11/22/07

Why a Prius?

Instead of upgrading to a F350 after my F250 got stolen, we got the Toyota Prius and it was so great we decided to trade Vern's old Honda Civic in for a second one.  Luckily two had just come in that week so we did not have to wait 8 - 12 mo like I have been hearing.  We figured it was fate.  Another incentive was the $2000 tax deduction, as well as, state incentives.  However, now a $3150 tax credit is now offered for 2006 purchases. At first I thought they were ugly but the look starts to grow on you.  I actually like it now since they have a distinct look and there are few of them on the road.

So far we have saved about $5000 in gas and rebates compared to a non-hybrid mid-size vehicle.  I tend to get better mileage because I drive conservatively (nice word for Grandma driving) and generally make long trips.  Vern is drives like a crazy person , but also has to make lots of short trips (harder on the fuel economy).  You would probably save money by getting a cheap used car that get around 30 MPG and running into the ground, but the one benefit Vern and I like is that the Prius is a partial zero emissions vehicle (PZEV).  We have also  only created about 8 short tons of pollution compared to the 19 short tons if we were driving our old vehicles.

As usual I have slightly modified my Prius to meet my needs both to increase efficiency and flexibility.

Here are some articles why the Prius is so much more efficient than your normal car: Car and Driver and  Forum Thread.  If you are getting bad fuel economy in the hybrid it is going to be worse in an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle.  I also use top tier gas to keep the engine cleaner.

Some answers to common questions I get are:

• No I do not have to plug it in and I can drive faster than 45 mph (105 mph is the max).  But there are plans in the works to modify the Prius so that I can plug it in.

  • Hybrids Plus

  • EDrive

• I can get around 600+ miles on a tank of gas. 

• It is safe to drive through car washes and EMT crews have had training on how to safely deal with hybrids. 

• Also, the reason it is so safe is that the Prius is the first to use High Strength Steel in the frame. 

• Prius is Latin for "To Go Before" basically meaning the first one. 

• Your fuel economy with a hybrid will depend on your driving style, terrain, weather, and length of trips.  Short trips are bad for fuel economy.  Expect a 5% drop in fuel economy for every 5 mph over 55 mph (in any car). 

• I just found this interesting history of the Prius (it is 10-yr old technology). 

• If you are curious how the engine works check this page out.

Spreadsheet Fuel Tracker

If you are interested in seeing what the fuel economy for the Prius is under normal conditions click my Fuel Economy link (updated 8/23/06).  The Excel version is located here.  It is a combination of spreadsheets from John1701a and Michael Vaughn.  I added a CO2 meter as well so you can track the amount of pollution and converted it to track two Prius. 

The spreadsheet is fairly easy to use.  All you have to do is enter the date, odometer, gallons, cost, and the car's computer MPG estimate in the Fuel sheets.  The spreadsheet will calculate the rest of the stuff.  I will work on finishing it out to Calendar Year 2012 (CY12). 

Originally, I tracked my savings based on the fuel economy of our last vehicles.  However, I changed the savings formulas to the average mid-size car based on the Consumer Guide calculations of 21.4 MPG.