But notice that the in-town mileage is 60 mpg.
Probably our next car will be a Prius. I have two siblings and a niece who have bought them, though, and will ask how they have held up and if they still like them (a year or two from now). It's true that you can get a car about the same size for $4,000 less, which gets maybe 25 mpg around town and up to 40 mpg highway. At present prices $4,000 will buy you about 2500 gallons of regular, or enough to go about 75,000 miles. So you would not break even on the Prius until you had run up 150,000 miles.
BUT . . .the picture changes if gas is $4.00 a gallon, which I think is distinctly possible. At that price the Prius pays for itself (the extra $4,000) at 60,000 miles.
The big question is the battery pack. I think they are warranted for something like eight years, but then there's a cost of thousands of dollars for a new one.
Taking all this into account, I think I WANT one. |
