June 17, 2008
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Prius Shortage
Just when the math kicks in, they run out of Priuses. Didn't Toyota see this coming? (BTW I hear they're working on opening a new factory in Australia).
The math worked out great for us when we looked at it. We put over 100 miles a day average on our main vehicle, 7 days a week. (I know, that's above average). Our van got 20 mpg. Our Prius gets 50 mpg. The 30 mpg a day will save 3 gallons of gas per day, or $12 per day. That's $4380 per year, which will pay for the entire Prius in just under 6 years in gas cost savings. (Side note - the battery warranty is for 8 years so it will still have 2 years left on the warranty at that point, though the rest of the car will be out of warranty).
Mind you the Prius is not really a very expensive car to start with. And, since our minivan has 190,000 miles on it now, it seemed a good time to "put it out to pasture" as a spare. It's almost out to pasture now - we're just using it to move a few more loads of small boxes and remaining odds and ends from our Houston house, and then we're gonna park it and take it off the insurance.
But there's a problem with Priuses. Toyota is out of new ones now. The waiting list is estimated to be 6 months. (We barely got one in time -- used, in fact -- one of two in Houston that Toyota Rent A Car had just taken out of their rental fleet). So now what are people supposed to buy to save gas?
Well, actually, as a good friend of mine pointed out, the math works out really well on several other cars too, such as the Toyota Corolla, Scion Xa, Honda Civic, Chevy Aveo, etc. ... tiny, relatively inexpensive cars with great mileage. (By the way the Chevy is made by Daewoo, I think, and is actually a pretty fun little car, and seems well made, especially for the price).
If somehow we could all cut our gas consumption down to half, I think we'd win this war a lot faster. But I definitely understand the hurt of letting a vehicle go for less than is owed on it. Had to do that once, and it was once too many. Ouch!
Comments (2)
there's other hybrids out there than just the prius! the prius has been on wait lists for a while now. my bro tells me that in CA the used ones sell for almost the same price as a new one.
lots of french drive diesels because of the efficiency but nowadays diesel is more expensive than unleaded, which is the opposite of the norm here.
@speed0rama - well yes, there are other hybrids, but unfortunately, for the most part, they don't have near the MPG of the Prius. The rest of Toyota's hybrids are actually designed to lower emissions and provide extra power on demand with decent economy, or to increase the economy of an otherwise heavy, guzzling vehicle. Honda's Insight is the closest contender in MPG. It's tiny and only a 2 seater though. Not sure how available they are - anybody know?