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This is my guess on gas savings of my 2000 Insight....



I bought my Insight on September 9, 2000 (I fondly remember "9/9" :) )

Too early for tax credits, but figured I've broken even.

Insight: 105,000 miles / 58.5mpg = 1,795 gallons consumed

If I'd kept a CRX HF in bad condition: 105,000 miles / 35mpg = 3,000 gallons consumed
(it could get over 50mpg when new - incompetent tune up crippled it)

Gallons saved: 1,205

Savings at $2.10 a gallon (approximate average of those six years): $2,530.50

Savings if gas was $3.00 those six years: $3,615.00

Savings if average gas price averages $4.00 next six years: $4,820.00

We traded in a 99 Odyssey for the Prius. Assuming 20 MPG for the Odyssey and 50 MPG for the Prius (my wife has really pulled down the average along with the many high speed trips to the beach and back), after 70000 miles I have used 1400 gallons. In the Odyssey it would be 3500. So 2100*2.10 = $4410 saved so far for the Prius. Plus I got a $1500 tax deduction.

Scew guessing, I have a spreadsheet that can calculate it practically to the dollar.

Up to the middle of March (before I knew anything but average driving habits) I had averaged 30mpg even since the previous July. I've driven 6382 miles since I started the FE driving thing, and that cost me $486.11 for 163.3gal of fuel. Total $ over total gallons makes the average price $2.98/gal between then and now. At 30mpg I would have spent $634 on 213gal, for a net savings of $148 and 50 gal of fuel. That's just about 4 months of driving, no modifications, additives, or gimmick products of any kind. Depending on how you project, it could work out to $440-$475 per year at $3/gal.

Well let's see, in 1997 I traded in my 1983 Nissan Maxima which averaged about 18mpg. I've since put 151,000 miles on my Civic and we'll call it an average of 35mpg. Now gas was at or under $1/gal a lot of those years, so it's probably most fair to call it $1.50/gal on average. Thus:

151k @ 18mpg = 8389 gal = $12,583.50
151k @ 35mpg = 4314 gal = $6471.00

Fuel savings of $6112.50. Of course, I had to buy a $16,000 Honda Civic to do it, which although it's been totally reliable and solid compared to my Maxima that was falling apart and not likely to live much longer, it's still a tossup. Spend $16,000 to save $6000? I guess you have to do what you have to do. To me, it's totally worth it for the added safety of a newer car anyway.

I saved about $1109.6 going from a geo metro to my civic hybrid.

Cost of my car was $20,000 or so. So my car realy cost me about $19,000.

I probably won't make the break even point unless I own my car for 20 years.

However,
I didn't buy my car to save money. I bought it as a larger replacement for the car I previously owned. I paid money for a car that was larger and that was nicer. I did not at any time consider it an "investment". I am very happy with my car and though it is cheaper to run than my previous car, I can't say that it saving me money over all.

My Camry was getting ~23mpg combined (My mom only uses it for highway now) and the Rabbit was $435 and gets maybe ~45mpg combined? So the Rabbit payed itself off after ~7k miles, which is like 3-4k miles ago? I wish I could still use it, I fried the starter and figure I might as start on an engine swap I had planned.