I'm in the midst of a decision to buy a slightly used Prius for commute, like a 1-2 yr-old one. Should I? How difficult is it to find a used one and what's the ballpark on price? I'm hoping to spend $17K or less. God, right now I just wish I had a Prius for daily commutes. I'm just paying an arm and a leg for gas and watch the needle go down like Bush's current approval rating.

Anyone here is selling yours?

 

Good luck on the price anyway. ****ing save the world hippies around these parts seem very happy to take a profit on used versions.

I've been on the list for a while now. Not sure I will pull the trigger.

 

I wouldn't. Go buy a used Civic HX or a Jetta diesel.

You can get a 2003 Civic HX for $10,000, and it has an EPA mileage estimate of 36 city/44 highway.

http://www.edmunds.com/used/2003/honda/civ...471/prices.html

Figure out how long it'll take you to recoup $7,000 in gas savings if you buy a Prius, and I just don't think it's worth it.

 

That's crazy talk. If you buy a $17K prius you could instead buy a much better car like a Civic (new sedan or coupe with 140hp). You'll be able to get mileage in the 30s for the civic vs mileage in the 40s for the Prius. the difference in mileage will not be able to make up for the up front cost of the Prius for a very long time (if ever).

Let's say you drive 12,000 miles/year at 45mpg you'll buy 266 gal/year At 33 mpg you'll buy 363 gal/year.

We'll call it 100 gal/year savings in gas. Now at $3.25/gal it'll take you 9 years just to break even with the Prius. In that 9 years you may need to buy a new battery or such that'll dig the hole deeper.

IMO if you can get a normal car like the Civic that'll get you in the 30s (mpg) for less, you'll NEVER be saving money by buying a Prius.

Plus the Civic 140hp will kill the Prius in performance.

If you drive 30,000 miles/year or gas prices go up to $5-6/gal the hybrid could make sense.

 

Prius resale is pretty strong, not sure you're gonna find one for $17k.

Maybe for a little more $$ you could get the current gen Civic hybrid? Those don't seem to be as popular.

You could also look for a TDI VW, maybe a Jetta or Golf. Those are probably in pretty high demand right now. They're slow but OK for a daily beater.

What are you using as a daily driver now? It's really hard to save money by buying a car, even for better fuel efficiency.

 

A new Prius at a tab over 20K is not a bad car but I wouldn't buy one thinking I was saving anything. I agree with the others about the Civic and the VW TDI's. Both are good choices. Diesel's not cheap but the cars are not all that slow and you'll forget you're driving a diesel quickly. Before I owned a diesel I thought I'd hate it. Now I love it.

 

Not worth it. It's been a while since I did the numbers, but I remember calculating that if you drive 15K miles a year, the average savings on gas over a comparable conventional car (Civic, Corolla, etc.). come to around $400 a year. But hybrids cost around $3K more, so you'll have to drive it for over 7 years just to break even. Factor in discounts and rebates that you can get on conventional cars but not on fast-selling hybrids and those numbers look even worse. I won't even get into hybrid reliability and the cost or repairs, parts and maintenance (still uncertain in the long run)

If contributing a grain of sand to saving the environment and diminishing our dependency on foreign oil is worth the extra $$$ to you, then go for it. Personally, I'd consider one too if I was in the market for a new economical car.

I'm not familiar with economy used car prices (hybrid or not) so I don't know if buying a used one makes more sense financially. FYI, I looked last week out of curiosity for a used Prius in the Autotrader and there wasn't a single one for sale in my area (Miami, a large city)

Edit: I should read these threads more carefully before posting. Looks like some of you already had the math figured out

 

Everyone is correct. If you want to save gas, you will never get the money back. Most Prius owners bought it because of the technology or being clean... and those that bought it for gas saving either mad that it is not getting them mid 50s mpg.

If you want to save gas, the Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris coming out later this/next year are what you should be looking into... supposed to get around 40mpg. And you still have money left over for gas.

 

The new civic 140hp is rated at 30/38 (MT) or 30/40 (AT)

The new civic hybrid supposed to get 50/50 but it's price (est) to be around $21K or at least $3k premium on a loaded civic sedan.

I was thinking about getting a little (non-hybrid) car that got high gas mileage. But I'm not sure I want to give up the SUV. We get enough snow where a few times a year the SUV comes in handy.

 

Hybrids (at least for now) are for people who seem to have a large problem grasping the concept of simple mathematics.

Like others stated, youll never break even with a hybrid.