo, and enough technos to keep me interested. If i was OK with getting an compact or subcompact (Corolla, Fit, etc), then i would get a Corolla over a Prius. But, after owning a Corolla (2005), i wanted something a bit bigger and "weighty" for Texas highway driving. So, at that time (early 2010), my choices came down to Prius (a bit lightweight for what i want) vs. Camry Hybrid vs. Fusion Hybrid. The LEDs and ATP won me over.

 

You orignally buy a Prius to save on gas but you drive more miles
than you would in you 18 mpg car you replaced it with.

If my wife and I go to Portland, 180 mile round trip, to have dinner and shop we do it. Most people nowadays consider the price for gas because in most vehicles out here are Pickups and SUV's where 14-18 mpg is the norm.

So 180 miles in our Prius with 50 mpg = 3.6 gals x 4.00 / gal= $14.40

180 miles in a vehicle with 18 mpg = 10 gals / 4.00 / gal = $40.00

See the difference....

alfon

 

sorry,dead wrong on that analogy. i live in the north, i get considerably less mpg in both my civic and prius during winter months.