Wait a year to buy and save $$$$$

Perhaps, but the Prius will definitely be more reliable due experience by the manufacturer.

 

The average driver drives 15,000 miles per year, and gas prices are $4 per gallon now. the only reasonable way to do a comparison is to use real world numbers as of now. Gasoline could just as easily be $2 a gallon, as $6 a gallon a year from now. Although I agree the trend will probably be upward.

You can do all the what-ifs you want to do to make the numbers come out more favorably. I used real world prices and known average miles per year.

The results are what they are ... I wasn't trying to skew them toward or away from purchasing a Prius ... as I said ... I already have one ! You have to plug in your OWN numbers to analyze YOUR payback period.

REV

 

MY math says a paid-for 20MPG vehicle trumps car payments and a 50MPG vehicle that's $3,000 more expensive than it was when I ran these numbers six months ago...and came to the same conclusion.

If I ever do get a G3....it's going to be when they're on sale again. There are three fundamental truths I’ve learned about religion. (1) There is a GOD. (2) GOD has a heckuva good sense of humor. (3) It’s usually activated by the words “never” or “always”.

Think Priuses will never go on sale again?
Consider the following:
"Interest rates will never go below 10% again"....1981
"Gas will never be below $1 again"...1979
"Inflation will never go below 5% again"...1978
"Gas will really never go below $2 again"....1989 (following G1)
"Gas will really REALLY never go below $3 ever again"...2005 following Katrina.
“Real Estate Prices can only go up from now on. Homes will never be cheaper!”…2008

..and so it goes.
Buy a Prius now?
If some kid plows into my Sierra and totals it, and I find one a few thou below MSPR...maybe. Pay MSRP for a car??? Never!…. (oops!)

YMMV.....

 

To me, the argument is clear cut. You save bucket loads of money at the pump with a Prius whether gas is $2 a gallon or $4 a gallon. In my opinion the long term (10 year) trend for gas is a much higher prices at the pump. I mean, they are even trying to extract oil out of sand now and drilling in extremely sensitive parts of the world. There is no doubt that oil fields are drying out.

By trading in my gas guzzler for a Prius my mpg has increased 300% - from 17mpg to over 50mpg. Even my wife's 4 cyl Nissan Rogue drinks over twice as much fuel as a Prius. The savings at the pump are making an amazng difference to our monthly budget.

Why wait? Buy now and start enjoying the savings right away!

 

I agree in general. I got my Prius when gas was $2.80 and I used those figures. I felt maybe they'd go up but I didn't use higher to rationalize it. WHen I have recently looked at a Prius I've used $3.50/gallon.

Remember though that the Prius is bigger than an elantra or focus so purely cost of ownership they are surely cheaper but comparing the Prius to something larger the math is different. It is a midsize, although I agree that's only by the barest of margins.

 

Just wanted to add I often enjoy your posts and their liveliness!

It makes sense unless it was paid off. Even then it may make sense. My minivan is worth about $5k private, $4k trade-in and gets 20 mpg. That's pretty bad, but only with a lot of bad repairs will it plus its price of gas actually meet or exceed a reliable prius with its gas sipping. A great price on a prius lets me basically break even--which is ok for me and why I want one because I hate buying gas now. I think it's barbaric to not regenerate when braking, too. It's the vehicle equivalent to dial-up.

 

Fuel will never again decrease significantly for any length of time. Has it not been observed that "They" think of any reason "They" can to raise fuel cost. We pay, "They" make bank.

 

your avg and my avg is different, with 2 drivers we averaged 48,000 miles per year for last 18 years. Prius is getting ~35K a year, probably more so with latest gas price hike. Also while avg ~4$/gal in some locales in CA it is well above that.

No prob with using published averages, but it you (or him) buying a car, not some Mr Avg, and your circumstances may be different. There are people who drive less then 5mi a day, for them something like Zip car and bicycle would make alot more sense then any car, Prius included.

 

You have to be a fool to think gas prices would continue to climb:

Tanking gas prices predicted - BostonHerald.com

Production may not be all that great with Toyota right now but getting a Prius once again for thousands below MSRP shouldn't be that far away...

 

I don't know we can count on thousands below MSRP any time soon. That was in great part because Toyota was trying to overcome the bad and mostly unfounded publicity about runaway cars.

But, yeah, I saw a Prius today a 2007--without leather--and a local dealership wants $20,800. Yes it has only 25k miles, but come on. It's daylight robbery. 2008s are now 19-20k.