"I spent more for a sandwich in the city than I did on gas."
Eric Parry - Eagle Tribune - May 13, 2007
2000 Honda Insight 700 miles on a single 10 gallon tank of fuel was the norm.
Rick Russman can drive all the way to Florida and he only has to fill his gas tank once.
At 64.6 miles to the gallon, the Kingston resident loves driving his 2000 Honda Insight, and said the rising price of gas no longer bothers him.
"I can go about 700 miles on a tank," he said. "I'd buy another one in a heartbeat."
Russman's not the only New Hampshire resident who isn't feeling the pressure of rising gas prices. Even though New Hampshire does not keep track of how many hybrid vehicles are registered in the state, local car dealerships and state officials say that more and more hybrid vehicles are appearing on the roads.
"They're kind of hard to get," said David Farrand, sales manager at Ford of Londonderry. "We're selling a lot more than we did last year. I only have one in stock, and we had four or five in the last couple of months."
Hybrid vehicles run off a combination of rechargeable batteries and gasoline. When driving at slow speeds, they run on batteries, but to accelerate and drive at faster speeds a computer automatically turns on the gas engine. While hybrid cars can cost thousands more than their gas guzzling counterparts, their owners say they recoup some of that in gas savings.
Last summer when gas prices broke $3 a gallon, Bob Patterson of Atkinson knew it was time to buy a hybrid vehicle.
"I'd rather pay up front than pay at the pump," said Patterson, who acknowledges his Toyota Prius cost a little more than other cars he was considering at the time, but found the savings in gas pushed him to ditch his Honda CRV.
Last week Patterson drove to New York City and it only cost him $27 roundtrip for the fuel.
"I spent more for a sandwich in the city than I did on gas," he said
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