Am I missing something here???

It seems to me you should factor in the estimated resale value at the end of the period of ownership.

 

If it were up to me, I would keep the super crew, have the wife drive the minivan and not incure any more debt. It would take years to save enough money on gas to offset the additional debt to buy the Prius and after having one for 7 months, they're are not worth the price. If you are set on selling the supercrew, then buy a mid-sized car that gets 32-35 mpg for about $16,000 and put the $3000 toward it. Then your debt is $13,000. Keep your payments high and have a debt free car in a couple years. The amount of money saved would buy all of your gas for several years. If you REALLY look at the Prius objectively, it's not worth price.

Regards, Doug

P.S. There is no greater satisfaction than having no monthly payments on anything, especially a car.

 

Hi~ I have to disagree w/payments, sorry I am the most unmechanical guy I know. I gladly pay to have a quality car w/a warranty!!!!!!! Now that my 2002 Aztec's warrant expired I've had to deal with extra mechanical stuff...YUK! I save STRESS probably more than $$$ but I also teach my kids about the gas chrisis, affordability and need instead of over luxuriating vehicles.

The dealers wanted to give me from $7000-$8500. on my Very clean, loaded trade!??! I'm getting $9500. privately. Plus the Prius dealer is writing her contract and taking $1500. OFF!!!!!!! either the 7 or 8 pkg.!!!!!!! I live in western, Md. If u'd like the dealer let me know.

Also, I have been writing responses and inquiries but I don't see any. Can anyone help here? Thanks!
Barry

 

This is very true. If the truck was paid off and you were going to be getting all profit for it, or if it was near the end of its usefulness, it would be worth it. I hate nothing more than having a car payment.

My situation was more straight forward - I am driving until Monday (when I pick up my Prius!) a long ago paid for '95 accord with 200,000+ miles on it. And my husband can use it to commute in instead of his GMC Sierra, at least until the Honda dies! We'll be getting a double MPG improvement! I plan to keep the prius 10+ years and pay it off as quickly as possible.

 

When you're moving to LA - the land of the insane real estate, it might not be a good idea to take on new debt when you'll probably be increasing your cost of living in other ways.

When your son makes it big he can buy you a Prius!

 

i'm also part of the 'i hate car payments' gang... currently paying almost double on our payments, equates to every penny we have left at the end of the month.

i think any new car is 'want' rather than 'need' at least in my opinion. does the dealer have a decent used prius that they're selling for a lower amount? (i know some are selling for lots of money and that's not worth it either) then you don't take the depreciation hit (though it's debatable whether there is one) and still get a high mpg, reliable vehicle that will get you HOV access.

DH works for a dealer, they have a number of 04s coming in as trades because people want to upgrade to the 06s... just a thought. we could have picked one up for him for about $14k (what the dealer paid for the trade, it's an employee benefit) but decided we didn't want more debt.

 

I didn't get to see your excel spreadsheet since I don't have excel on this computer. However, I'm in a similar situation.

1999 F250, 106,000 miles, worth about 16,000 bucks.

On any given week, I drive 650 miles to work and back.

That's costing about $500 to $600 a month in diesel alone.

I do a 15 quart oil change every 40 days (5000 miles), with a $20 oil filter.

If I park the truck in a ditch somewhere and start driving a Prius, I come off cheaper, including making the car payements.

I'm taking a 2006 prius #5 end of January. Sell the truck asap and still owe about 10k on the car.

there is another 5000 miscellaneous night/weekend/holiday/vacation miles that we currently put on my wife's car that will also be somewhat cheaper when we start putting those on the Prius.

Here is my tracking page 9/15 - 12/24. I've burned over $1000 more driving the pickup in that timeframe than if I were driving a Prius getting 47mpg.

http://d.spicher.home.comcast.net/prius/mileage.htm

If I were driving 10 miles each way to work, there is no prius in my picture.. it could never make sense. 65 miles each way makes the change easy.

 

Well, I do drive the 20-25 miles daily and it still will benefit a person like ME! In the long run it pays both literally and figuitively! Had I chosen to keep my car and buy an extended warranty for $1800. I might feel a little comfortable but still get pissed at watching the wear and tear on the 2002.

My local dealer told me if I didn't buy from him that he did NOT have to service me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND...if he chose he could have me wait 5 days if his customers arrived after me. Fortunately, he's wrong and there are other dealers with 90 minutes away. He's also forgetting we have an editorial page in our local newspaper!!!!!!!!!!!

One dealer will give me $1500. off any Prius I want for next week!! If I get cloth, I could always change later on. I must have a darker interior because of kids and animals.

Exciting!

 

If you sell your truck and buy a similar car to the one galaxee mentions above, the analysis works out much better and you maintain or decrease your monthly car payment. Other good cars to consider are approx 3 yr old manual Accords or Camrys. That would put you in about the same price range, and you would still be doubling your mileage. I get about 32 mpg in my manual transmission 4 cyl. Accord. See updated ss below:

[attachmentid=1657]

 

the caveat here is that dealers won't be selling 04s for anywhere near 14k... that's a dealership employee benefit only.

my guess is that one will be out the door for almost 20 after they stick some money in it to increase resale value.

 

"My local dealer told me if I didn't buy from him that he did NOT have to service me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND...if he chose he could have me wait 5 days if his customers arrived after me. Fortunately, he's wrong and there are other dealers with 90 minutes away. He's also forgetting we have an editorial page in our local newspaper!!!!!!!!!!! "

Any authorized dealer has signed a franchise agreement in which it explilcitely agrees to service ANY Toyota regardless of where it was bought, without prejudicial treatment. Send Corporate your complaint; they will "remind" the dealer of his contract.

Then go elsewhere, because this clown will find yet another way to prove his unfitness.

 

Another question to ask yourself that no spreadsheet will answer is: What do you use the truck for?

I failed to do this, and sold my Dodge truck when I decided to buy the FEH. Well, I'm taking another trip to Denver in a couple of days to pick up another truck - a 1997 Ford F150 that was a surplus Colorado DOT construction truck. I've found that even though I may go a stretch without using one, when I need it, I need it NOW.

 

This is where I'd spend about 40 hours on nights and weekends.. Test drive every car on the lot, work through financing, leasing and trade in options on each car...

When you are done, go buy from another dealer. The day after your purchase, bring it in to have the battery level checked.. It would be worth the $25 just to get that checked.

 

Download the free OpenOffice.org (aka OOo) from Sun Microsystems.
It is compatible with all other major office suites.
http://www.openoffice.org/

It includes:
Writer (word processor)
Calc (spreadsheet)
Impress (multimedia presentations)
Draw ( . . . simple diagrams to dynamic 3D illustrations and special effects)
Base (database)

Did I mention it’s free?
And it will open .xls spreadsheets for you.