Prius may not save as much as you think...

Are we still at the point where if I keep my car 1/3 the length of time I historically have and drive 1/2 as much as I do I 'only' save $6000?

Oh and if I point that out, I am just a fanboi. I see.

 

I have a 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 I drive for towing and fun. It gets gallons per mile not miles per gallon. With the amount of driving I do I was putting $110+ a week worth of premium gas in it the first few weeks of ownership.

Not wanting to wear out the JGC by piling the miles on it we bought a 2012 Prius. The savings we're getting on gas and wear and tear on the JGC is huge. Admittedly, I'm still a little upside down owning two vehicles, but all I can say is I'm not funding Al Jazeer's oil funded purchase of Al Gore's TV station at the pump any more. Where I used to trim the trips because of fuel costs my wife and I can now enjoy trips in the Prius without getting gouged. I needed a vehicle for occasional towing and got the JGC SRT8, but the Prius has become our "preferred" choice when going somewhere.

I have some friends who are suprised by us getting the Prius. We are luxury and sports car type people. I guess I don't understand why people don't think the Prius is a nice car. We got a level 5 and love it. Yea, the doors are a little thin, etc. But so are some people's skin. Other than that, it has all the options we want in a car. If I was looking to buy any car available for $30K+/- I wouldn't expect anything nicer than the Prius we got. The bonus (reason for doing it) was 50+ miles per gallon.

 

How is it a surprise? 25 mpg to 50 mpg for 15,000 miles is a difference of 300 gallons.

Also no suprise is that somebody looking at a new car in the low $30ks thinks that $1,200 is insignificant.

Now try extending it to the life of the car and compare.

 

That is because it counted TOC over only 75k miles. What about the next 150k miles?

For the distance my household has driven its nonhybrid cars, the fuel costs have exceeded the original purchase prices of the cars.

 

There are three economic models at play:

• new car under warranty - presumes minor and major repairs are covered (KBB model)
• used car under partial warranty - presumes drive train repairs are covered, past initial depreciation (KBB without first three years)
• used car no warranty - total owner responsibility, fully depreciated (post KBB)

A 2004 model Prius is not likely to see much depreciation over the next years. As for major repairs, other than the MFD and a few recalls, the probability of a major failure remains lower than an accident. So what should be the next replacement car?

• late model NHW20 - similar to 2004 Prius but a lot of early defects corrected. A 2009 model should be a very solid car with a low risk of ownership.
• early model ZVW30 - just coming off the first warranty, superior drive train but early defects are likely to have been warranty addressed in the field, not factory. Too soon to know if there are any life-time wear issues that might extend beyond the long-term warranty. There remains some buzz about braking but it remains intermittent and indistinct. Also, the cooled exhaust and exhaust heat recovery are new technologies and we don't yet know their long-term reliability.

If the 1.5L, NHW20 fully meets the owner's expectations, there is no need to change. However, the used 1.8L ZVW30 has more space and power and provides a number of important mileage improvements and new technologies. Only the most recent, 1.8L ZVW30 has the option of incorporating newer, revised manufacturing improvements but the initial depreciation is a killer. It remains a complex problem with no easy solution.

Bob Wilson

 

I think, for the most part, you are right. And, as with Ed Burke's latest post, they will invite you to get lost if your opinion varies from theirs.

 

I forgot to mention something that Consumer Reports once said and I agree,'the last model year of car is usually the best.' What happens is all of the known improvements show up in the last year:

• 2003 - NHW11 (good enough but over 10 years old, please avoid)
• 2009 - NHW20 (excellent and only 4-5 years old)

Almost any model year of the NHW20 is a better buy than the NHW11 because so many technical improvements were made. But if you're going after an NHW20, try to find a 2009 for a good price, first.

GOOD LUCK!
Bob Wilson

 

So assembling your anaylsis, a 3+ year old 2009 model with less than 100,000 miles would be the sweet spot ?

 

When I compared what I'd spend on everything EXCLUDING depreciation, because really...a car is only worth what someone will pay for it, I came up with about $16k spent to own it for 5 years. Gas was one thing I would spend more on each year because I drive more often. Insurance and maintenance is much less for me than the "project" numbers, mainly because I have a maintenance package and up until about year 4 I will be covered and insurance is a mere $1.1k each year, soon to go down when my better half reaches the ripe ol age of of...27? I think that is when you are meant to get an insurance break.
Honestly, how do they come up with these projected numbers anyway?

 

Read the Consumer Reports lastest edition (Feb. 2013). It makes me feel good about my Prius purchase last year.

 

Way to make a point. You used a fully loaded Prius FIVE, so the depreciation would be at highest. And then compare it to a stripped down lowest MSRP gas-only car? Point taken.

You just showed that the loaded options won't pay for itself and you'll take a lot in depreciation hit (and tax) to own those features.

The only feature that doesn't depreciate is the hybrid fuel saving feature.

 

Have you driven the new camry? I had one as a rental for a month and it was up there on my top 5 list of worst cars I've had to drive. I drove long distance and it was uncomfortable, would blow all over the road, and even with the "eco" feature still only got on average 28 mpg, which is what my scion would get.

 

How about the future value "hold" of Prius?
I've seen high prices for 1Gen Prii for sale (are they a classic already?) in www.mobile.de...
And for sure, since they are (from 2Gen onwards) able of being "upgraded" to plug-in or LPG converted (all series), and nevertheless very low on maintenance and fuel costs, perhaps we are talking about high resale values...
TOC includes resale...

 

Mine saves as much as I thought, 50% less oil (no need to fight oil wars on my account) and 50% less pollution (we can meet the 80% reduction by 2050 if we commit the resources).