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Okay, I have a half ton truck that struggles to get 16 mpg, but I quit driving it every day. I bought a 13 year old motorcycle that gets 43 mpg. (http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/talk/2008/04/08/are_higher_gas_prices_putting.html)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/590/Prius-II_OEM_PHEV_Drivers_Side_Profile.jpgAustin American Statesman - April 8, 2008

OEM Toyota Prius-II PHEV-6/7.

Real world dialog giving real world solutions. It’s a start. -- Ed.

The Energy Department says gas prices will peak at $3.60 a gallon for regular unleaded in June. This has been revised from an earlier estimate of $3.50 a gallon, and some experts are now saying $4 a gallon is a possibility.

Will this affect your summer vacation plans? Are you already changing your lifestyle because of gas prices? … http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/talk/2008/04/08/are_higher_gas_prices_putting.html



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By Marc - April 8, 2008 11:40 PM

“Reduce your gas bill by:
(1) Purchasing a Prius
(2) Waiting
(3) Converting to plug-in hybrid when costs drop

Bye, bye to driving courtesy of Exxon. Hello to driving courtesy of Austin Energy.”

“This isn’t a cost effective solution. Buying a hybrid will not reduce your cost to drive. Do the math.”

Let me explain the math for you.

(1) Buy a used 2004 or later Prius for $16k
(2) Wait
(3) Convert to Toyota PHEV-7 within 1 to 2 years after the current testing in Japan & California is complete for $2k

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8269

That’s $18k for a car that gets 70-75mpg without trying.

Me? I drive my Prius efficiently using techniques such as “pulse & glide”. As a result, my 22 mile round trip commute will be roughly 200mpg, and my 50 mile highway trips will be roughly 100mpg.

I have indeed done the math. The PHEV-7 combined with the ICE-off glide at highway speeds means my fillups will be quarterly.


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By Cheap - April 8, 2008 3:51 PM

A year ago I converted my Prius to be a Plug-in Hybrid that gets over 100mpg using Clean Domestic Texas Wind Energy to offset the amount of Dirty Foreign Oil I need to buy. It worked so well now I’m doing conversions here in Houston. I’ve done five so far. Who wants to be the next person to be taken off Big Oil’s “Customer for Life” program? Prices starting a $5,000.00 but it is more about telling the Oil Companies they are number one with a certain finger, isn’t it? Osama bin Laden hates my car!


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Thanks for the find Chuck!

been paying $4 for a couple months now.....i seem to be taking more trips this summer than normal :confused: :woot:

Not everyone can buy a Prius new. I saw on a website that the typical Prius buyer make $60,000 to $80,000 a year!

$4 gas - now I gotta do some extreme hypermiling!

I saw on a website that the typical Prius buyer make $60,000 to $80,000 a year!




before the quote unquote credit crisis, i bet you didnt have to have a job to get a prius...these must be new figures :p (since you can make $10/hr and afford a $400k house in this country....5 years ago)

extreme hypermiling it will be. there are things that too many ppl take for granted....and I will be doing something about my situation, the best I can do. When I need a new car, I know what I'll get.

It's just suprising that people are still purchasing the gas guzzlers, I think as an inspection all cars that get less than a certain mpg (as per scanguage technology that could be advanced a bit) if these cars drive more than X amount of miles, they get an additional tax...that gets evenly distributed to everyone else's gas bill. (this is to avoid putting every single one of these things into hibernation as a memorabilia of the early 21st century.)

This basically limits how much you can drive a vehicle that wreaks havoc on our economy. if you cant beat 20mpg, then you should only be driving that for so many miles...unless you have proof that your truckin is for your employment ;)

Not everyone can buy a Prius new. I saw on a website that the typical Prius buyer make $60,000 to $80,000 a year!



I'll bet the average SUV driver makes less than that, and there's the problem. People buying gas-hogs soley to present an image of wealth that isn't warranted.

Harry

How do you know that's me on the message board. Maybe it is some other Marc from Austin with a Prius who hypermiles. ;)

Yup, fighting the message board battles all the time..........

Isn't the 22k for a new Prius less than the average price of a new car? And given that 6% of the population buys a new car each year, doesn't that mean that 3% buy a car more expensive than the Prius? And doesn't that mean that 30% over a decade?

That's tens of millions of people. I want tens of millions of Priuses purchases (or Volt or Camry-PHEV or whatever-awesome-PHEV-convertible..........you get the picture). Buy a cheaper car and save gas and go electric.

If my math is wrong, I leave it to you fine folks.

