Last week I filled my tank with gas. I only needed to put in 8.19 gallons so I still had about 4 gallons in my tank. At $3.539 a gallon for regular unleaded, it cost me $29.00.
If I still owned my Subaru, I would have needed to use premium unleaded gasoline. At the station I used last week, premium unleaded gasoline was $3.739 a gallon. It would have cost me $30.63.
This particular station isn’t too, too bad when it comes to the price of premium unleaded gasoline. I’ve seen some that were 40 cents and more than the price of the regular unleaded.
You’re probably thinking, “well, Laura, $1.63 isn’t much to stake your happiness over the car you drive.”
True, but let’s go further.
It’s a 30 minute drive to work in the morning and again in the afternoon. When I still had the Subaru, I typically filled my tank every 4 – 5 days or so. Let’s err on the low side and say that I would need to fill my tank about 6 times a month. If I put in 10 gallons each time and gas stayed the same ($3.730 for premium unleaded), then in one month I would spend about $225 on gas.
Yes, the Subaru had to take premium gas because it was a high performance engine.
Thanks to the Prius’ gas mileage, I’m able to go 2 1/2 weeks between fill ups. That’s basically twice a month. Again, if I put in 10 gallons each time and gas stayed at the same price ($3.539 for regular unleaded) it would cost me about $71.
Therefore, in one month I’m saving roughly $154.
I’ve heard the argument that I had to pay more for a Prius than a comparable non-hybrid car. Technically that is true. At least up front. With the amount I save on gas, though, I’ll have made up that extra cost in 1 to 2 years.
With the way gas keeps going up and the amount of driving I have to do, this not at all teeny tiny Prius has been a great buy.
Kim Martucci says:
I love love love my Pryus…
5/12/2008, 10:10 amI drive a million miles! My commute alone is 90 round trip. Plus I do a lot of weekend travel. In 2 years and one month I already have 98,000 miles (and I bought the car new, too!) I am sooooooooo ahead of the game in gas savings and have NO REGRETS in my car purchase. Even better, I splurged on the GPS system (I named her Betsy) and feel confident everywhere I drive without having to go to Mapquest first….LOVE LOVE LOVE MY PRYUS!
Shephard says:
We love our Prius too. It’s more than paid for its cost considering the quality of life issues and the price of gas over the last three years.
5/20/2008, 7:04 pmPopped over from Michele’s blogroll to say hi. Like your blog.
~S
Used Engine says:
In any case, I’ve read a number of articles/posts where people simply don’t believe that the Prius can go that fast (much less with Woz in the car). Naturally, there have been a fair share of rebuttals as well, some going as far as citing the Prius’ European specification sheet.
6/20/2008, 6:43 am