[Canadian Prius]

Only buy one if you are some kind of kook, and being green is all-important to you... that's the tone of the article.

http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosconsum ... 329795.htm

But, I guess he hasn't read this article about the Prius being the best overall value of 2005:

http://www.intellichoice.com/reports/ve ... _nmb/16211


Top Winner for Highest Retained Value
Among the Best for Lowest Depreciation
Top Winner for Lowest Fuel
Top Winner for Lowest Maintenance
Top Winner for Lowest Operating
Among the Best for Lowest Ownership

 

[Tideland Prius]

You see, that's why you never let an accountant build a car and you never let a journalist talk about money.


Why would you buy a BMW over a Lexus? Why pay the "premium"? Some say, it's because of the dynamic drive of a BMW. Fine. Why pay the "premium" for a Prius? Because it's a whole different vehicle and a different driving experience. The excitement between driving a BMW and driving a Prius is different but it's still the excitement of ownership.

Even GM admitted that it's not all about the money. They forgot about the emotional aspect that is associated with cars.


Anyway, so far since 25th Oct 2004, I spent $746.74 on fuel, used 874.773 litres and travelled 17700kms. Much much less than what we were (and still are) spending on the Camry.

 

[C.Rickey Hirose]

You see, that's why you never let an accountant build a car and you never let a journalist talk about money.


Why would you buy a BMW over a Lexus? Why pay the "premium"? Some say, it's because of the dynamic drive of a BMW. Fine. Why pay the "premium" for a Prius? Because it's a whole different vehicle and a different driving experience. The excitement between driving a BMW and driving a Prius is different but it's still the excitement of ownership.

Even GM admitted that it's not all about the money. They forgot about the emotional aspect that is associated with cars.


Anyway, so far since 25th Oct 2004, I spent $746.74 on fuel, used 874.773 litres and travelled 17700kms. Much much less than what we were (and still are) spending on the Camry.

So the next replacement is the HC or the Hybrid Camry for you right ?

 

[Tony Liscio]

I have sent this to many reporters

When I read a article that states PRIUS cost more, I send this attachment.
And never hear from the reporter again.
Tony Liscio 04 Tideland Pearl #6
To date I have had my Prius in:
9Car Shows, 3 Parades, 4 Class Room Speeches, stay tuned I'm Doing more.

 

[Spartan1]

Okay, now you've made me go and use the calculator.

Old Explorer got approx. 15 MPG
Prius (conservatively) gets 45 MPG
I drive about 18,000 miles/year

Explorer = 18,000 / 15 = 1200 gals. of gas
Prius = 18,000 / 45 = 400 gals. of gas

Difference = 800 gals. x $2.60 = $2,080 / year

Of course, now I can't do all that off-road driving that all of us SUV drivers got our big tanks for :roll:

 

[dogtag]

For me, It all boils down to what I was driving before I got my Prius.
It was a Dodge pickup that got 16mpg.

I put 27000 miles a year on the average on my truck.
Cost of driving that many miles is 5062.50 for fuel.

The cost of putting that many miles on my Prius is 1557.70 if I
figure 52 mpg at 3.00 a gallon. We all know that it won't go any
higher so I base my caluclations at three bucks for the next ten
years.....LOL....anyway,

Thats a difference of 3504.80 per year.
Over the five years it's being paid off, I figure 17524.00 in fuel savings.

Let's say the cost of the Prius is 34,000 which includes finance charges and all the extras, we're looking at a real cost over five years of 16476.00.
If you drove the car another five years after the car was paid off, then the savings would more than pay for the car.

I know that there would be costs of batteries and maintenance but then, there would be major repair costs for a conventional car or turck as well.

That part would be hard to predict.
We did buy the optional warrenty so we shouldn't have to buy any batteries while we're paying for the car.

Anyway, it looks like a pretty good deal for me.
Now, if I was already driving a Mazda Miata then the savings would be caluclated against a car that gets over 30 mpg and wouldn't appear to be such a big savings.

Many would argue that a purchase of a car that got 30 mpg would make more sense because it's cheaper.
My question would be, why go half way?

These news releases don't seem to make these distinctions, do they.

 

[DanMan32]

Tony, I take exception to your doc. Many of the items you claim on that are options, and others are rolled into the fuel savings, like regenerative braking for example. You could use the regenerative braking in reduced maintenance costs (less wear to the pads/shoes) when factoring maintenance cost comparison into the total cost of ownership.

We can take the example of real estate comparisons when trying to factor the total cost of ownership.
Real estate comparisons take 2 or more properties that are similar, then adjust for the value of the differences. Property A has better landscaping and automatic sprinklers, so its value is deducted. Home B has a new roof, while home A is 10 years old, so its value difference is deducted, or added to the other property since it may need a new roof soon. Once the playing field is evened out, then you see which is the better value.

