Just as I was enjoying $1.91 per gal I went to the UK.
16.55L @ 87.9 pence = 14.55 pounds sterling
Thats $6.25 per gal. Thankfully the car averaged 35 mpg.
Just as I was enjoying $1.91 per gal I went to the UK.
16.55L @ 87.9 pence = 14.55 pounds sterling
Thats $6.25 per gal. Thankfully the car averaged 35 mpg.
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Replies
$1.91? Where was that? It is down a lot here, but I think it is still ~ $2.19.
>> Thats $6.25 per gal. << Obviously that effects the price of everything... I wonder if the wages are significantly higher? My guess is that people just "stay put" a lot more...
In another thread someone wrote that CT has one of the highest standards of living in the USA, which is a direct product of wages vs cost of living. My thought:
Standard of living
Cost of Living
Quality of Life
Pick one - to me it's not a hard choice...
I'm a builder in Austin. Two and a half years ago I bought a Toyota Prius. I kept the Ford F150 for two months thinking I would need it but never did. I have put 61,000 miles on the Prius since then. When I bought it, gas was 1.60 a gallon. So far I have saved almost a third of the purchase price of the vehicle in gas savings alone.
The prius is a hatchback so I can pick up almost anything I ever need in it. I have carried lighting and plumbing packages for large custom homes, 8' stepladders, 50-2x4-8 footers, and countless tools in the back. When I need to haul more than that, it generally means I didn't plan very well and I have plenty of people with trucks that can haul the stuff. I love driving the car.
I average 56 MPG and often get better mileage than that. My last tank was 768 miles at 62.2 MPG. This tank is down around 57.5 MPG. In my job I mostly need to carry a laptop and paper files.
A third of the price?
OK the way I see it when you bought the prius gas $1.60 per gallon
I don't know what it spiked at in your area, but for easy math let say the very next day it went to 2.60 per gallon & stayed there for all of the 61 K in miles that you put on.
You averaged 56 mpg so going 61,ooo miles you used 1089 gallons.
The F-150 depending on year & motor is around 15mpg low end 20 mpg high end.
Lets say ya got 20 mpg so that 61,000 mile trip used 3050 gallons.
So buying the prius you have used 1961 less gallons.
So the $1.00 difference in gas prices I see that you saved $1961.00 in energy cost.
What is the sticker price of a prius these days?When asked why is there four engines on a 747------ "cause we couldn't fit six" a Boeing engineer
Wouldn't he have saved all the price per gallon on the 1961 gallons? In your example that would be $2.60 x 1961 for a total of $5,098.60?
I knew the number seemed a bit low when I was doin my figurin
I was actually more worried that my math was wrong since I did it before my first cup of coffee.
It's still spendin money to save money.
If ya don't have a car & need one that's different than dumpin one & going out & buying one.When asked why is there four engines on a 747------ "cause we couldn't fit six" a Boeing engineer
My Prius has a lifetime average of just over 56 MPG. The f150 had a lifetime average of 15 MPG.
61000/15=4067
61000/56=1089
4067-1089=2978
2978*$2.50=$7445
7445*3=22335
base price of a Prius at the time was 21000.
Mine was 26000 fully loaded. 26000/7445=3.5
My statement was almost a third of the purchase price. That will actually occur in a few more months. The f150 also took an oil change of 5 quarts every 3000 miles. Based on used oil analysis I change the Prius oil with 3 quarts every 10000 miles. The brakes are going to be replaced at around 180000 miles. There is no transmission to service. The tires are about half the cost. If you subtract the 9000$ I got for the f150, the difference of 17000$ will be paid off in reduced operating expense in around 6 years. It's like driving a free car compared to the f150 and the driving experience is much nicer and more peaceful. The car also came loaded with navigation, bluetooth phone, VSC, HIDs, keyless ignition, and a better safety rating. Oh wait, was this thread about gas prices? Sorry, the fanboy in me just had to come out.
