Are you driving a Prius because you're Green or Frugal?

Using less gas & oil is always good. But I actually think it's more important to conserve water now, and not pollute our oceans, rivers, lakes and streams. We got a huge plastic mess! (And China is now refusing to take our plastic to recycle,)

Getting back to the Prius, electric cars, etc, in Southern California we occasionally have "rolling blackouts." The power grid just can't handle the increased demand in the summer months. With more & more electric vehicles coming online, and more recharging being done, the State leaders had better figure out this power issue.

Also, if I understand correctly, CA is hitting us Hybrid owners with an additional $100 fee on our yearly vehicle registration renewal. We don't use as much gas; so less gas tax goes into the state coffers.

 

Frugal!

Super easy and inexpensive to maintain, and great mpg...

 

Yes.

 

Similar thing here in Idaho, we have a $75 fee annually at registration PHEV and $150 fee for BEV. They say it because we don’t pay our fair share of the gas tax for road usage.



iPhone ?

 

It's $50 and $100 here in Indiana. They really don't care about clean air because all the big trucks and SUV's are allowed to pollute the air.
It's kind of backwards if you think that way. They should be pushing people toward more efficient vehicles. Maybe big oil has their thumb on the whole thing?

I have a saying, "If it doesn't make sense follow the money trail".

 

Another big "this makes no sense" thing in Indiana is our gas tax goes into the General Fund, and is not specifically marked for road upkeep Instead, they get to spend it any way they want.

 

Traded in my Prius V (thought that was the best car ever!) Wanted something new for a change instead of buying Used. Love Great fuel economy with the price of Gasoline on the rise (doubt its going to go down anymore) My V got great mileage but doesn't come close to the Prime.. Guess i just wanted the great gas mileage.. (Number 1 lol)

 

I talked to a guy yesterday that thought 40 mpg was great on his little Ford on the highway.
If a a Prius gets 40 mpg even on the highway it's broke. They still don't get it.

 

MPG:
Miles per gallon.
Distance is the numerator.
Volume is the denominator.
MPG stays the same for any given vehicle, which is totally independent of the price of fuel.

Saving money on lower fuel fuel costs is always fashionable.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Green or frugal, here is my secret/dirty little wish:
- The price of oil continues to rise until it's commercially unviable. (Although a major inconvenience, I was actually optimistic about the high oil prices around 2007, 2008.)
- This will cause further development in alternative technologies. (hybrid, fuel cell, electric, etc.)
- Subsidizing oil prices that are artificially lower than market value is not helping the aggregate, in the long run. It IS helping oil majors with short term fiscal goals.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I can tell you in retrospect.
I admired and bought Prius for both reasons. Great MPG..thus lower gasoline bills. But also efficiency in both Fossil Fuel burning and Emissions...thus at least on one level...better for the planet.

Now that I don't own a Prius?

Selfishly I don't miss the "Green Cred" so much. Easier to ignore.
But when my low gas light comes on with only 240 miles driven? Well, when I first transitioned from Prius back to an full ICE vehicle it was a little shocking.
Now if I push a 300 mile tank, I'm doing pretty good.
With The Prius...300 miles, wasn't' even a marker yet. I didn't really start thinking about gasoline until at least 375 miles, a lot of time farther.

So what I miss the most.....is the fuel efficiency and thus the "frugal" side.

I also spent the first month or so of regular vehicle ownership after the Prius, waiting for the engine to turn off at stops. There was something nice about being at a complete stop, and NOT burning fuel needlessly.

 

This is my first Prius and I had, originally, had no intentions on ever owning one.

I like small cars, I've only ever owned Corollas ('92, '05, '09), but on a whim decided to test drive a new Prius while driving around town bored one weekend. Loved the vehicle.

That was just before the release of the Prime, and I loved the color and the fact that it was a plug-in. I was sort of on the Tesla hype train, wanting a Model 3 (but they hadn't even shown the world what it looked like at this point and I wasn't willing to wait, pay the hefty price, take the risk of their new manufacturing process, etc) so I jumped on the Prime.

 

OK, I'll chip in.

The main reason I bought mine is that it was the best equipped compact hatchback available with a truly accessible and comfortable rear seat. No other had the smart key (which we had with our other vehicle, a bigger and much more expensive Nissan Murano) for example.

Another reason is that I am kind of a techie and love the "elegance" of the HSD.

I agree with Electric Me on the pleasure of going 450 miles on a tank and then filling up with about 9 gallons.

Add the green and frugal elements and it was the perfect choice for me.

By the way, our 10 Y.O. Murano will be traded in for a Rav4 Hybrid or a Lexus UX Hybrid once the 2019 models come out. I'll keep the Prius as my around town car for as long as it stays reliable, might consider trading it once the gen 5 comes out in about 3 years.

 

Imagine in our lifetime we start seeing hover cars. This would for sure seal the future of no more need for gas. No more need for gas tax because levitating cars would not need road or road maintenance. I think this will happen within our lifetime. But a government with obligations will come up with an excuse to raise taxes so they will charge you by how many miles you traveled in a levitating car.

 

You'll be paying for air traffic control, timeslots in congested areas, and stops.

Once the cars drive themselves (whether on roads or air, doesn't matter) there will be a huge push to eliminate parking lots and put more valuable things on the real estate. More places to shop and houses to live in, for example. So your car will just go back home to park when you aren't using it, since that space is already paid for. Why yes, that will pretty much double traffic.

There will be air rights fights- people won't want too many things flying over. Some will win the rights in courts, and so certain routes will face a lot of bottlenecks to keep all traffic directly over existing roadways.

Once we have V2V communication, you won't be able to pull over and stop for passenger drop-off or pick-up without everyone else's car narcing on you, saying you're a hazard to navigation etc. You'll have to find a purpose-built drop zone and pay a metered fee for using it. It may seem cheap sold in 6-second slices, but it racks up.

Better not have a common schedule because surge pricing kicks in on all of these too.

I won't say it isn't progress, but we all have to be thinking about scale. Whatever you want to do has to still be legit when everyone on earth has three of them.

 

Or driving at speeds well above 80 mph. <GRINS>

Bob Wilson

 

Ok. Let's fastfoward. Quantum teleportation. You just can't tax that. A few years ago scientists teleported a beam of light from one location to another location using quantum entanglement. No gas tax or distance traveled tax. . Sorry this is getting off topic. But that will be our probable future mode of travel. A colony on mars would have to end all ties with Earth as a colony at some point to gain absolute Freedom from earthly obligations. To start fresh.

 

That's what use taxes are for. They just draft the law such that using the quantum machine incurs a tax to be paid.

Personally I will trip over myself given the opportunity to pay a tax if it has any chance of reducing current or future interest payments. Even mismanaged taxation generally results in some spending in my neighborhood. Not one cent of interest I've ever paid does any good to myself or the public near me.

 

I don't believe such 'freedom' will happen within this solar system. It will begin with explorers traveling farther away.