I can add, but I stil paid $26000 for a Prius.
#11
Re: I can add, but I stil paid $26000 for a Prius.
Originally Posted by CGameProgrammer
The Prius has never pretended to be the cheapest new car you can buy; obviously a $13k car is loads cheaper, especially because cars like that often get very good FE too. But even a fuel-efficient $13k car is more expensive than a used car, or whatever your current car is... if you currently have a 25 mpg car, and you want to buy a Prius that gets 50 mpg, and you drive 15k miles a year, it would take 26 years to make up the $22k you paid for the Prius (neglecting the value you got back for your trade-in, or the tax credit, but also ignoring tax).
Nobody buys new cars to save money so I don't understand why this is an issue.
Nobody buys new cars to save money so I don't understand why this is an issue.
#12
Re: I can add, but I stil paid $26000 for a Prius.
Investment?Who suggested a car was an investment?Not me.
I was making a crude rough and ready comparison between two vehicles I was considering buying. The Fit would have been a tiny bit cheaper to own over about 100,000 miles. It would have worked OK for my needs; it had to be able to fit 2 long legged dogs in the back. Both the Fit and the Prius can do that. It also had to get very good mpg for two reasons; to keep operating costs down, and to keep my irritation level down. I check the price of oil everyday. For the last 4 weeks oil has been heading up, and my irritation level has been heading up also. I spent $26,000 to decrease my irritation level. Now when oil goes up, I'm happy because I have a car that gets 40-50 mpg. When oil goes down, I'm happy because I'm paying less for gas.
A Matrix would be a better match for the Prius in size-interior space. I considered it, but CR is right-it does have a strange "reach for the wheel" and it doesn't get great mpg. It gets very good mpg, but I needed great automatic trans mpg to lower my irritation level-Civic,Civic Hybrid,Corolla,Echo,Scion,Fit type numbers.
My perfect travel vehicle would be a Hybrid hatchback Camry-4 cyl hybrid, but lighter and lower than the current HH with much better city and hy mpg. A hatchback gives up nothing aero drag wise,and probably very little weight wise. SUVs are great travel vehicles, but the wt ,drag, and big engines are too thirsty. A HH with a 4 cyl , lower ride height,lower CD,and 3800 lbs is a Camry Hatchback Hybrid. I need to be able to sleep in the back of a travel vehicle.I can do that with the Prius(air mattress).Of course, I have to fight Phoebe(dog not wife) for the mattress.We travel in the Pilot now, but we might try the Prius next trip.It won't be as comfortable, but it will work ok.Thanks,Charlie
I was making a crude rough and ready comparison between two vehicles I was considering buying. The Fit would have been a tiny bit cheaper to own over about 100,000 miles. It would have worked OK for my needs; it had to be able to fit 2 long legged dogs in the back. Both the Fit and the Prius can do that. It also had to get very good mpg for two reasons; to keep operating costs down, and to keep my irritation level down. I check the price of oil everyday. For the last 4 weeks oil has been heading up, and my irritation level has been heading up also. I spent $26,000 to decrease my irritation level. Now when oil goes up, I'm happy because I have a car that gets 40-50 mpg. When oil goes down, I'm happy because I'm paying less for gas.
A Matrix would be a better match for the Prius in size-interior space. I considered it, but CR is right-it does have a strange "reach for the wheel" and it doesn't get great mpg. It gets very good mpg, but I needed great automatic trans mpg to lower my irritation level-Civic,Civic Hybrid,Corolla,Echo,Scion,Fit type numbers.
My perfect travel vehicle would be a Hybrid hatchback Camry-4 cyl hybrid, but lighter and lower than the current HH with much better city and hy mpg. A hatchback gives up nothing aero drag wise,and probably very little weight wise. SUVs are great travel vehicles, but the wt ,drag, and big engines are too thirsty. A HH with a 4 cyl , lower ride height,lower CD,and 3800 lbs is a Camry Hatchback Hybrid. I need to be able to sleep in the back of a travel vehicle.I can do that with the Prius(air mattress).Of course, I have to fight Phoebe(dog not wife) for the mattress.We travel in the Pilot now, but we might try the Prius next trip.It won't be as comfortable, but it will work ok.Thanks,Charlie
#13
Re: I can add, but I stil paid $26000 for a Prius.
