Not Buying a Prius

[H2Andy]

a while back, i was thinking of getting a Toyota Prius, the hybrid car with a real world average MPG of 45-50 (not too shabby)

i discussed this with Scubafool, and he basically said Prius weren't economic in the long run, so i crunched some numbers... well.... basically, gas would have to get to about $8.00 per gallon before the Prius becomes economic.

here's my math:

i've been looking around at the new crop of small economy cars (mostly the Honda Fit, Scion xA, and the Pontiac Vibe). (see this thread: http://scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=154292)

let's take the Honda Fit. comes with a ton of standard stuff, gets an average of 28 mpg (real world) and sells for $17,075 to $18, 655.

the Prius, on the other hand, while it gets 50 mpg (real world), starts at $23,000 and goes as up to $26,500.

taking the higher figures, monthly payments on the Fit come to $444 on a 36-month loan. I don't want to get saddled with the 36-month loan on a Prius ($770) so have to go with a 48-month loan, or $559.

over the life of the loans, that comes to a monthly difference of $301.

using the Prius will cut my fuel comsumption roughly in half, so instead of spending $120 per month, i would spend $60 per month on gas with the Prius.

however, that is a savings of $60 per month, while i am paying $301 extra per month to buy the Prius, which means driving the Prius will cost me an extra $241 per month.

by my calculations, gas has to hit $8.47 a gallon before i break even.

 

[limeyx]

a while back, i was thinking of getting a Toyota Prius, the hybrid car with a real world average MPG of 45-50 (not too shabby)

i discussed this with Scubafool, and he basically said Prius weren't economic in the long run, so i crunched some numbers... well.... basically, gas would have to get to about $8.00 per gallon before the Prius becomes economic.

here's my math:

i've been looking around at the new crop of small economy cars (mostly the Honda Fit, Scion xA, and the Pontiac Vibe). (see this thread: http://scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=154292)

let's take the Honda Fit. comes with a ton of standard stuff, gets an average of 28 mpg (real world) and sells for $17,075 to $18, 655.

the Prius, on the other hand, while it gets 50 mpg (real world), starts at $23,000 and goes as up to $26,500.

taking the higher figures, monthly payments on the Fit come to $444 on a 36-month loan. I don't want to get saddled with the 36-month loan on a Prius ($770) so have to go with a 48-month loan, or $559.

over the life of the loans, that comes to a monthly difference of $301.

using the Prius will cut my fuel comsumption roughly in half, so instead of spending $120 per month, i would spend $60 per month on gas with the Prius.

however, that is a savings of $60 per month, while i am paying $301 extra per month to buy the Prius, which means driving the Prius will cost me an extra $241 per month.

by my calculations, gas has to hit $8.47 a gallon before i break even.

Even worse? Don't you have to factor in a new battery on the Prius on 5 years? That's what I had heard -- that will up the prius price quite a bit.

 

[H2Andy]

the battery i believe has to be replaced every 7 - 9 years ... and it costs about $3,000

if you plan to keep the car that long, then yea, that adds to the cost

hopefully the 5th generation Prius (with the ion battery) will solve this issue.
the 4th generation is coming out late 2007, but it still has the conventional battery.

 

[dlndavid]

I'm not getting a Prius either, just bought a Highlander for my wife and an Avalon for myself, both very nice, hard to beat Toyota quality.