How do you know that's me on the message board. Maybe it is some other Marc from Austin with a Prius who hypermiles. ;)It was the Vulcan mind-meld. :p

I noticed a troller reply to you "Do the math - it's wrong", but then a week ago, a story was out that about half the big city students flunk high school, so this must be a product of the Austin Independant School District. :p

...and he replied again he rides a bike - about the oldest trollbait I've seen...since when do the streets of any Texas city look like a crowed Asian city? :rolleyes:

Not everyone can buy a Prius new. I saw on a website that the typical Prius buyer make $60,000 to $80,000 a year!

$4 gas - now I gotta do some extreme hypermiling!

My GF was going to buy one...but couldn't quite afford it. Then thought about a Yaris...but Hyndai's 10 year warrantee lured her.

It's not having so much of an effect on me. For one, I'm getting paid more than I used to, although I'm doing more driving. For another, I have been steadily improving the mileage on my Mustang, it's up from ~12 to ~15 when I can keep my foot out of it. Thirdly, I ride a motorcycle which offsets a lot of the fuel costs. If I average my Mustang and motorcycle, it comes out to an even 30mpg, better than I was getting in the SVT Focus (26-28 on my commute) and neither need hi-test fuel, unlike the SVT.

I like this one
By Martha

April 8, 2008 9:28 AM | Link to this

I wish that I lived close to my job which is 41 miles one way. I wish that I lived closer to a town or city, the closest grocery store is about 15 miles. I may have to stay home if the gas goes much higher, because I will only be paying for gas and nothing else. I am a single mother and can’t afford any fancy extras like milk, eggs, ect.

Well Martha, why the hell do you live so far away from your job, and a grocery store? Sentimental Value of your property? Or is it so your husband is close to his job? Or good schools for the kids?

I guess I just don't get it. The way I see it, you should always try and live as close to possible where you work and where you drive to most often. If you're married with kids, the at least one of the married people should be living close to where they need to go.

Not everyone can buy a Prius new. I saw on a website that the typical Prius buyer make $60,000 to $80,000 a year!

For those of us who can't afford a new Prius or other hybrid, the cheapest way to get hybrid level mpg's is to buy a 92-95 Honda Civic VX or CX (most are in the $1500 to $3000 range). Then spend about $500 on aero mods and a SuperMID, and for less than $4000, you'll have a car that can easily exceed Prius mpg's at normal highway speeds and do reasonably well in town (I'm seeing mid 50's around town, low 70's at typical highway speeds).

For some - it is expensive to live close to work. For most - it is wanting to have more space. Fact is - that when they chose to live where they do - gas was about $1.50 a gallon.

Closest grocery store 15 miles away - wow that is a trip.

For some - it is expensive to live close to work. For most - it is wanting to have more space. Fact is - that when they chose to live where they do - gas was about $1.50 a gallon.

Closest grocery store 15 miles away - wow that is a trip.

People who cant afford to live, those people deserve simpathy. People that move out farther because they want to buy a $250k house with 4000 sq feet 30 miles away instead a 2000sq ft house 5 miles away......and $250k is a stretch either way...and they drive a dodge durango thats brand new.......no simpathy (remembering a story in the paper about people who moved into wisconsin, commuted to twin cities, mn so they could afford their "dream house"...and now are crying at $500/mo gasoline bills).

It's been awhile, but every year or so, the local paper does an article on people commuting 100 miles to work.

Not everyone can buy a Prius new. I saw on a website that the typical Prius buyer make $60,000 to $80,000 a year!

$4 gas - now I gotta do some extreme hypermiling!

Time to refer you to my used car buying guide:

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9717

Basically, since most Americans swap cars every 2-3 years, the hybrids get a bad cost of ownership wrap. When you buy a hybrid, your basically amortorizing your gas purchases over the life of the car loan. So for the first 5 years of financing the cost of ownership is about the same, but once the car is paid off the cost comes down real real fast. So for me the choice was to pay the "premium" to Toyota and Ford, or to pay it to Exxon and Shell. Well I choose the former.

Anyway... the sheet is just a template. Work in the depreciation and maintenance costs yourself. The values I have in there have no semblance of actual reality.

Now for used cars, I think the Echo wins (if you flip in 3-5 years). If you hold for 10 years, the Hybrids and diesels win. Hybrids compare poorly on the used car market since they don't depreciate as quickly as other models. So you don't really save any money buying them used.

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People who cant afford to live, those people deserve simpathy. People that move out farther because they want to buy a $250k house with 4000 sq feet 30 miles away instead a 2000sq ft house 5 miles away......and $250k is a stretch either way...and they drive a dodge durango thats brand new.......no simpathy (remembering a story in the paper about people who moved into wisconsin, commuted to twin cities, mn so they could afford their "dream house"...and now are crying at $500/mo gasoline bills).Yeah lots of areas like Houston are real victims to urban sprawl. When we looked at housing, one close in town costs about $200 / sqft. One in the burbs costs about $70 / sqft. We choose the burbs so we could have each kid get their own room. Choosing the city would have required us to do 90% financing which I wasn't comfortable with. Basically If I couldn't put 20% down, I wasn't gonna buy the house. So that leaves me with 5 mile RT to groceries and 30 mile RT to work. We could afford to move now, but then theres always the question of building up savings or dumping money into another house. Although Houston housing is cheap compared to the other 5 largest US cities, wages are also cheap compared to the other 5 largest US cities.

