The savings are adding up!

Prius Maximus,

It is OK to let go of old misconceptions . . . you are now a Prius owner . . . 28 MPG is not “decent mileage.â€

Repeat after me: "Anything under 40 miles per gallon sucks!"
And again: . . .
And again: . . .

Good. :mrgreen:

 

I do not know, I'm quite happy that my 6600 pound 3/4 ton full size truck will push 24 mpg on the highway when driven nicely.

 

>>I have saved over $1,000.00 in gas money in the first year.

More importantly, I have used 535 fewer gallons of gas. >>

I hate to burst your bubble, you have driven over 34K miles in about a year and not saved but wasted 320 gallons of fuel in the process over the average annual mileage of 18K miles per year. My daughter works 1.5 miles from home, she uses my former SUV which gets an average 15 "true" MPG. She uses about 1 gallon a week to commute, and drives 6K miles per year total, using about 400 gallons total per year, do you see the irony now? I'll probably also do 6K miles on my new Prius and use no more than 120 gallons in the process. Point being, owning a Prius is good but you can still be wasteful at the same time.

 

I go where I want to go, and spend less money on the gas it takes to go there than it'd cost in my now-departed 1999 Kia Sephia.

I go farther than I *need* to go, so that may qualify as waste. IMHO, too bad...

 

I did 22,500 miles for one year with a 1,000 gallon savings over my old 15 MPG SUV. Everyone's ave miles per year is different. I'd like to be able to drive less, save more fuel. Not everyone can, meaning not everyone has a short commute.
Not to be left out of the equation, how about the environmental savings: 28,500 lbs of crud would've been spewed by my old SUV in the 22,500 miles. (22,500 miles/15 MPG = 1,500 gallons times 19 lbs. = 28,500). The Prius, just 9,000 lbs. (22,500/47 MPG = 478 gallons times 19 lbs. = 9095). This is based on 19 lbs. of carbon, nitrogen, etc. per one gallon burned gas from this site: http://www.40mpg.org/getinf/release.cfm
I'd like to know if this seems accurate as far as the pollution that one gallon of burned gas puts out. Feedback, please!

 

If you are going to accuse someone else of their “wasteful ways†- you may first want to look no further than your immediate family. Your daughter needs an SUV to drive 1.5 miles to work???†:? What’s wrong with walking or riding a bike?

Oh, and by the way . . . your “former SUV†probably pollutes more just sitting in the parking lot than the Prius does while driving, and guaranteed - your daughter’s 6,ooo mile yearly use will pollute more than Prius Maximus’ 34K mile yearly usage.

My commute is 20 feet from my bed to my home office, but I don’t ridicule someone for driving a Prius of all things.

Do YOU see the irony now?

 

>>If you are going to accuse someone else of their “wasteful ways†- you may first want to look no further than your immediate family. Your daughter needs an SUV to drive 1.5 miles to work???†What’s wrong with walking or riding a bike?<<

I bought the SUV nealry 10 years ago new, I'm not going to be wasteful and get rid of it when it has less than 50K miles on it. Traffic situation would make it suicidal to walk or pedal to work. Besides my daughter is a first responder being a physician, you won't find any economy cars in natural disasters performing rescues until after the 4X4's are done

>>Oh, and by the way . . . your “former SUV†probably pollutes more just sitting in the parking lot than the Prius does while driving, and guaranteed - your daughter’s 6,ooo mile yearly use will pollute more than Prius Maximus’ 34K mile yearly usage<<

Well your creditbilty just got shot with that last statement of anger, go to http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/findacar.htm and plug in 1996 Ford Explorer 4 dr AWD 8 cly. and plug in whatever car or vehicle you want.

BTW, my commute is a longer one, about 60 feet 8) Lets tone it down.

 

>>never expected to be chewed out by another Prius owner<<

My apologies, I was trying to make the point that we all waste/consume energy in one way or another and that by driving the best hybrid out there doesn't make one immune to wasting gas. I wasn't attacking you for what you drive or your life style but using an example that others can find ways to conserve energy without having to purchase the best hybrid out there. Many are quick to attack SUV owners without realizing that life style comes into play and some of those SUV owners can actually be conserving fuel overall by their limited amount of driving. Once again I'm sorry you took it wrong. Peace to you.

 

The fact that your daughter drives only 1.5 miles to work means that the engine and catalatic converter would not be up to full operating temperature for the majority of her trip. The Explorer would emit far more pollutants than the U.S. Department of Energy model estimates you are referring.

The Explorer is also emitting far more fumes than a Prius just sitting there in the parking lot.

http://esa21.kennesaw.edu/activities/smog-...-pollutants.pdf

Since your original post did not say the make and year of the SUV, I made sure to write “probably†in my post. And now that we know Prius Maximus is commuting 50 miles one way, I’d say my estimates look even that much better.

60 feet? So does this mean you expel three times the CO2 greenhouse gas as I do on my commute? :wink:


.

 

>>60 feet? So does this mean you expel three times the CO2 greenhouse gas as I do on my commute?<<

ukeleft: Not that my wife can tell ukeright: