One Mans Blog
Specialization is for Insects.
Posted on Mar 27, 2007 - 12:26am by John P. in Environment, Vehicles
Wow! Thanks to Debbie for passing this little gem along. I’m simply speechless. And to think we almost bought a Prius to be “green friendly”.
Now I’m glad we opted for a totally pimped out 06′ Honda Civic. That way we actually do have one of the most “green friendly” vehicles to offset my arguably-worse-than-a-Hummer 05′ Nissan Titan!
Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage - By Chris Demorro
The Toyota Prius has become the flagship car for those in our society so environmentally conscious that they are willing to spend a premium to show the world how much they care. Unfortunately for them, their ultimate ‘green car’ is the source of some of the worst pollution in North America; it takes more combined energy per Prius to produce than a Hummer.
Before we delve into the seedy underworld of hybrids, you must first understand how a hybrid works. For this, we will use the most popular hybrid on the market, the Toyota Prius.
The Prius is powered by not one, but two engines: a standard 76 horsepower, 1.5-liter gas engine found in most cars today and a battery- powered engine that deals out 67 horsepower and a whooping 295ft/lbs of torque, below 2000 revolutions per minute. Essentially, the Toyota Synergy Drive system, as it is so called, propels the car from a dead stop to up to 30mph. This is where the largest percent of gas is consumed. As any physics major can tell you, it takes more energy to get an object moving than to keep it moving. The battery is recharged through the braking system, as well as when the gasoline engine takes over anywhere north of 30mph. It seems like a great energy efficient and environmentally sound car, right?You would be right if you went by the old government EPA estimates, which netted the Prius an incredible 60 miles per gallon in the city and 51 miles per gallon on the highway. Unfortunately for Toyota, the government realized how unrealistic their EPA tests were, which consisted of highway speeds limited to 55mph and acceleration of only 3.3 mph per second. The new tests which affect all 2008 models give a much more realistic rating with highway speeds of 80mph and acceleration of 8mph per second. This has dropped the Prius’s EPA down by 25 percent to an average of 45mpg. This now puts the Toyota within spitting distance of cars like the Chevy Aveo, which costs less then half what the Prius costs.
However, if that was the only issue with the Prius, I wouldn’t be writing this article. It gets much worse.
Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.
The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.
“The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside,” said Canadian Greenpeace energy-coordinator David Martin during an interview with Mail, a British-based newspaper.
All of this would be bad enough in and of itself; however, the journey to make a hybrid doesn’t end there. The nickel produced by this disastrous plant is shipped via massive container ship to the largest nickel refinery in Europe. From there, the nickel hops over to China to produce ‘nickel foam.’ From there, it goes to Japan. Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States, finalizing the around-the-world trip required to produce a single Prius battery. Are these not sounding less and less like environmentally sound cars and more like a farce?
Wait, I haven’t even got to the best part yet.
When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius’s arch nemesis.
Through a study by CNW Marketing called “Dust to Dust,” the total combined energy is taken from all the electrical, fuel, transportation, materials (metal, plastic, etc) and hundreds of other factors over the expected lifetime of a vehicle. The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid.
The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it.
So, if you are really an environmentalist - ditch the Prius. Instead, buy one of the most economical cars available - a Toyota Scion xB. The Scion only costs a paltry $0.48 per mile to put on the road. If you are still obsessed over gas mileage - buy a Chevy Aveo and fix that lead foot.
One last fun fact for you: it takes five years to offset the premium price of a Prius. Meaning, you have to wait 60 months to save any money over a non-hybrid car because of lower gas expenses.
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By the way, I love the look of my prius. I also appreciate all the extras that are included in the base model I have.
An H2 will last 300,000 miles?! hahahahahahaha Not.
I’ve been in the auto repair business 20 years and, aside from some taxi cabs, I’ve only seen a handful of cars with over 250k on them (and those were all Hondas and Toyotas).
Where do they find this math? I’m sure that the pollution-production expense of a diesel locomotive engine is a lot more than a steam locomotive too… I guess the world just keeps going backwards!
All ya’ll Hummer drivers are gonna feel pretty stupid in a few years. A hybrid driver today is like sombody who bought a 1 megapixel digital camera ten years ago. Maybe you can question the actual current benefit, but the product coming down the pipe will end up being superior (in every way) to what it’s replacing. And if somebody doesn’t buy hybrids today then there’s no market for electrics later.
Compare:
“You can’t replace my camera with a digital… It’s nowhere near as good.” “The pollution from making all those CF cards will TOTALLY outweigh the benefit of no longer using all these chemical emulsifiers.” “I’d much rather have to protect the film from exposure to light, have to take time to select my shots carefully so as not to waste film, enjoy my drive to the drugstore to drop it off to be developed, PAY to have it developed, enjoy my trip back to the drugstore to pick up the developed film, and hope I get the correct pictures back… the experience is more… authentic!!!”
“My son… we used to have to leave home and go to this place called a “gas station” where you would pay this little Arab man in a little booth to take this little hose and pump this smelly, heavy, corrossive, explosive, expensive, chemical filled liquid into a tank they had strapped to the bottom of your car. You would burn it it a big heavy cast-iron engine under the hood, and then run a pipe along the bottom of the car to shoot the smoke out the back end. Cars back then had to have strange pieces like catalytic comverters full of platinum and tingamabob called a “transmission”.
Jesus people. Get with the program.
Just waiting for my “2 megapixel” 2009 Prius.
And only another 10 years till I can fix cars without getting my hands dirty…
Dan you state that you have been in the auto business for 20 years. I am in my second year of auto repair work myself. You also state that you have seen very few cars with more than 250k(excluding taxi cabs). What part of the country do you live in to not see that? I personaly have two automobiles with 250k and one with almost 350k and most of the cars I do work on have about the same.
18yrs in New England. Perhaps the road salt eats them alive before the mileage gets too high. More recently in Cincinnati, OH, but similar mileage here (though not as much rust rot as they do not salt roads here in winter).
90% of the 200k+ cars I see are either Accords & Camrys or big old pickup trucks, the highest being 550,000 on a early 1990’s Chevrolet Caprice taxi.
There’s no way any vehicle model could reach an “average” mileage of 300k simply because the law of averages. The attrition rate from accidents alone (aside from loss attributable to theft, rust / wear, mechanical deficiency, etc…) will result in the vast majority of any vehicle model being reduced to a cube in a salvage yard long before 150k.
The lifespan of the average hybrid is 100k? Doubt it. No car company (particularly one as anal as Toyota) is going to warranty a NiMH battery all the way out to its life expectancy. Obviously they expect most of them to last much longer. (Honda warrants theirs to 150k). Otherwise they would have only warrantied them to 50k. It would appear to me from casual browsing of hybrid boards that the internal combustion engines tend to fail before the IMA & batteries on these cars.
By the logic of the article one would place a life expectancy of 100k on the Hummer as well, as that’s what they warranty the drivetrain up to. Hybrid batteries only cost $4,000 to replace for people who bought salvage cars. Almost nobody has had to pay full price for replacements. When that starts happening the aftermarket wont be far behind. Ever see the core charge on a NiMH battery?
I have no objection to people wanting to drive whatever they want to pay to fill up with $3 gas (er.. $3.20 here today), I just object to fuzzy mathematical comparisons to bash new technology.
On a side note… I drove an Insight over the Rockies on I-70 last month and discovered interesting properties. It will accelerate going uphill at 10,000 ft at 70 mph. The electric motor isn’t affected by the altitude. All my gas cars struggled to go 55 on the same stretch.
Only $4000 for a battery on a 100k car thats fantastic!!! I could go out and buy 2 conventional cars with a 100k on them for $4000……
The kid’s report said, “The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid.”
However, this Prius taxi has done 400,000 km without a battery change. 400,000km = 248,548 miles.
A Prius’s lifespan is 100,000 miles?
And the comments keep coming. Just proves that the best way to get a lot of publicity is to put out a “study” that says something many people want to hear but that many others disagree with, with a bonus for highly dubious assumptions that are readily contradicted by the facts.
Some times there is more than just a label that makes a car, environment friendly.
That research sure prooved that.
Thanks for posting.