I don't really get on people for their housing choices (or their car choices). Just so long as everyone accepts the consequences of that choice. I'm not totally happy with my choice, but I'm sure not gonna whine about gas prices knowing I choose to live where I did.

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No squeeze here.

1.9% of take home goes towards gas and that is an overstatement as I do an average of 200 miles of driving for work a month reimbursed at $0.42 a mile which more than covers all the gas i use. What the going rate? we just went from $0.37 to $0.42.

As it turns out my best tanks are always ones that I had to drive more for work, I'm mostly picking up something in north Denver between 40-60 miles round trip during low traffic and can squeeze 35-40mpg easy.

In November me and the wife did a 3000 mile vacation trip visiting friends in Missouri, Memphis, and Arkansas. Total gas cost $312 dollars averaging $2.999 a gallon. There is simply no way to do the vacation we did traveling by air with supplemental rental car or public transportation without spending 3-4 times on travel.

My round trip to work was 14 miles, the plant I worked at closed and I got transfered to another plant which increased the commute to 120 miles r/t. Wife worked 14 miles r/t. We sold our house and moved away from the coast but it is temporary. Her commute is 84 miles r/t and mine is 28 r/t. We are one of those that are building in the country to get away. If any of you have read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver it's a interesting book. While we won't do it as they did we plan on raising most of our food. Yes my commute will be about 130 miles r/t to us it will be worth it as it is almost all country roads, for now that is. If I lived close to work I'd be living next to a power plant, no thanks. kevin

It's been awhile, but every year or so, the local paper does an article on people commuting 100 miles to work.

Oh yeah, I think John Kelso or whatever his name is did one of those "who has the longest commute" things. Some nutjob drives from Dallas to Austin everyday. Didn't make any sense to me.

Yeah lots of areas like Houston are real victims to urban sprawl. When we looked at housing, one close in town costs about $200 / sqft. One in the burbs costs about $70 / sqft. We choose the burbs so we could have each kid get their own room. Choosing the city would have required us to do 90% financing which I wasn't comfortable with. Basically If I couldn't put 20% down, I wasn't gonna buy the house. So that leaves me with 5 mile RT to groceries and 30 mile RT to work. We could afford to move now, but then theres always the question of building up savings or dumping money into another house. Although Houston housing is cheap compared to the other 5 largest US cities, wages are also cheap compared to the other 5 largest US cities.

I don't really get on people for their housing choices (or their car choices). Just so long as everyone accepts the consequences of that choice. I'm not totally happy with my choice, but I'm sure not gonna whine about gas prices knowing I choose to live where I did.

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Isn't a house in Meyerland cheap? - It's in the city!

Houston jobs pay better in the engineering field, with lots more money in oil related and NASA jobs [I did both].

My 26 mile drive only takes me 31 minutes every day.

Houston has awesome fast food, groceries, shopping, and cheaper gas compared to Chicago. But more expensive housing tax, insurance, and electricty. Houston rents are cheaper than Chicago's too, based on Craigslist.

Really expensive gas? - I'll bike a lot more!

Lets see....

Nearest gas station in my area could be almost 10 miles, nearest grocery store could be 15 miles, nearest Wal-Mart could be 25 miles, nearest Super Wal-Mart could be 50+ miles, nearest Home Depot/Lowes is 60+ miles.

I live in an area that is NOT remote, just rural. I can only imagine living in a remote area.

Isn't a house in Meyerland cheap? - It's in the city!

Houston jobs pay better in the engineering field, with lots more money in oil related and NASA jobs [I did both].

My 26 mile drive only takes me 31 minutes every day.

Houston has awesome fast food, groceries, shopping, and cheaper gas compared to Chicago. But more expensive housing tax, insurance, and electricty. Houston rents are cheaper than Chicago's too, based on Craigslist.

Really expensive gas? - I'll bike a lot more!

Last time I ran the numbers Houston won, but you have to look at wages and housing. Wages were about 20% depressed from NY and CA, but housing was about 40% depressed from those same regions. So it still turned out ahead, but not nearly as much as others would think. We are in the process of looking outside Texas and are shell shocked at the idea of requiring a 30% raise to get 30% less house. But then again there are some upsides to both going and staying.

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