 

[cerich]

a while back, i was thinking of getting a Toyota Prius, the hybrid car with a real world average MPG of 45-50 (not too shabby)

i discussed this with Scubafool, and he basically said Prius weren't economic in the long run, so i crunched some numbers... well.... basically, gas would have to get to about $8.00 per gallon before the Prius becomes economic.

here's my math:

i've been looking around at the new crop of small economy cars (mostly the Honda Fit, Scion xA, and the Pontiac Vibe). (see this thread: http://scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=154292)

let's take the Honda Fit. comes with a ton of standard stuff, gets an average of 28 mpg (real world) and sells for $17,075 to $18, 655.

the Prius, on the other hand, while it gets 50 mpg (real world), starts at $23,000 and goes as up to $26,500.

taking the higher figures, monthly payments on the Fit come to $444 on a 36-month loan. I don't want to get saddled with the 36-month loan on a Prius ($770) so have to go with a 48-month loan, or $559.

over the life of the loans, that comes to a monthly difference of $301.

using the Prius will cut my fuel comsumption roughly in half, so instead of spending $120 per month, i would spend $60 per month on gas with the Prius.

however, that is a savings of $60 per month, while i am paying $301 extra per month to buy the Prius, which means driving the Prius will cost me an extra $241 per month.

by my calculations, gas has to hit $8.47 a gallon before i break even.

get a liberty CRD, get 26 mpg highway real life at 70-75 and 22-23 mixed. It's a real 4x4, has room and isn't that much more than what you are looking at.

 

[Charlie99]

i discussed this with Scubafool, and he basically said Prius weren't economic in the long run, so i crunched some numbers... well.... basically, gas would have to get to about $8.00 per gallon before the Prius becomes economic.

In a similar sort of calculation, you can figure out how much you contribute to global warming when you buy a photovoltaic system to generate power for your house. The total energy used to build the photovoltaic assembly will never be gained back over the lifespan of the unit.

OTOH, windmills have a pretty good payback; as do low tech, low cost solar hot water heating systems.

Things are not always as they appear at first.

 

[RonDawg]

the battery i believe has to be replaced every 7 - 9 years ... and it costs about $3,000

A lot of people who tout the "greenness" of hybrids like the Prius conveniently forget this aspect of it.

Most cars that start out in the Prius' price range (minus the "added dealer greed") after 9 years aren't worth much more than the $3k it costs to replace the batteries. So what's more likely to happen? Yup, lots of abandoned hybrids by the side of the road or in people's yards. How "green" is that?

 

[herman]

get a liberty CRD, get 26 mpg highway real life at 70-75 and 22-23 mixed. It's a real 4x4, has room and isn't that much more than what you are looking at.

This it the diesel version right? My question is why does this vehicle get such POOR fuel mileage for a diesel. I had an 84 GMC Suburban diesel that gave me a consistent 21-22 mpg at 75mph. This was darn near 3 times the vehicle and motor plus it had torque like crazy. It was old manual motor technology and had 250,000 miles on it at the time. I would think with new electronic engine controls and a less worn engine in a lot smaller vehicle it should do a lot better than the mid 20's.
Now if they would just build reasonable size vehicles (no go carts) with adequate sized diesels and forget all the hybrid/electric/hydrogen BS we might just have something. Esp if we crank up the bio diesel production.

 

[The Chairman]

When we bought my wife's hybrid, they asked us how we wanted to pay for it. "Charge it!" was my wife's answer.

 

[cerich]

This it the diesel version right? My question is why does this vehicle get such POOR fuel mileage for a diesel. I had an 84 GMC Suburban diesel that gave me a consistent 21-22 mpg at 75mph. This was darn near 3 times the vehicle and motor plus it had torque like crazy. It was old manual motor technology and had 250,000 miles on it at the time. I would think with new electronic engine controls and a less worn engine in a lot smaller vehicle it should do a lot better than the mid 20's.
Now if they would just build reasonable size vehicles (no go carts) with adequate sized diesels and forget all the hybrid/electric/hydrogen BS we might just have something. Esp if we crank up the bio diesel production.

yup it's a diesel, all the new EPA stuff has actually reduced the milage on diesels, the new Blu Tec engines you'll see on the jeep Grand Cherokee and Mercedes are even worse...

It has lots of torque and drives well, gets 30% better fuel economy than the gas 3.7 and with all the highway driving I do is the best bet in a SUV for cost per mile. The Hybrids never pay for themselves and on the highway they are least efficient anyhow.