Questions for Hybrid Owners: How much money do you actually save?

Question

My 1996 Toyota Camry has been very good to me over the years, but I have the feeling she's getting a little tired and might be going to Camry Heaven in a year or two, so I decided to start saving for down payment on a new car. I work in phoenix, which is one of the least public-transportation friendly cities ever, and I live outside the city, about 20 miles away from my job. With gas prices how they are I spend about $50/week on gas. This, combined with the obvious good-deed for the environment, is making me think about possibly saving a little extra for a Hybrid. What I'm wondering is does it really save you that much money on gas? I mean, you only use the battery when you're going under 25 miles/hour? I travel under 25 miles an hour when I'm pulling out of my driveway and that's about it. I guess when I'm stuck in traffic but how much gas does that really use? I'm just wondering for the small-not suv-hybrid owners, how much difference do you see in your gas expenses since getting it?

Answer 1

Well, I have a similar kind of commute, even though - at the moment, I'm in NJ. Its about 20 miles to the office each day. My old car was a 4 cyl. Altima, and I figured I got about 25mpg, since I go about 300-400 miles per week I was filling up about 2-3 times every two weeks with my old car, about 30 bucks a tankful so about 60-90 bucks every two weeks - roughly.

I purchased a "B" model Prius (middle grade with some minor amenities but a pretty regular car aside from the hybrid stuff). Since my Altima - like your Camry was headed for automobile heaven.

I was going to get an equally inexpensive car, about 18,000-20,000 or so. (My first new car).

Because I'm something of an idiot behind the wheel, (I've got a lead-foot and the tickets to prove it.) I decided to put the most efficient car under my butt and let nature take its course.

That having been said, I get between 40-45 MPG, pretty much without thinking about it, Toyota recommends you "re-learn to drive" your Prius, I recommend just driving - (but not like an jerk, like I do).

At the end of the day, I still drive about 350-400 miles every

week but fill up only once or twice, about 45-60 bucks every two weeks. Gas is still expensive, but I save about 30 bucks at the pump every couple of weeks.

Over the last 100 weeks or so , that's not a small amount of change.

I've got about 50,000 miles on the car and it's a little more than 2 years since I purchased it, so I figure so far I've saved, about 2500-3000 bucks.

Considering the difference in price between my conventional choice (an Elantra - or Saturn which both get about 23-28mpg), and a Prius.

The difference was about 3-4k in up front costs more for my Prius. So I've pretty much paid for any price difference, already.

As they say your mileage may vary, one of the other guys in my office drives his Prius like a grandmother - as Toyota recommends, - he has no tickets and gets about 55 MPG, so if I drove like he does, I'd have saved almost 4000 bucks already.

Of course the more expensive gas gets the more you save.

miles 50000

mpg     gallons   price   total

altima   24        2083  3.05  6500

prius1   41       1219   3.05   3717

prius2   55       910   3.05   2772