Are you driving a Prius because you're Green or Frugal?

You have exactly described my experience. This is our fifth. When my first one got to 220,000 miles it had saved enough on gas to buy the next one and pay cash for it. Instead, I loaded it up with my bike and camping gear and took a 7 month sabbatical to explore north America. I drove it 29,000miles on that trip and my total expenses were 2,000 a month for everything. I took the 27,000$ I had saved on gas, subtracted the 14,000$ I spent on the trip, added the 13k remaining to the 4k I got for the sale of the '04 and bought a used 2010 that was still under warranty. My prii have given me many things including a life changing trip to 29 states and 4 provinces in Canada.

 

I like the technology and I believe alternative fuels are the way of the future. I also enjoy avoiding the pump as much as possible and I have found since driving a Prius since 2014 that I largely don't care what the fuel prices are doing while all my SUV\Truck friends are panicking, there is a sense of piece of mind there. I try explaining to people who haven't driven one before that they are just fun to drive, not in a racecar sort of way, it's hard to describe.

 

I was an EV-skeptic in the late 1990's, but when the Hybrid concept emerged that made perfect engineering sense to me. Two minivans was too exposed to gasoline price increases. I still feel hybrid approach is *the* best overall solution.

 

That energy and matter can be interconverted, and the equation says how much energy is produced by converting a given Mass to Energy, or vice-versa. C is the speed of light.

Sorry, the geek in me just had to actually answer the question.

 

Exactly. Energy = Mass x Speed of light (~186,000 miles per second), squared

 

because i'm a nerd

 

Sorry, my question was inadequate. Can you demonstrate it ?

 

In a discussion thread in PriusChat last November, it was asked how many of the forum regulars are engineers. It was an excellent question and indicated that, for many Prius Prime owners, frugality and environmentalism were secondary to the "geek factor" of having an electric car with a lot of cool technology.

Quoting myself:

If I save a little money and reduce our environmental impact, those are definite plusses -- but if the Prime were not comfortable, interesting and fun, I'm pretty certain that we'd be driving something else.

 

Well said. Sans all the tech, I’d be driving something else too. So much about this car to love!

 

You should write a book.

 

Well, I have a Prime because driving in EV is fun! Also the Prius has lots of other cool features.

40% fun, 40% green, 20% frugal.

 

I liked the concept of electric cars back in the 70's and to this date this is the only one I have ever driven.

 

In many cities there used to exist EV clubs where you were assisted with parts to convert a vehicle to all electric. The battery source was standard H2So4 Lead acid. Not too efficient. I kept in touch with one member as I was EV Coodinator for McClellan AFB. During Jimmy Carter. The program was a failure because the mechanics ( Motor Pool ) could not grasp electricity. Did not check battery voltage levels. Even misconnected the wiring from charger to vehicle. One lucky rainy day I was able to check grd ( a puddle ) to vehicle chassis, = 40 volts. Affect on batteries, charger, who knows? I had worked in electronics for the previous 20 years and when I told him to use a multimeter, I could tell by the blank look he didn’t understand.
Kind of like Prius Chat in many ways.

 

that's not nice

 

Which part?

 

It's not nice to point out the blank stares that you get. I resemble that. hehe

 

I did because of EV mode. I love quiet cars and I've always equated quiet cars with luxury. I love this as a daily driver. It also gives me a use for the solar power I installed last year.

 

YESSSSS & yes

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Frugal, and inexpensive to buy used ones where I live. Also low maintenance costs.

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My first reason in buying a Prius is to save money in operational costs. Second is Toyota reliability which goes back to number one for low repairs. Third is I bought the Prime because electricity in my area is cheaper than gas and charging at work is free. Costs me about $175 a year to drive 11,000 miles on electricity, which goes back to reason number one. Fourth reason is I like to have options of fuel sources to choose from to go with whichever is cheapest or available or both, which goes back to reason one. The more fuel options, the better as long aa efficiency is high for low cost operation. A flex fuel plug-in hybrid would be even more ideal. But I haven't seen one yet. Being green because of being frugile is a bi-product of being frugile and independent in my book. I don't mind being green, but being frugile is my motivation.

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