Cost Benefit Analysis of Buying/Not Buying the Prius

Forgive me for asking but what is the year of your wife's Prius and what sort of maintance caused the $500 bill per visit?

 

For me, it seems to be a favorable cost/benefit. I'm trading in a Honda Pilot, which gets about 19 mpg. Based on my remaining payments, trade-in value, and balance financed, my monthly payments will be about the same. The insurance increase is about $50/year. So I would say that the gas savings will definitely put me in a favorable cash flow, especially since I will be starting a new job soon that will have me commuting 100 miles/day ukeleft: .

Edit: After posting this, I found an interesting web site, www.fueleconomy.gov (sponsored by the US Dept of Energy) where you can enter your year, make, and model and you'll get various statistics on gas consumption. In comparing my 2003 Pilot to the 2005 Prius, there figures show that I stand to save $1100 a year (at current prices) in gas. Yea, I'd say that's a favorable cost benefit!

 

I have always had a problem with analyst who make the Prius-to-NonPrius comparisons for the reason that the prius is "So" much more expensive. Even the dealer I bought my car at tried to talk me into getting a Max out Corrolla instead of a prius ( little did he know that I walked on the lot knowing exactly what I wanted and nothing that he said was going to change that, persistance pays off ). Even attempted to spurt numbers at me to prove how it would take years for the Prius gas mileage saving to pay off financially. With the amount of miles that I drive in a year to and from work ( around 50000) the Prius' gas savings would have recouped the $6,000 premium from not getting a Corolla. Something that thier equation misses is that even with a maxed Prism or Corolla, you will still be short features that come standard on a Prius.

 

i always have a problem with the cost compaison with a "comparable" car. what car would that be??? there is no comparable car that im aware of. its the only one of its type in reality. so maybe its underpriced... let me get a little nuts for a second (most of you agree i can do that quite often) is a ferrari more expensive than a comparble car?? what comparable car??well, if thats the case why do some old "over priced copared to others" bring in over a million dollars and yes some of them do go for 10 to 20 times their original "too expensive compared to others" price. i can understand but not agree with people who arent impressed with the looks, the mileage, the power etc but i do not understand the "when compared to others" statement. whewww i think i feel better now good air in bad air out.... :wink: :wink:

 

The classic Prius might be comparable to a corolla, or its cousin the Geo Prism, but the 04/05 is more the size of a camry.

When you want to compare values of houses, you start with a house that closest compares, then adds or subtracts values of features that make the houses dissimilar.

 

The "Comparable Car" is the one that you would be getting if you weren't getting the Prius.

For me it would be a used 2003-04 Dodge Stratus V6.

When I ran the numbers based on my personnal driving habits, and best expectations, I found a break-even point at around $2.10 a gallon.
Above that, the Prius starts saving me money INCLUDING the purchase price.

Sure, the cars aren't perfectly comparable, but they were the two choices I had. I'd be an idiot if I didn't make any comparison.

BTW - I have a Prius #4 or order...

 

Technically it would be cheaper to get your $10,000 Honda Civic. You would only save about $500 a yr with a Prius so would take about 34 years to break even.

But a lot of us get the Prius more than to just save cash. The only other thing I do is a little bit of recycling (cans, bottles, cardboard, and newspapers - drop off point is near my work) for the environment so I figure this is a good way to help the environment and have a nice car (win-win situation). Personally, I went from a F250 to a Prius and my wife had an old Honda Civic (which she managed to beat into the ground so time for a new car).

 

This has been discussed a bit over on this PriusChat thread -- specifically about what non-hybrid car would be "equivalent" to a Prius, ignoring the hybrid difference.

It's not easy. I liked the Camry as a comparison -- but it underlines that there are a lot of features in the base Prius (MFD, auto power windows, heated outside mirrors, etc.) that are only in the high-end Camry packages.

Maybe not so much comparing "apples and oranges", as Braeburns and Granny Smiths.

 

I didn't do a cost analysis when I bought my '04 prius. I was in the position to help support new and upcoming technology which I hope(d) would someday enable all beings who breathe air to reap the benefits of. I was further pushed over the line by the political unstability that oil causes and purchased in hopes that this new technology would more rapidly advance a changeover to a non-dino method of propulsion. In my mind, even if the Prius "wastes" a few thousand dollars which I can never recoup, the social good I support far outweighs the extra dollars I spent. As it turns out, my idealism does have a payback in dollars, and so much the better, but it is just an unexpected bonus. I'm not a trust funder, and don't earn a lot, but do believe we have the capacity to help others with no expectation of reward. Hell, I even volunteer at non-profits.

 

This whole discussion is quite interesting. The people that are doing the "comparing" seem to forget that not everyone who buys the car has a "standard" reason. There are those who do it for Patriotism (reduce reliance on the Middle East), Greenism (reduce overall emissions and waste) and some for the cool factor (as Widdletink said "Ultimate in Geek Bling").

