Parade Magazine -- hybrid owners don't save money

Replying to the original thread, the same Parade appears here in San Diego and appears to be more of just the same of FUD you see elsewhere in the media.

We bought the Prius because our old car was falling apart and needed $1k in maintenance and repairs each year and cost $120 more per month to run in gas alone than the Prius. So the Prius saves us ~$200 in maintenance and gas each month compared to the old car. I would have been happy getting a Honda Fit or something like that, but since my wife didn't want something that small, we got the Prius. Hybrid or not, it offers a fair price for the performance and features you get. There is no "downside" to the fact that it is a hybrid.

 

anyone who says that buying a Prius will not save you money is completely and TOTALLY WRONG

in fact it will not only save you money, it will make you money.

case in point.

i took delivery of a 2004 Prius pkg #1. total cost 22,317.44. remember that figure. that is after destination, license, 8.4% tax, EVERYTHING.

drove that car 25 months, 28,000 miles was in an accident deemed 100% the other guys fault. the other insurance company paid me 23,509.80 for my Prius.

that means AFTER the cost of gas is included, i still walked off with a profit. (about 109. 74. now if we include the rental for 4weeks and 3 days then all my oil changes, mods, fast food purchased while driving the car...) now i could have gone and bought a 2005 corolla that had 11,000 miles on it and walked off with $7,000. but we all know that would have been foolish financially speaking.

so i upgraded to pkg #4 on a 2006. cost me $2800 right?? after all the total cost of the new car was 26313.74??? well the writer of that article. thats what he would say... he would ignore the FREE use of my previous 2004 for the 25 months i drove it. he would ignore the $2089 in additional options i now have... but that is how writers write. they need to make their article compelling so they only put in what lends to their story. to print the whole story would water down the impact... so he was only doing his job... dont chastise him. its probably was changed around by his editor anyway

 

Seems this Parade Magazine writer also did not do his/her math. I live in Colorado where we get an additional $3285 tax credit above and beyond the federal credit. After a year of ownership I can sell this car for more than I paid for it!!! Or viewed differently, I'll get over a year of use of a car at no cost of ownership.

No doubt, I'm saving money over owning any other car that loses lots of value when you drive it off the lot, then loses value every day.

What a bogus statement that we are not saving money.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bigdaddy @ Sep 20 2006, 08:40 AM) [snapback]322168[/snapback]</div>

Um - just curious.
Where is that desk? Anyone watching it at night?

Again - just curious. Nothing sinister.

Oh - one more question - are you a deep sleeper?

 

All of your posts are valid reasons for buying a Prius--besides the gas savings.

One reason no one has mentioned is the low depreciation of the Prius compared to most other cars out there--including Hondas!

I bought an '05 Prius in June, 2005 for $23,500 and traded it in for an '06 model in April and received trade-in credit of $22,000. How many other cars out there will only lose $1,500 in 10 months? Most are at least double that just leaving the dealership.

Don't underestimate the Prius as a low depreciation vehicle!

 

Well, technically DaveInOlympia mentioned the low depreciation, but your point is well taken. As I've mentioned elsewhere, when I went to check out a Prius in person, the salesman tried to sell me an '04 Prius for more than a new '06. So I ordered a new one.
A check in the classified showed that all used Prii were going for top dollar, and you couldn't touch an '04 for under $20k.

Another cost savings is the minimal amount of maintenance expected/required. The Prius at or near the top in that race.

Saying you shouldn't buy a Prius because it won't save you any money is like a virgin telling people that sex isn't all it's cracked up to be.

 

A very long time ago (before most of you were born) Lido Anthony Iacocca said the following:


"Peple want economy and they'll pay almost any price to get it"

 

I get aggravated with those 'news' stories as well. I just let it roll off my back and figure the author probably drives an SUV.

 

It's just typical bad journalism - they wrote an article without fully looking into what they were writing about. It happens constantly and it bothers me too.

I'm pretty busy with what I'm doing for work, but if you've got the option maybe you should become a journalist, and compete this guy out of his position? Then see how the articles at Parade look.

Capitalism's a wonderful thing... .