Originally Posted by diver110
Also, gas prices are only going up. Before the end of the Prius's lifespan, figure gas will hit $5 a gallon. All those Americans will only keep using more oil. That can favor the Prius in the long run.
#14
Re: I can add, but I stil paid $26000 for a Prius.
Originally Posted by foo monkey
The Prius II was introduced in 2004, so it might be premature to talk about lifetime fuel mileage. We can't yet gauge the effects of time, on the car. However, we can isolate some of the cars with the most miles driven. Let's look at the eight cars, in the GH database, with over 40K miles, as of 4/13/06.
Miles Mileage
50481 57.4
46297 56.1
43248 55.5
41064 52.5
52318 50.9
50311 50.2
44568 47.8
51488 45.4
That comes out to a total of 379775 miles at an average 51.9 MPG. That's like driving to the moon and half-way back. It's like driving around the equator of Earth, 15 1/2 times. That's a lot of miles.
Run your numbers again, with 51.9MPG and see what happens.
Miles Mileage
50481 57.4
46297 56.1
43248 55.5
41064 52.5
52318 50.9
50311 50.2
44568 47.8
51488 45.4
That comes out to a total of 379775 miles at an average 51.9 MPG. That's like driving to the moon and half-way back. It's like driving around the equator of Earth, 15 1/2 times. That's a lot of miles.
Run your numbers again, with 51.9MPG and see what happens.
#15
Re: I can add, but I stil paid $26000 for a Prius.
Originally Posted by lakedude
I agree that 40mpg is a low estimate but 51.9 is clearly too high. Why not just use the average of the database for the Prius? The average is 47.5 and includes ALL the miles for all the cars not just a cherry picked selection.
Bob Wilson
#16
Re: I can add, but I stil paid $26000 for a Prius.
Originally Posted by bwilson4web
I think he used the average MPG for the long distance cars which agrees with what I find for highway MPG for my NHW11, Prius I. It would be unfair to use the average not derived from highway or long distance mileage, don't you think?
Bob Wilson
Bob Wilson
Every car counts as much as every other. By the way, there are many people that simply didn't bother updating the database after their first few tanks. Most people don't care enough to constantly go to this website and update their mileage, but that doesn't mean their data is any less meaningful. And the people that do keep coming here are largely the hypermilers so that's why you see higher mileage from the people that update often.
#17
Re: I can add, but I stil paid $26000 for a Prius.
Originally Posted by CGameProgrammer
Are you kidding?
Originally Posted by CGameProgrammer
All driving is equally significant since it's all real driving that people do, so of course it counts as much as any other form. Two cars can get equal highway mileage but much different city mileage, so the average mileage of the car with better city mileage will of course be higher, for good reason.
Originally Posted by CGameProgrammer
Every car counts as much as every other.
Originally Posted by CGameProgrammer
By the way, there are many people that simply didn't bother updating the database after their first few tanks. Most people don't care enough to constantly go to this website and update their mileage, but that doesn't mean their data is any less meaningful. And the people that do keep coming here are largely the hypermilers so that's why you see higher mileage from the people that update often.
Personally, I would prefer use of the EPA numbers. They are reproducable if you are willing to drive the EPA profile. Curiously, I don't drive the EPA 45 mpg profile for my Highway miles since I have a better set of data.
Bob Wilson
#18
Re: I can add, but I stil paid $26000 for a Prius.
Originally Posted by bwilson4web
Mr. Monkey had properly qualified the selection criteria, cars with more than 40,000 miles.
I believe Jason posted that he uses the average of each car, not evenly weighted for each mile. Mr. Monkey properly qualified and explained his data.
Personally, I would prefer use of the EPA numbers. They are reproducable if you are willing to drive the EPA profile.
#19
Re: I can add, but I stil paid $26000 for a Prius.
Originally Posted by CGameProgrammer
Um, the average person drives 15000 miles per year. Therefore you are automatically excluding almost every single person that bought their car within the last 2.5 years.
Originally Posted by CGameProgrammer
Correct; Jason calculates the average of everyone's mileage, which is exactly what he should use. It counts each car equally.
Originally Posted by CGameProgrammer
But people don't. And TDIs allegedly get much better highway mileage than the Prius or Civic hybrids, yet their EPA highway score is only 42 or so. The Prius and Civic hybrids have equal highway scores (51) but they don't really get equal highway mileage for most people.
Bob Wilson