However, some of us (including the guy with the Prius Taxi) are doing this as a business investment. My Prius company car gets 20 MPG better than its predecessor (2000 Bonneville). It also has a tax write off and the $500 a month payment is paid by my S-Corp and comes straight off the bottom line. So, it is the ultimate in tax shelter AND money not flowing out of my pocket into a gas station cash register.

As so many of you have already stated "where is the comparable car?"

Answer: Hopefully on Toyotas drawing board for '08 or '09!

Larry

 

Nice web site Lisa! I compared my old car and my wife's old car to our new Priusi....It looks like we'll be saving about $1,700 per year on gas!

 

I may find it eventually, but so far I can't get fueleconomy.gov to accept my 47MPG average to make the savings comparison more accurate. My 1999 Kia Sephia would have cost less than $1,000 extra dollars in gas, but that's using the EPA MPG figures for the Prius which I don't make, against the EPA figures for the Kia which are almost dead-on. Must be I'm saving a lot less than $1,000...

 

Thanks MarinJohn for:

I didn't do a cost analysis when I bought my '04 prius. I was in the position to help support new and upcoming technology which I hope(d) would someday enable all beings who breathe air to reap the benefits of. I was further pushed over the line by the political unstability that oil causes and purchased in hopes that this new technology would more rapidly advance a changeover to a non-dino method of propulsion. In my mind, even if the Prius "wastes" a few thousand dollars which I can never recoup, the social good I support far outweighs the extra dollars I spent. As it turns out, my idealism does have a payback in dollars, and so much the better, but it is just an unexpected bonus. I'm not a trust funder, and don't earn a lot, but do believe we have the capacity to help others with no expectation of reward. Hell, I even volunteer at non-profits.

I will be getting my Prius within the next two weeks and couldn't agree more- it's not only about the $$.

gjr

 

Cost benefit/analysis? How about straight emotion? As humans I think our emotions get the best of us...100% of the time...'cause we are human and have emotions. I first fell in love with the technology and the way you start the car and the smart key and the great feeling when driving it. It appealed to my senses, looked good, sounded good (quiet), felt good (smooth 'no-shift'). I know many will ask what's that worth to ya, put a price tag on it...but I say it isn't tangible to put a dollar amount on. I love this car and that's how I chose it. I love my SO, that's how I chose her. Neither one did I do a cost benefit/analysis. Just make it happen. And , yes, so far as choices are concerned, both my SO and Prius are reaping wonderful benefits that have NOTHING to do with $. My 2 cents worth...

 

Why does everyone want to compare a Prius to the cheapest junkbox on the road when they do these comparisons? I replaced my Audi A4 with my 05 Prius, and actually the Prius is bigger inside and is better optioned. True, it doesn't have wood trim and the seats aren't quite as nice but the Prius is clearly not an entry level car.

Anyway, my Prius gets about 25 mpg better that the typical car of it's size. (50 vs 25 for my last car). That's a 2 gallon savings for every 100 miles. , or about 200 gallon savings for every 10,000 miles. At $2 per gallon you save about $400 per 10000 miles on fuel. If you assume a $4000 extra cost for the hybrid drivetrain it will take 100,000 miles to break even. Of course if fuel prices rise, the payback becomes shorter.
Lots of other costs are still unknowns. what will a new battery pack cost in 8 years? What is the long term resale value if the next gen hybrid is even better?

The bottom line is that it's likely that if all you are looking for is the cheapest overall way to get from here to there the Prius isn't the option. You can find a used civic for $500.

If you are looking for a really nice car that seat 5, has lots of cool options, is really cheap to operate, helps reduce our dependance on foreign oil, and produces way less emmissions than almost every other car on the road, there is no better car than the Prius.

 

I sold my 1999 F-150 with 112,000 miles on it for 9000 dollars. It got 15 MPG lifetime average. It would have been due for several semi-major repairs in the next 4 years. I drive 28,000 miles per year. The truck required 500 in brakes and 500 in tires every two years.

In four years the truck would have cost around 5000 dollars in maintainance, 15000 dollars in gas at 2 dollars a gallon, and 8000 dollars in depreciation. Total=28,000 dollars.

In four years the Prius will cost me 1500 dollars in maintainance, 4300 dollars in gas, and 14000 in depreciation. Total = 19,800 dollars

During the next four years, I will be driving a new, safe, fun, quick, easy to park, technotoy, instead of an old ford truck, and save 8,200 dollars. If gas prices continue to rise, the savings will, of course be greater. The cost of financing will be just about covered by a 600 dollar savings on taxes.

Four more years will result in the entire purchase price of the Prius recovered by gas and maintainance savings. Your math may vary.