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My Prius turned three a few days ago and just hit 75k miles. I thought I would post a quick update on the history.

Major services (miles are estimates, because I don't feel like going through all of my records):
8k miles - first ding
12k miles - right fog light lens cracked and still haven't replaced it
30k miles - new left brake light (the dealership claimed it was a faulty LED) - $35
36k miles - new tires - $300 (wear & tear maintenance)
55k miles - steering shaft recall - FREE
60k miles - alignment - $100? (wear & tear maintenance)
62k miles - brake light switch fails (covered 100% by extended warranty) - FREE
68k miles - left brake light starts acting up again (loose wire?)
75k miles - wife backs in to trashcan, breaking left taillight assembly
75k miles - new left brake light assembly - $285 (wear & tear maintenance)

So over 75k miles, I have spent $35 in repairs $685 in wear and tear maintenance and an estimated $480 in oil changes for a grand total of $1200.

For simplicity sake, let's say that I have a LMPG of 46.875 (which is fairly close). The average price for regular gas on the East Coast (Lower Atlantic) was $2.63 (source).

(75000 miles)/(46.875 MPG) = 1600 gallons of gas
(1600 gallons of gas)*($2.63) = $4208

Total cost = $1200 + $4208 = $5408

Cost of operation = ($5408)/(75,000 miles) = $0.0721 per mile

Coast savings compared to previous vehicle (Jeep Cherokee - estimated 15 MPG):
Assuming I would have driven the same 75k miles (and insurance and registration, etc. expenses are the same for both vehicles)...
(75000 miles)/(15 MPG) = 5000 gallons of gas
(5000 gallons) - (1600 gallons) = 3400 gallons of gas saved
(3400 gallons of saved gas)*($2.63) = $8942

The savings in fuel cover the total operation cost!

Summary:
The Prius has saved me 3400 gallons of gas and costs $0.0721 per mile. Purchasing the car was one of the best decisions I have made in my life. I am proud to be a Prius owner.

skwyre, that is amazing, that's crazy how you have that information that you saved. sounds like an investment that's worth it!

Hi Michael:

___Absolutely excellent detail! When you hit 100K, let us do a case study News item/Driver of the Week as your numbers should shake up the world a tad!

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Interesting. Was the cost of the vehicle itself omitted on purpose? I'm curious as TCO cannot be shown without it.

Brian,

These were just some quick and dirty numbers. I didn't include purchase costs, depreciation, etc. to keep the calculations on the easy side. The main points I was getting at were the relatively low cost of maintenance and repairs, and the gallons saved. If I get the time, I'll try to get some more definite numbers and get a better estimation of TCO, but don't hold your breath waiting for it. ;)

Wayne,

Check back in about 16 months. ;) When I returned with the car after hitting the 75k mark, I said to my wife, "Honey, the Prius just hit 75k miles. Do you know what that means?" She didn't. I replied with, "Only 25k miles to go until we can convert it to a PHEV!"

Hi Brian:

___If you want to see a real shocker, take a look at the Little Red Beauty. If I would have kept her, she would be worth more than when I sold her 3 years ago :rolleyes:

2000 Red 5-speed w/ A/C cost $10,000.
2000 Red 5-speed w/ A/C sold for $9,695.00

State tax and registration: $735.00

Fuel used 401.92 gallons after 37K miles: $734.10.
Insurance cost over 1.4 years: $500

(6) Oil changes $65 for Mobil1 0W-20, $13.00 for SuperTech’s filters, and $9.3x for each change at the local Honda dealership (first one free): $125

Repairs: 1 cracked windscreen and 1 replacement RE92 (screw in the sidewall): $374.00

Depreciation: $305
TTL: $735
Fuel:$734
Insurance: $500
Maintenance: $125
Repair: $374

Total: $2,773

Cost/mile: $2,773/37.2K miles = $.074/mile

___That was TCO!

___Michael, I see what you are thinking now ;)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

75k miles - wife backs in to trashcan ....
How much to fix the wife? :D

Never mind. I know from recent events she hasn't been fixed. ;)

Happy anniversary!

[Also posted on PriusChat]

I am a proud Corolla owner at close to 50 mpg! I can only wish for a prius! Glad to hear you're doing well. my son has one and loves it. He gets around 65mpg so far.

Prius's rule! Best decision I've ever made too! (as far as vehicles go)

You know, if I were to add in my fuel savings simply over the last six months...

8,000 miles (roughly) since then ~45 Lmpg is 177.78 gallons
8,000 miles over my old Buick @ 20 MPG is 400 gallons

Average of say, $3.20 a gallon.

Echo - 3.20(177.78) $568.89
Buick = $1280.

Nice one, Auston.

Rather than compare with my last car's MPG *shudder* I'll just compare with the rest of the Yaris fleet. According to posts on YarisWorld and on the EPA's site our fleet average is at 32.4 MPG. My LMPG is 47.7 as of today and I drove about 17,000 miles last year.

17000 / 32.4 = 524.7 gallons
17000 / 47.7 = 356.4 gallons

524.7 - 356.4 = 168.3 gallons saved

168.3 x $3.20 = $538.56 saved last year


That's 2 free car payments on my little econobox each year. :)

My numbers don't look quite so impressive but they are useful anyway.

Looking back through the logs, I started out with a better than typical average of about 32mpg. Since starting hypermiling in 04/2007, I've logged 12,361mi (remember I've been driving the Insight for 3mo now) and should have used about 386.3g to do so.

Counting from my recorded fills I actually used around 270.6g.

386.3g - 270.6g = 115.7g

115.7 * 3.20 = ~$370 saved.

If we compare instead to the EPA ratings of 29mpg, the savings jump to ~$498

That's a lot of fuel, folks!!

For the Insight the numbers are a lot smaller when comparing to the EPA... $34.23 saved. An extra tank over 3mo time?

Just for kicks, the Elantra's total mileage is 97537.5mi and I've used 2863.92g over that distance. Using EPA (29mpg) I should have used 3363.4g. A net savings of 499.44g or just over 33 tanks of gas. As you can see, I've saved nearly 8 tanks of fuel in just the last year alone. Hypermiling makes a big difference!!

Michael,

You forgot to include the cost of only being able to drive it an additional 34k miles, before she is hauled off for good to be shredded and scattered all over the town of Sudbury, Ont.

;)

Michael,

You forgot to include the cost of only being able to drive it an additional 34k miles, before she is hauled off for good to be shredded and scattered all over the town of Sudbury, Ont.

;)

I knew I should have bought an H2 instead. I really need a vehicle that can go 369,000 miles.

This is my first post, so hi everyone!

We bought our 2007 Prius in May 2007. I'm just shy of 17K. We traded in a Sienna on it, which got 20 mpg on a good day.

I've calculated that over the year we've saved about $1250 in fuel costs. Plus, I have a car that I love! The last car that I really cared about was a Tercel, bought back in 1997 or so.

So far, no maintenance costs as the oil changes have all been free and I've had no other issues with the car.

The mpg keeps going up, I've been at about 53-55 mpg for the past few tanks. With summer coming I'll have to start using the a/c more, but I still anticipate staying above 50 mpg.

We went shopping for Prius #2 this weekend, they didn't have any so we ended up with an xB. The mpg estimates for all of the cars we looked at (Corolla, xB, Matrix) somehow didn't look all that impressive now that I'm used to the Prius!