Are you glad you have a PRIUS=The way Gasoline prices are going UP & UP

Yeah, $700/mo for two cars is not bad. I always try to get the car-related cost (includes everything from amortized capital cost and/or depreciation, fuel, maintenance, insurance, fees, tax, accessories purchased) down to $300/mo (one car) or $600/mo for two cars, but that has not been always possible.

If I purchased a $36K car new (which is relatively cheap in today's standard of an average new vehicle costing $45K) and it lasts only 10 years regardless of the miles driven or maintenance, then the capital cost of the car is $300/mo already. It is sometimes cheaper to lease a brand new car for 3 years and pay $300/mo or less and don't worry about maintenance and repair.

 

If I tried to buy a new car one main concern of mine would be insurance. It's already $180 per month to fully insure a 5 year old or older car worth $10,000 or less. When I add a second car with only liability it goes down to $150 because the multi-car benefit outweighs the added cost. I wonder what it would cost for me to insure a $30,000 to $40,000 vehicle. I've known a few who are paying $300 per month or more on just insurance. But of course their age and driving record may not be the same as mine. I guess I could do a quote and find out.

Edit:

Interestingly I just did a quote with Geico and it would be $100 per month to have a new fully insured 2022 Prius and my 2006 Prius. I wonder why it's cheaper with the newer car than my Avalon? I can do the same quote with the Avalon with Geico and several others and always get $150, the same I'm paying now.

I don't understand insurance. If I add a car, the price goes down. If I get a newer car, the price goes down. From $180 to $100 is a big difference too. Maybe not enough to merit a $800 per month car payment, but it is interesting.

 

Yeah, insurance costs can be a big headache. When we were living in a city and had to have our teen age kids on our insurance, the cost of insurance was extremely high. But now we live in rural Maine and have no kids on my insurance, the premium is so cheap, I just buy the highest coverage for all categories, and still a fraction of what I used to pay in MA.

However, the cost of insurance can be quite different depending on who you get the coverage from. I used to have insurance thru Metlife Insurance just because we had a discount thru my job. I had both the house and our older cars insured. I never really bothered to do a comparison. When I purchased a new 2015 Gen3 Prius Two 7 years ago, they increased my premium outrageously high. I checked other carriers, then found out that I could get the same coverage for a fraction of the cost thru GEICO. I switched my carrier then and never switched again. I still do check when I purchase a new car to see if there are any other insurance companies that can beat GEICO. So far, none has come up anywhere close.

 

Maybe I just need to do more shopping. $150 for a $1,000 deductible and the bare minimum for "full coverage" so the bank is happy.

 

Yeah, what I really liked about GEICO was that there is no agent I had to talk to to get a full contactable quote on the fly over the internet. No email correspondence, no telephone call, no office visits. I can even change the active contract during the coverage period just to see if I can save more money or get more coverage for some categories. I have the following coverages which is the maximum coverage they offer. For two cars for less than $100/mo (~$45/mo/car). The difference between this max and the minimum coverage was less than $50/mo. No brainer to buy the max coverage knowing any accident liability costs would not be fully covered by the required state minimum level of $50,000/$100,000/$25,000 for bodily injury per person, a total maximum per incident, and for property damage.

• Bodily Injury Liability
  $1MIL/$1MIL
• Property Damage Liability
  $300,000
• Medical Payments
  $10,000
• Uninsured Motorist Bodily Injury
  $1MIL/$1MIL

• Comprehensive (Excluding Collision)
  No Deductible
• Collision
  No Deductible
• Emergency Road Service
• Rental Reimbursement
  $30/Day, $900Max

 

I’m doing the best I can!
Of course, even without buying gasoline, lots of our logistics and infrastructure currently use it.

 

Let me De-FOX this for you.

1st- Oil is and always has been an International Market so it is a tad ridiculous to talk about Domestic Production like it all stays here. The oil goes where the oil companies want. Right now "American" oil companies are shipping domestically produced oil OVERSEAS. The oil companies are making huge profits and could easily drop the pump prices and STILL make a normal profit, but they are price fixing and gouging us. The Administration was court ordered to allow oil lease sales last year and 9,000 leases are undeveloped, so supply would not be an issue if the oil companies (which like most extraction industries are owned by conservative Republicans who can care less if the little guy gets screwed) would develop those fields. Also, don't forget, we give them tax breaks to do just that!

As far as the Keystone BS goes, it's a pipeline dude, not an oil production field. All that Canadian shale oil is currently coming here by truck! Please try to keep up here.

So, the oil companies artificially promote shortages, raise prices and profit while blaming the Administration which helps their Republican conservative propaganda. What's so hard to understand?

2nd We are all Americans in this together so your childish F's are ridiculous and demeaning to YOU. Grow up.

Sorry (not sorry) for the facts all.

