I notice.. as many have in the past post.. that you sometimes cruise more. Sure.. you don't want to head out to the store... but.. you still have half a tank.. and.. well... what the hell.. why not.

I've also had friends call me in the past... Sure.. let's take my prius.. it gets the best gas mileage out of our cars, and.. let's go wherever.

Options #2 and #3 are the same :blink:

I drive many more miles but here's the catch, I'm not driving my wife's subaru outback. When I had my Honda Civic I generally drove it to work and back. Running errands and such I drove the outback. Family outings were always done in the outback until we got the prius. This has meant an ever large fuel saving for us over me just replacing the civic with the Prius. So while I drive the Prius more than my last car we're driving the outback a lot less. It's a positive thing. I don't take extra trips just to drive the car to enhance my tank MPG. That defeats the whole purpose of the car and my motivation for getting it.

Doh, #3 is supposed to be the drive less than my previous car option. Oh well, can't edit the poll so fake it I guess.

That's pretty much the same for us. We're driving the Prius almost exclusively, except when we both need a car. Pretty soon I hope to replace the Prius on my commute with a bike, so that will help the overall short trip mileage slow down a bit.

We are finding ourselves planning on driving to Utah (From So. Cal) at the end of this month, wiht my old car it would have been better to fly (counting time and gas), but with the Prius it has become so much cheaper to drive that we can't ignore that.

I drive more because about the same time I bought my Prius I started car pooling so I pick him up in the Prius. The result is more miles on the Prius. But he pays for the gas...

We put on 5000 miles in 3 months. In our minivan we were doing about 4000/3 months. I think the difference is that on my days off, I hop in the Prius and just drive for 2-3 hours listening to my Sirius.

I put the same, but I do drive more. But I drive all my new cars more for a while, so Prius is not worse than any other new car. My old car was in such bad shape at 17 years old that I did not like taking it for trips.

With a new vehicle, I believe that there is a tendancy for an owner to drive a bit more than usual (as tomdeimos mentioned). That settles down over time, however, as the realities of life catch up with you - work schedule, family, other outside activities, etc.

For us, we continue to drive the same amount as we did before purchasing the Prius. The difference is that whereas our previous vehicle had a 14 gallon tank, we accomplish the same activities on less than 12 gallons! When you also account for the fact that we never let the tank dip below 1/4 full, the fuel savings become more significant.

I use my prius as a daily drive for work and errands. All in all about the same miles as my other cars in the past.

I do tend to want to drive it more when going out to lunch and such with the crew at work.

Anything is better than my previous daily driver a 94 Ford Bronco Eddie Bauer 5.8L with a 28gal tank that I had to fill up every 4-5 days.

Good topic Bgreen!

:blink: Talk about confusing choices... SIGH

I use the Prius more than my last car, but mainly when we are together. My wife prefers using my gas in my Prius, rather than her gas in her Windstar.

"I drive to work, drive, home, drive to the store, eat, shoot, and leave. I don't make up places to go just for the heck of it"

May i ask who you shoot in the store? I guess you leave in such a hurry that it impacts your mileage.

My Prius is a replacement for an old Honda Accord. I was using the Accord to drive to work, to job sites, wherever. However, recently it has begun to have difficulty keeping oil in the engine...three cylinders have oil, and there is a leak at one of the gaskets. The oil has run dry...twice...on this car, but the engine keeps going. Still, I got into the habit of driving it very carefully as I waited (and waited, and waited....) for the Prius to come.

So, when it did, my driving habits were already such that I would get good mileage. I got 44.3 MPG on my first tank of gas. It all depends on how you drive the car. The Accord taught me to take it easy on the gas pedal and to look farther ahead in traffic. I drive the same routes as I did before, at the same speed even, but I get better mileage because of the hybrid setup.

Tony, I agree. The whole "you'll drive more 'cause you can" argument seems specious to me. I don't drive because I like driving for the sake of driving and I doubt that many people do. With that out of the window I don't seem what the foundation of this argument is.

Perhaps if petrol were REALLY expensive then people might, if they owned a guzzler, say "well, I guess I'll walk to the store today". Somehow I doubt it though.