Would a PIP be good for a 54 mi daily commute round trip?

This sounds much like my experience so far. With summer here and no daily ride to campus, I will not use nearly as much gas, so I expect my electricity bill will rise accordingly.

 

My commute is 42 miles each way ... it was longer taking our 73 toll road to avoid the plugged 5 / Crown Valley and up to 405. BUT, now that I have my HOV stickers again, I get to the freeway, traverse across a few lanes into the HOV lanes, and then when I hit the stride at 60+, I pop the HV button off.

Leaving work, even at my late hours, the 405 is jammed at places. When I left work Friday night and Saturday night both, I got all the way to Beach Blvd w/o using one drop of fuel... about 20 miles. Love how thre EV/HV self perpetuates with the braking in traffic situations. I have also learned to ignore the EV estimate of mileage after I unplug and start moving south. It's always way way lower than I end up going on it.

 

9.5 gallons * 44.5 mpg = 423 miles/3.5 days = 120 miles per day in 2005 (43,800 miles per year - wow)
8.5 gallons * 59 mpg= 501 miles/5.5 days = 91 miles per day in 2012 (33,000 miles per year)
These are above average miles per year. Your total miles driven went down so not all of it is due to mpg if I read your numbers correctly

 

You'll have better luck figuring it this way:
92 mile R/T per workday * 5 days * 52 weeks = 23920 miles per year.
23920 / 45 mpg = 531.5 gallons used
23920 / 55 mpg = 439.9 gallons used
23920 / 60 mpg = 398.6 gallons used

Of course my actual miles will vary depending upon vacations, errands ran after work or on the weekends, etc.

 

Is the PiP a nice/good car for her. Sure. Will it save money, probably not. Will it save gas? Yes a little.

If your wife has the ability to charge at work, then 54 is well withing pure BEV (leaf/iMiev) range and/or EREV range (Volt) for gas-free driving. If your wife likes the Prius because its green/gas-savings, you might want to at least test drive something with more EV range as that is a longer commute.

 

...we luv our '06 too (its my wife's) and we are keeping it for the forseeable future. But if we were in CA with that length commute, the HOV access might be controlling decision. One thing you can trade in the 2006 and at some point you may have to pay $2000 to Re-Involt figure 50/50 chance so $1000 bucks avoided there. The 2006 Prius is near zero emission vehicle so it is a little hard to argue PiP is hugely better for environment.