 

Imagine how Biden feels

 

he probably feels in his element

 

This is an unfortunate failing of the US car insurance industry. Essentially they value the car based solely on its age and maybe mileage. But they define age as "time since this VIN rolled off the assembly line", and do not adjust it at all when major components are replaced. In the example above they might pay $3000 or so, but the listed components would be worth at least $4000, and probably more, if they were removed from the car and sold separately, and there is still the value of any other components. It would probably make more sense to depreciate new expensive components over at least a couple of years. In salted road states this probably isn't an issue, because the body will rot out before these sorts of expensive repairs are needed. And the flip side, which is in the owner's favor, is that they also do not jack up the rates when those $8K of parts are put in. The other factor to consider is that the insurance on the old car will be much less than that on the $30K new car, so depending upon when that cement truck hits, the owner of the older car might still come out ahead. Or at least his/her heirs will, since I just don't see the driver of a Prius walking away if that car is run over by a cement truck!

 

I was hoping the cement truck ran over the Prius while it was parked with nobody in it.

There is no right or wrong answer I guess. Whatever makes sense to the buyer. I can't make a new car make sense in my case.

Leasing doesn't make sense in my case since I can drive 30,000 miles in a year and they'd penalize me for the extra miles, so somewhere over $400 per month, if not over $500 per month to lease. Ouch!

Buying a new base Prius of about $25,000 with a downpayment of $5,000 would be roughly $320 per month payments for 6 years. But with 30,000 miles per year that will hit almost 200,000 miles by the time I finally pay it off. So $320 payments plus maintenance, no thank you! My Avalon is holding up ok, and $180 per month is doable even with maintenance. Or I could do a 3 year loan for $600 per month... Ouch! I'm not sure what a 3 year old base Prius with 100,000 miles would be worth though.

The nice thing about paying less for a used car in my case is if I don't have the money for the mainenance, I don't have a car I can't drive and yet am spending a fortune on with car payments. Next year I won't have any more payments on the Avalon, so all my car money (besides fuel and insurance and tags, etc.) can go to savings or to maintenance or both. If the car becomes undriveable I don't have to fret over a $500 to $600 payment on a car I can't drive.

 

I don’t see how it’s possible to get a new car, whether bought or leased, to $300 per month all inclusive. For me, gasoline costs $60 a month and insurance is $130 a month. That only leaves $110 a month for a car payment, and that’s not including any repairs or maintenance. I’m currently at $376 a month all inclusive after 5 years with a car I bought for $8200. Since the monthly number goes down the longer I own the car, I will be very pleased if/when I can get total cost down to $300 a month, but that seems like it would be much more difficult starting out paying 3-4 times as much as I did.

 

Yeah, with your fuel cost and insurance, $300/mo while still making the payment on the car is not likely. But as you said, the longer you keep driving the car without having major maintenance/repair expenses, the cheaper it is going to get for the average monthly cost of ownership. Another way is to buy a car cheap (with discount and incentives) and sell it higher.

I was able to achieve less than $300/mo with a $30K 2017 Prius Prime simply because I purchased it with a huge discount. For subsequent 2020 PP LE, I actually netted profit when it was sold, so I ended up with the monthly cost of negative value, meaning I was actually making money driving the car. If I sell my current 2021 PP Ltd, I can do even better.

These are the true cost of ownership for the 5 hybrid cars I owned in the last ~10 years with duration I owned and miles driven.

• 2008 HCH EX $0.344/mi $344/mo total 83000 miles 83 months
• 2015 Prius Two $0.584/mi $682/mo total 35000 miles 30 months
• 2017 PP Premium $0.344/mi $261/mo total 40000 miles 31 months
• 2020 PP LE -$0.444/mile -$161/mo total 3600 miles 10 months
• 2021 PP Ltd -$1.672/mile -$1,195/mo total 3600 miles 5 months (if sold)

Of course, your circumstance is different. YMMV for sure.

 

It was many years ago, but there was a lease deal on the early Nissan Leafs. $99/month. I knew people that saved more than $99/month on fuel.
I have no idea what deals are currently out there, but there have been some whoppers if the car meets your needs.

 

I've related the story before, but Zythryn and Salamander King reminded me of the neighbor who was leasing a Leaf for around $300 a month and got a rebate from the state for around $3500. On top of that, he got free charging (state subsidized) at EVGO for the year.

At the end of the year he canceled his lease and leased another to start the process all over again.

It's amazing what deals you can find if you keep your eyes open.

 

How do you start a new post'thread? I am going to install a new front wheel bearing hub on my 08 prius and plan some pics along with a FIY.

 

I tried a Nissan Leaf once. It left my wife and I stranded 30 miles from a 100% charge in -15°F weather and no cell service. Of course that was with the 24kWh battery with 85% capacity. But still...

 

It’s amazing how California uses other people’s money to subsidize their green dreams.

Not surprised, since a leaf doesn’t survive the winter. Need to wait until spring to get a new one and start the journey again.

 

go to the forum you want to start it in. at the top right is a blue button, 'post new thread'

 

That's not much consolation when you live in an area with "nine months of winter" (looking out at the snowpacked streets and several inches of snow on everything).