Oh yeah. I went there.
Strictly looking at fuel mileage, it's going to take an impractical amount of time to pay for itself.
Just tell me how the hell a car made with batteries that require strip mining for nickel and a voyage around the globe is economical or "green" in any way? Especially when the batteries, like
all Nickel-Metal Hydride batteries will reach end of life and become nothing more than dead weight in about a decade? Granted, it seems like most people don't keep their cars that long, but depending on how they drive they won't see any gross cost savings for years.
Think about it. The Prius gets 47 MPG in the real world (46 in government tests) and costs $21,500. A brand new Corrola gets 34 at an MSRP of $16,050. Let's do a little math. We're going to assume you have a choice between a Prius and another car, and will drive both the same amount.
The MSRP difference between the two is $5450. Assuming 50/50 city/highway driving at 15,000 miles a year with $3.96 a gallon gas:
Prius annual fuel cost: $1291
Corrola annual fuel cost: $1980
Fuel cost difference: $689
Price difference ($5450) divided by fuel cost difference ($689) =
8 years to break evenRatchet that up to a generous 80/20 city/highway figure, and the annual fuel cost difference only jumps to $936. That's still roughly 6 years before you break even.
Here are the break-even points for other cars (at 50/50 city/highway):
2008 Ford Focus: 33 MPG @ $15,380 = 12 years
2008 Honda Civic: 31 MPG @ $15,810 = 9 years
1999 Saturn SL1: 36 MPG @ $14,311
(inflation-adjusted original MSRP) = 20 years
1999 Saturn SL1: 36 MPG @ $4,325
(Kelley Blue Book value) = 48 years
2008 Chevy Aveo: 29 MPG @ $13,255 = 11 years
2008 Toyota Yaris: 35 MPG @ $12,450 =
22 years (on a brand new car form
the same manufacturer)
Here's how I got to these results:
([Prius MSRP] - [Comp MSRP]) / ([Comp annual fuel cost] - [Prius annual fuel cost]) = Break-even point in years
Annual fuel cost = [miles] / [mpg] * [price of gas]
Even if you do an assload of driving (30k a year), you'll only cut those numbers in half. (So for the least favorable contender, the Civic, it would take 4.5 years. Either way, you're looking at 120,000 miles.)
TLDR: Unless you drive in stop and go traffic almost exclusively**, a Prius won't save you money for several years compared to a reasonable compact car.
* Original MSRP = $11,295, adjusted for inflation
**and thankfully the vast majority of us aren't so unfortunate
All new car price figures are manufacturer's suggested retail prices for base models equipped with automatic transmissions. For old cars, the Kelley Blue Book dealer resale price for a car with 90,000 miles was used. Whenever asked, I entered 02134 as the zip code. Fuel mileage readings are the average of the user-submitted mileage readings off fueleconomy.gov, rounded to the nearest whole figure. These estimates don't include rebates or maintenance costs, or deal with features. Obviously these numbers will change as the price of gasoline fluctuates. Mileage rating for the Saturn SL is from personal experience. Fine print fine print fine print.
Sources:
http://www.fueleconomy.gov
http://www.toyota.com
http://www.hyundaiusa.com
http://www.autotrader.com
http://automobiles.honda.com/
http://www.ford.com
http://www.chevrolet.com
http://www.kbb.com/
http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/Spec_Glance.aspx?year=1999&make=Saturn&model=SL&trimid=