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To: t4texas who wrote (27273)	11/20/2003 3:26:03 PM
From: Louis V. Lambrecht	Respond to of 206093

t4texas - right. If I am not wrong my commas and calculations, my French Renault Twingo cruises 80 miles per gallon for a price of 7500 (take Euros or Dollars, when I bot Euro was cheaper). Lot of tanks for the price. And BTW, I considered the Prius 2 years ago, untill I saw the price. Prius is no more than a real life lab experiment IMHO. I am aware of environment, not at such a premium.

To: t4texas who wrote (27273)	11/20/2003 3:49:43 PM
From: Archie Meeties	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 206093

T4, Here me out, even though though this might sound a little liberal for your tastes. The costs from automobile pollution should not be looked at on a merely mpg/cost of car analysis. The two other relevant costs for you and me are; 1) Costs for supporting OPEC countries. OK, we can go around and around about this, but I think it's fair to say that all of us would rather not support the governments of Venezuela, Libya, Iran, etc. 2) Health costs. Here we can generate some hard numbers. Various studies basically have quantified how much of an impact polluted air has on various things like asthma exacerbations, hospitalizations for respiratory illness, and loss of worker productivity. This should be part of the national discussion about automobile energy efficiency/pollution. If these costs were factored in we would realize we are paying a much higher cost for energy. For example hbns.org oma.org methodisthealth.com

To: t4texas who wrote (27273)	11/20/2003 4:24:52 PM
From: Tommaso	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 206093

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.