So you do the same for the Prius compared to the Camry, since the Camry has the closest cabin/cargo space. Prius has a touch screen interactive display, so deduct its value from the cost of a Prius, since a Camry doesn't have one. If a Camry has fully adjustable seats standard, then deduct its value from the camry price. Basically, we are looking to compare the 'bare bones' price. You can also compare fully equipped prices, but you might end up stripping all of the add-ons if they are not available on the compared vehicle. Pick a mileage, say 100 to 200K miles, and establish the maintance and fuel costs to get there for each vehicle, and add it to the equalized purchase price. Divide total cost by cube foot of space in each vehicle, and you have total cost of ownership per cubic foot for the total miles you selected. I believe one should apply the storage capacity after adding operating costs, rather than equalizing storage capacity into the purchase price, as the size of the vehicle will affect its fuel efficiency, thus its operating costs.

 

[wstander]

My fuel savings are skewed as my last vehicle was a Honda Civic Hybrid and I did average 47MPG with it compared to about 49MPG on the Prius.

I drive about 39000 miles per year, so I figure a savings of $102.00 based upon $3.00/gallon.

But, to me, the Prius is a better car all around.

Compared to the van I drove before the HCH, I saved 829 gallons of fuel times $3.00= $2487.00 in fuel savings with the Prius over the van.

BTW: that van cost $29K, no leather, no nav, only front disk brakes, front and side airbags only, no MP3, no Bluetooth (though it did have OnStar), I averaged 25MPG; on a trip I did attain 35MPG across Texas.

 

[mikepaul]

No excessive savings, but I'm using conservative numbers.

Old: 23 city/36 highway, maybe 28 all-around.

New: using 40 even though the last few tanks had been 45 or better.

20,000 miles per year, I'll save over $514 on an annual basis at $2.70 per gallon. Plus all the shop work the old car would still be needing...

 

[hyperion]

Economically, in todays market the article, for the average 10,000 mile a year driver is probably correct. The cost should lower dramatically when we find several million hybrids on the street and they remain relatively trouble free. This obviously won't happen if Toyota is the only manufacturer in the mass market.

 

[iggy1iggy]

I am more to the extreme my old car (i still have it) is a 1966 Mercury Park Lane and I got 10mpg and my daily commute is 120 miles round trip.
So the fule cost for a year calculating gas at $3.00 a gallon is $9,360.00 a year
My Prius averages 45 mpg (being conservitave I averaged 52 on my last 2 tanks)
So the fuel cost for a year calculating gas at $3.00 a gallon is $2,080.00 a year
That calculates out to a savings of $7,280.00 a year which more than covers my monthly payment and insurance costs.

So it was basically a no brainer to buy a prius

 

[gagendel]

Before my Prius I got an average of 47 MPG with my 1996 VW Passat TDI (diesel). My lifetime average on my 2005 Prius is 52 MPG. Not much difference there and Diesel is currently much cheaper than unleaded. At this point in time, I'm probably breaking even or even losing.

There are some Prius disadvantages:

1) I loved the VW features of letting me roll down all the windows before I entered on a hot day (or close them and the sunroof as well).
2) The premium sound system was MUCH better on the VW.
3) I miss the sun roof.

However, there are Prius advantages.

1) Quiet.
2) Smell (diesel is really a smelly fuel).
3) Performance (great pickup in comparison).
4) Good for the environment.

 

[DanMan32]

Diesel cheaper than 87 octane? Where?

 

[tomdeimos]

Poll should be Prius vs what else I could have bought. I already had a good mpg car
but it was a diesel and can't be replaced with another one here in MA.

So my savings are really not that impressive on the poll, but my true savings are much greater, since any other current car I would have chosen would have been far worse than my last car.

I expect to break even within 3 years even compared to my old diesel. Compared to
other gas cars it would be more like 2 years for break even.

Actually I probably had a net savings the day I got the car! That is because any other car I might have settled for would have cost me more money!

 

[Canadian Prius]

I am more to the extreme my old car (i still have it) is a 1966 Mercury Park Lane and I got 10mpg and my daily commute is 120 miles round trip.
So the fule cost for a year calculating gas at $3.00 a gallon is $9,360.00 a year
My Prius averages 45 mpg (being conservitave I averaged 52 on my last 2 tanks)
So the fuel cost for a year calculating gas at $3.00 a gallon is $2,080.00 a year
That calculates out to a savings of $7,280.00 a year which more than covers my monthly payment and insurance costs.

So it was basically a no brainer to buy a prius

Yes, this is an extreme case. However, there will be many in this forum who will have already had a fuel efficient car prior to purchasing a Prius. Most likely the general population will have, on average, less fuel efficient vehicles that those who have the mind set to buy a Prius. Therefore, the average savings are likely to be even more than what is reflected in this poll.

Another thing is that there is a lot of sniping in the media at the 'true' mileage of the Prius, with suggestions that it is actually much lower than advertised. I think this is likely to be even more true of other vehicles. My guess is that often gas mileage is figured on the basis of a summer highway trip when the mileage on most cars is going to be at its best. If the same vehicle was tested in the winter on short city trips, the mileage would be much much worse. Someone thinking they get 25 mpg on their highway trip could easily get 15 mpg throughout the winter in the city. So when the Prius gets 'only' 40 mph under the worst conditions, which we can easily see on the MFD, that shouldn't be compared to the best mileage of other vehicles.