Fellow BITOGr’s. My wife and I are currently evaluating the addition of a very fuel efficient used car to our stable to reduce gas costs. We are only thinking about it now, running the numbers to see if it makes sense.
Here is the scenario.
Currently the wife drives the Subaru Forester that does about 15k miles per year of mixed driving into Portland that results in average mpg of 23 over the year. She likes it, the awd does great in the incremental weather we have around here.
I drive a 2500 GMC Sierra with 6.0 which is mostly for towing a travel trailer during the summer and short trips around town. The non-towing is only ~5k miles per year and average mpg is right now let’s say 12mpg. Lot’s of short trips.
We are considering adding something very fuel efficient to reduce our gas cost paying from cash no more than $5-8k. My wife would drive it most of the year except during the winter when she would go back to driving the Subaru. I would drive either the Subaru or the new car around town sometimes.
Running the numbers I have compared a Prius, Corolla, Camry, Civic in the 2008 or so vintage. With the Prius we would save about $1200/year at current gas price. The others would be less (maybe $700). My thinking is that it isn't worth it to add an additional car unless saving over $1k. License, insurance, maintenance will add up (license is cheap here and hopefully insurance wouldn't be much for such a used car).
We are not going to get rid of our current vehicles and saving $500/year is a waste of my time. But current gas prices are low and buying a fuel efficient car now could make sense if gas prices increase in the coming years. Gas prices increasing in a few years would make the savings more and help our long term budget but I'm not going to buy now in the hopes that gas prices will increase down the road, especially if the savings are minimal right now. The car must be reliable and safe. My wife isn't going to drive a beater that isn't absolutely reliable.
So what are the pros/cons of such an idea? Right now the idea of a 2008ish Prius could be interesting.
Here is the scenario.
Currently the wife drives the Subaru Forester that does about 15k miles per year of mixed driving into Portland that results in average mpg of 23 over the year. She likes it, the awd does great in the incremental weather we have around here.
I drive a 2500 GMC Sierra with 6.0 which is mostly for towing a travel trailer during the summer and short trips around town. The non-towing is only ~5k miles per year and average mpg is right now let’s say 12mpg. Lot’s of short trips.
We are considering adding something very fuel efficient to reduce our gas cost paying from cash no more than $5-8k. My wife would drive it most of the year except during the winter when she would go back to driving the Subaru. I would drive either the Subaru or the new car around town sometimes.
Running the numbers I have compared a Prius, Corolla, Camry, Civic in the 2008 or so vintage. With the Prius we would save about $1200/year at current gas price. The others would be less (maybe $700). My thinking is that it isn't worth it to add an additional car unless saving over $1k. License, insurance, maintenance will add up (license is cheap here and hopefully insurance wouldn't be much for such a used car).
We are not going to get rid of our current vehicles and saving $500/year is a waste of my time. But current gas prices are low and buying a fuel efficient car now could make sense if gas prices increase in the coming years. Gas prices increasing in a few years would make the savings more and help our long term budget but I'm not going to buy now in the hopes that gas prices will increase down the road, especially if the savings are minimal right now. The car must be reliable and safe. My wife isn't going to drive a beater that isn't absolutely reliable.
So what are the pros/cons of such an idea? Right now the idea of a 2008ish Prius could be interesting.