[...] Im not getting on an ethanol debate. As I stated earlier, GM realizes that ethanol is not the end all be all. However, It a step in the right direction as it helps ween us off the nipple of the middle east. btw, you get “worse mileage” because ethanol is actually a higher octane than any super unleaded you could find. I believe its 96-98 octane. So it burns hotter, meaning it burns faster. If you want to hit up the track, your ethanol machine will most likely out due the same vehicle if it were non-ethanol. edit: ok, I have to interject this… If you’re so adamant that ethanol is bad because of the way it is produced and shipped, then how do you feel about the toyota prius? It’s batteries are made in a factory in canada and everything with a 20 mile radius of the plant is dead. Also, check out this article that shows that the Prius does more damage to the environment than a Hummer. __________________ Never forget. Last edited by Mav : Today at 07:58 AM. [...]
Does anyone really believe that a Hybrid Toyota will only last 100,000 miles and a Hummer will last 300,000??? In fact, CNW is basing their life expectancy numbers on average miles driven per year by consumers. Prius miles per year=6,700. It would take 15 years to reach 100,000 miles. 15 years is what they considered a good time frame for people to get rid of a vehicle. So they went ahead and used the same time frame on a Hummer. Since they used the Hummer mileage as 20,000 per year ( x 15 years=300,00), their entire basis of the study is fundamentally flawed.
I have yet to see a Hummer with more than 100k. As a matter of fact, pulling up all the records over the last 6 months, there has never been an H1 with more than 80,000 miles sold at any auction in the US. By comparison, a quick search of just 2001 and 2002 prius have netted 21 with more than 130k miles in the same period of time. One even had 190k on it. So not only are they WAY off on their estimates of life expectancy, but they are off on the average miles per year driven on each vehicle. Let’s look at some realistic numbers now. I am still going to use their total dollars (even though they are completely flawed also), and recalculate.
Hummer Life Expectancy: 100k
Prius Life Expectancy: 200k
Cost for Hummer: $5.85
Cost for Prius: $1.62
Based on the more realistic driving mileages, it looks like you can build, drive, and destroy 3.5 prius to every 1 Hummer.
Ya know I remember when gas was 49 cents a gallon. My mom would give me
$1.00 I would get a gallon of gas and some Lemon Heads, Now and Laters, Boston Baked Beans
and some taffy. Now if I could only fill up my tank nowadays with some Lemon Heads.
The Prius is tight work long live low gas prices
The CNW Marketing article was not peer-reviewed and makes outrageous claims.
Sure, Toyota buys 1000 tons of nickel each year for the Prius battery, and they scream bloody murder.
How come people don’t scream bloody murder when the U.S. and Canadian government uses 23,000 tonnes of nickel to mint their coins? FYI each U.S. 5-cent nickel coin contains 1.25g of nickel metal. Multiply that by a few hundred million in circulation and you will see that whatever Toyota uses is miniscule in comparison.
Or how about the high-temperature nickel-based alloys used in jet engines? Each jet engine has several tonnes of that stuff in there yet noboby is screaming bloody murder at Pratt & Whitney, GE , Rolls Royce or any other jet engine builder for using nickels by the ton per engine made.
Or how about the construction industry that uses nickel-alloyed stainless steel by the hundred tons for building skyscrapers and other infrastructure items?
This CNW Marketing BS isn’t even worth recycling into toilet paper.
I am not sure why Toyota gets great press (free advertising) for Prius while all others that offer hybrids get almost no press. Other like Ford, have hybrids and are dropping products like the Excursion while Toyota keeps upping the size, weight and gas consumption of their fleet. Well it’s fashionable to be anti American but it’s also fashionable to be anti the biggest player which Toyota is now approaching.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s not about being anti this or that. It’s about preferring and owning the vehicles with the best life expectancy and the best overall mpg, simply because I’m practical. If American manufacturers could hold a candle to the standards with which Honda and Toyota vehicles have been built with for the last decade, I might consider owning an American car. Alas, it just ain’t so.
i have been selling ford vehicles for 9 years and have seen plenty of solid trucks with 250,ooo miles or more. one of my accounts uses e350 shuttle vans upwards of 700,000 miles before replacing. american vehicles have done a nice job of responding to the quality issues of decades past. it’s okay to be patriotic when you buy your next vehicle. i promise it won’t hurt.