Hey, you're doing a great job of selling that prius.
They must be an ugly vehichle eh?
blueOur Skytrak is for sale. It has 500 hrs on it. We want 50k (you pay the freight) and we'll finance it. Drop me an email; it's a good buy.
Might be ugly but certainly not compared to my old 99 f150. When I compare the Prius to the f150 it looks great in almost every way. The Prius is faster, easier to drive, park, maneuver, care for, and oh yeah, saves on gas.Compared to a Vette or an Aston Martin it truly is an ugly car. Compared to an f150 it is a beauty queen.
How many 4'X8' Sheets of ply can you fit in that Prius? OR do you just strap them to the roof?
That's easy. I pull out my cell phone and call the lumber yard or my runner.
You Da- Man!
Think I spent over $425 on Gas o lean last month.
What about battery replacment? Do they need to replaced periodically and how much do they cost? Just wondering...
They're good for the life of the car and warranted for 100000 miles and 150000 miles in CA and four other states. It's not an issue. They can be had in a junk yard for 600$. They have never been replaced due to age. Toyota has a refurbishment factory for the purpose of remanufacturing the batteries that is sitting idle. There are many myths in the press about the car but it's hard to find an owner that doesn't love them. We have 2 and I have a friend with 6 of them.
tb is right. Those are 1961 gallons he didn't have to buy, so he gets the full-price credit for them, or roughly $5k at recent prices. It's your wife who helps the kids with homework, right? <g>
And you can see why buying a Prius in the UK would be a no-brainer, whereas it's still a bit of a decision to make in the US. Tells me that gas prices are still way too cheap in the US!
Even though Canadian gas prices aren't nearly as high as in the UK, they're higher than in the US- despite the fact that we're a net exporter of oil. The difference is taxes. And the proof's in the pudding- our "fleet" of vehicles, according to an auto industry type I just heard on the CBC, is more efficient than the "fleet" of vehicles in the US. That's despite our fierce winters sucking fuel efficiency.
People don't waste stuff they find to be expensive. They waste gas because it's cheap. And it's only cheap because there's no "tipping fee" for dumping all that exhaust into the atmosphere. Everyone pays for that, since we've all got to breathe the atmosphere and deal with the climate too.
I'm a believer in the carrot and stick approach--tax what you want less of and subsidize (or offer incentives for) that which you want more of. Unfortunately, our country doesn't have much in terms of a useful conversation on national priorities. We speak one thing in the run-up to elections and then do entirely different after. Unless the goals are clear, the incentives and disincentives won't match.That said, I think the incentives and disincentives have to be for future behavior and not past behavior. For example, raising gas taxes today would penalize those who bought inefficient cars before we made that a national priority, just as raising taxes on electricity would penalize those who built houses before energy efficiency became a priority. At that point, there's not a heck of a lot you can do. However, stage a gas tax increase of $1 or $2 for 10 years from now, and people might change their car-buying patterns.But all of that is hard to do without a coherent discussion of national priorities.
Edited 10/20/2006 1:26 pm ET by CloudHidden
Gas here is 2.08 a gallon.
Pertol over here went up to the equivalent of nearly eight dollars a gallon a year ago when Katrina hit New Orleans and a lot of the petrol in Europe was shipped to the US
If you want to see autos in Europe which can give up to 75 mpg yet still haul a good cargo look up websites for Skoda, VW, Seat, Citroen, Renault, Peugeot.
Peugeot diesel engines have been known to do a million miles in North Africa where the taxi drivers do their own servicing and use linoleum to make gaskets.
Don't tell me to look up the peugeot site. I'll probably do it, and then I'll spend all weekend moping about not being able to buy a Peugeot diesel here.
I had a Peugeot 505 for 5 or 6 years- it was a great car, I had to do almost no work to it in that time, with about 200,000 miles on it. Now their cars are getting 50-90 mpg, and haven't been available in the states for a long time.zak
"When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone." --John Ruskin
"so it goes"