I am a new owner of a 2008 Prius. I Just got the car after having a Ford F-150 for the last 4 years and averaging 16 mpg's. I am averaging 48 MPG's for the first week of driving the Prius. I should have done this years ago. . . Still miss my truck but this is a great car.
:welcome: Here's some quick math to help you cope with the loss of your truck: Assuming 12,000 miles/year and $3.50/gallon 16MPG = 750 gallons = $2,625 50MPG = 240 gallons = $840 A savings of $1,785! And the difference grows as gasoline gets more expensive. Two things to consider: If your averaging 48MPG in the first week you should be able to average 50 MPG easily. Increasing your mileage will save you even more money. I don't need a truck often but when I do I borrow a friend's and reimburse him by topping off the tank and throwing a case of beer in the trailer. If topping off the tank costs $25 and a case costs $15 then you can borrow your buddy's truck 43 times per year and still be saving money.
I know, I have done the math a thousand times. I actually had been averaging around 15000 to 16000 miles a year on my truck. Your numbers are about right on with what I have come up with. 16000 miles / 16mpg = 1000 Gallons or $3,500 a year 16000 miles/ 48mpg = 333 Gallons or $1,166 a year This gives me a savings of around $2,333 a year. At this rate I will make back the purchase price of the car in only 11 years. . .
Ironic isn't it that the mileage you are currently getting is exactly 3 times the mileage of your truck. So when you go to the gas station to fill you can use two types of logic. 1) If you were still in your truck Price of fill (ex. $30 x 3 = $90 if you were still in the truck to travel the same distance. 2) or my favorite Price of gas divided by 3. example ($3.33 gallon = $1.11) the equivalent price gas would have to be with your truck to travel the same distance for the same price. <-- I think I explained this right and remember like the previous poster said the more you increase it the more it saves. 50 MPG will be fairly easy to attain with a little effort. Congratulations and welcome to Prius Chat. I routinely go to Pittsburgh for a few Pirates games each year, I love PNC Park, maybe I'll see you around.
I really like the way you look at things. I have thought about saving 2/3's of my gas money, but, the fact that gas is a third as much is a much better way of looking at it. My wife :ballchain: took the Prius to Columbus, Oh this weekend. It's about two hundred miles each way. She drove around while she was there a little, not much. She filled it up today and the whole trip cost a whopping $23.59. While the more gas costs does mean I am saving more. . . I am torn about the price of gas going up, our other car is still a Nissan Pathfinder. It is a necessity for us, we have three large dogs and we do animal rescue for a local humane society. I have had one of my dogs in the Prius already, he fit but he was hunched over in the back.
me too....I just made the same switch...99 F150 to 08 prius. 15 mpg to 47.5. I just grin every time I check to see how many miles I've gone and STILL don't need to fill up. And then when I do fill up it's less than $30 instead of more than $60. I'm also wondering why I didn't do this a year or two ago. But with gas jumping $0.19 in the last week to $3.42 I'm sure glad I didn't wait any longer! BTW my poor truck is just sitting in the driveway unloved and for sale....I try and drive it once a week or so but I am finding it hard to drag myself away from the Prius....
I just took a trip over the mountains from Seattle to eastern Wa. in my new prius and got 50.6 mpg hand calculated the readout said 47.3. I filled it to the brim both times. Im really happy with the milage and the way it handles, even high wind conditions were not bad. With the back seat down I have room for a kennel crate for my vissala and german shorthair. These are great cars, happy motoring.
careful. overfilling can damage the fuel system. search prior threads on that topic. fill up at the slowest pump speed, and when it clicks off, stop. do not overfill. http://priuschat.com/forums/care-maintenance-troubleshooting/29844-confirmed-overfill-damage.html
