Gas Savings Over 1 Year

I bought a 2012 Prius 3 just about 1 year ago. The main reason I bought it was that my daily commute is about 70 miles RT. Typically, I put on about 20K a year in mileage. My previous car was a 1999 Altima which served me well and had a 189K when I got rid of it. It was running fine when I got rid of it, but i didn't know for how long. When the 2012s came out, the time was right, so I pulled the plug.

My previous car got about 27 mpg and my Prius gets roughly twice that. After tracking my fuel cost over the last year each mile is costing me $.071. If I take what my normal mileage was per year (20K) and times it by the $.071/mile cost (double the Altima), I get a savings of $1,420.

Since my wife and I now use the Prius rather than the 2004 Highlander when convenient, it accounts for an additional 3,500 miles of usage. If I take the 17 mpg of the Highlander and compare it to my Prius, I get about triple the mileage in the Prius. So, the 3,500 extra miles I put on the Prius saves me an additional $.142/mile. Multiplying that out, I have saved an additional $497.

In total, I figured I have saved about $1,917 over the past year. I guess the moral of the story is that your gas savings are not only dependent on the direct usage of the Prius, but also the cost avoidance of not using another less efficient vehicle.

 

YES!!! And that money is after taxes. My average price per gallon of gas came out to $3.79.

 

Actually, if I divide my total savings ($1,917) by the average amount I paid per gallon ($3.79/Gallon) it comes out to almost 506 gallons saved.