Test drove a C today.

Forgot the math. Someone save the OP from this thing.

 

If the math doesn't work out, remember to put a number on a new car with 0 miles on ODO.

 

25,000-5,230-8,000-9,000=2,770,
HHR better by $2770 so far.

subtract maintenance costs on brakes, belts, battery, new tires, etc. Brakes on our Gen3 80% at 76K.

with $23,636 not sure why are you comparing to Prius C Four (or is it Three with options?).. perhaps Two could do?

I am still perplexed how you got $1046 in fuel savings.. perhaps you are getting better then EPA MPG? commute is all highway? Even most economical 2.2 with manual 5sp, with 80% highway commute will still cost $1,200 more to fill up.

Also after we got Prius we changed the way we use cars. It gets most of the miles now, more then the car it replaced.

On other hand you could wait a year or two. HHR isn't gonna depreciate by much, and perhaps there would be better deals at some point.

 

My 2006 with less than 68k has a KBB value of $12,700. Something like that would pay for itself over the lifetime. I get around 53-56 mpg comfortably at 65 mph. You will get more room than a C and I think Gen II looks cuter than Gen III.

 

Price of c: $25k
5 year gas savings: $5,230
Current sale price of HHR: $8k
Value of c after 5 years: $9.

Note that he's assuming that the HHR will have no value in 5 years time, otherwise you'd have to add the 5 year value of the HHR to the net cost.

There's also the additional insurance cost on the new c.

Financially speaking you are better off keeping the HHR over buying a Prius c.

But, financially speaking you are almost certainly better off buying a used Gen 2 Prius. I suggest you take one for a test drive instead of assuming you wouldn't be happy in one.

 

well if you getting something new anyways, you need to compare alternatives to "C", not to HHR.

NotAboutMoney is right, it is usually more cost effective to keep old car, at least to the point when gas+maintenance < monthly payment +gas.

Good luck on your purchase, whatever you decide on. Didn't really liked the looks but we bought Prius in 2009 b/c we got fed up with gas prices and never looked back. Turned out to be a great car btw, very practical (you probably feel the same about HHR). We will be getting "C" for son when he goes to college.

With monthly family gas costs <200$ it is nice to know that prices at pump will not have impact on our lifestyle.