My Prius is 6 years old today!

Heya F8L,

Do you include opportunity cost in your calcs -- as in, the money you would have collected if instead of buying the car, you had collected interest in a CD ? Over 6 years it is about 33%, or on a $24K purchase six years ago, $8000 of todays dollars.

If the choice is between buying new Prius or another new car, and the car is kept long-term, then Prius is the smart choice money-wise. Replacing a well running paid-off car with a new car, even a Prius, is usually extra money spent.

 

$8000 over 6 years? how did you come up with that extremely optimistic figure?

 

To keep things simple I didn't include any investment figures because I would have purchased a new car regardless and it would have been in the same price range. The vehicle I replaced was the 800HP turbocharged truck and it was starting to become a pain for daily driving because I was always worried about wear and tear on expensive parts. Good point though!

 

If I hadn't bought the Prius I would have left the money in the stock market a little too long.... buying the Prius saved me $10k before adding gas at all, based on a negative opportunity cost.

 

you got that right. LOL

 

Arithmetic. 1.05^6 = 1.34; 1/3 of 24 = 8

 

It's more like 1.00^6 in today's world.

Tom

 

When we bought our Prius, we were in the same boat as many of the posters above. Our current vehicle was coming to the end of it's useful life. We tend to buy cars and drive them until they turn into a pile of dust, and at that point our 1994 Ford Aerostar was getting pretty long in the tooth. Our first option was to buy a good condition smaller used car, but the resale value of used Prius and the federal tax credit made it easily better to buy a new Prius.

Tom

 

Yeah, no kidding -- at least down at the local BoA. Six years ago however, 5% CD's for 6 years were not hard to come by.


Even today btw, 3 - 4% returns can be found with a bit of internet searching.

 

my situation is probably the same as others, i paid cash. maybe not the best decision especially on the 2004 since i did figure that i lost a good $5,000 by not leaving it invested (the market was VERY good at the time) even after considering interest costs, etc (although before borrowing money, i would have taken a loan against my 401 K and paid ME THE INTEREST INSTEAD OF THE BANK... would have only been a $75 processing fee only)

but, there is no doubt that emergency maintenance issues would have been cropping up. as it was, i had just about parked the car and was full time on the truck anyway. the car ran when i ordered the Pri (thanksgiving weekend 2003) but i received my Pri, 2 weeks after memorial day 2004... by then the car was essentially not running. looking at a new engine, minimum but also needed a TON of interior work.

on our 2nd Pri, it replaced a 1988 Corolla. the car had 230,000 miles on it, and the heater had stopped functioning. upon further investigation, there was a lot of things going on it. could have put $1000 into it, but the car was done. so got the Zenn first and it did fine for essentially 20 months. but now SO is being transfered 25 miles down the road so those occasional times i needed the Pri would not happen since the Zenn has limited range. plus the priority incentive, the sales tax waiver, etc. gave me a pretty good deal on my 2010. so there it goes.

as far as the transfer?? well, for a while i thought it was not going to happen, but date has been set to Nov 2nd. so we shall see.

 

I replaced a perfectly good Honda Civic to buy our Prius. I had no illusions that I was saving money, but since I expect to keep the car a *long, long* time, I figured the cost was OK for me to have a chance to enjoy hybrid ownership, and support the technology.