Ah yes the same Ford that make it nearly impossible to the change the transmission fluid?
must be a good vehicle if the tranny oil is the first complaint that comes to mind.
My impression of most American vehicles is that they are systematically designed to be difficult to maintain and ultimately unreliable. The technology they use is also backwards and poorly conxceived. Granted things such a prius are also crap it is still not an excuse. Any vehicle that you have to take to a dealership to have the trans fluild change is not a good vehicle at all. Frankly your anecdotal evidence of long term durability is quite questionable. I am almost certain if you were to analyze actual data relating to fords or any other american car you would find they are absolutely lacking…..
Lacking what???
Curious to hear the end of your…
As I had mentioned before one excellent example is the transmission fluid maintainence on new fords. These trannys have no dipstick and must be filled through the bottom using a special proprietory tool. Ford’s excuse is that this keeps people from over filling the transmission or putting in the wrong fluid. However pretty much everyone realizes its b.s. that makes life more dificult. Also maintainability. For instance on older vehicles you could lube the chasis parts where as newer ball joints etc you can’t. The difference is that if you lubed the ball joints properly that last much longer than the “Maintaince free” ones. One final example is in fact taken from toyota. On their newer engines the valve seats are made out of a very thin coating of chemical vapor deposition material rather than a metal insert. The issue with this is that once the thin coating wears off you cant lap or re-machine the valves. Thus the head is essentially useless. Whereas in the older heads you could machine them or if need be replace the inserts.
My point with all of this is that ideal vehicle should be easy to maintain with common tools, rebuildible if necessary and not constrained by half assed engineering that effectively limits the vehicle’s life. With that said I am not at all opposed to sophisticated technology (fuel injection is great). Granted I am certain there will be people that disagree with this notion of an ideal car. However, consider the amount of money spent replacing these vehicles every few years and the environmental costs in terms of resources I think that it is imperative that we do better than what we have done. Of course considering the frothing idiots that go out and buy extremely resource intensive hybrids that only last 6-8 years I think this idea will be a long time in comming.
What do you drive and why did you buy it?
What you are describing is a Trek Bicycle.. easy to fix and good for the environment..
Between my wife and I:
1976 Toyota Hilux Truck
1996 Toyota Camry 5spd 2.2l i4
1976 Honda CB 750
1979 Hond CB 750K
2000 Corrola
1993 Specialized Road Bike
1996 GT full suspension mountain bike.
I would agree that higher end bikes are better examples of good technology. But even they have become hyper specialized. Just look at the tools you need to work on Shimano components.
This is a response I found to the above article.
Re: Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage (Score: 1)
by wallofcheese on Monday, March 26 @ 14:06:29 CDT
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The original article is an opinion piece for a small college newspaper. The whole article is garbage.
1. Take the “spitting distance” mileage, for example. The new EPA combined mileage put the Chevy Aveo at 26 mpg, the Toyota Prius at 46 mpg. So I guess 20 miles more per gallon is “spitting distance.”
2. The “Dust-to-dust” study is from a marketing firm, not a science journal. It arrives at an artificially high cost for the Prius by assigning it an arbitrary lifespan of 100k miles, and a Hummer 300k miles. There’s Prius being used as cabs that have 200k on them now [www.msnbc.msn.com].
And, insofar as a car lasting, what car do you expect to repair less? A Toyota Prius or a GM Hummer? You can check Consumer Reports for the answer to that one. A good analysis of the flaws in dust-to-dust is available online [www.truedelta.com].
3. The Sudbury info is seriously outdated, and the comment about moon buggies (like, when did Nasa test moon buggies early 1970s) ought to have given the author a clue. Sudbury was polluted by a century of mining (1870 on). In fact, some of Sudburys nickel went into making the Statue of Liberty. Currently, the mine is owned by INCO (not Toyota), and produces 100,000 tons of nickel a year, of which Toyota buys 1% (1000 tons). Nickel, by the way, is primarily used to make stainless steel. The Mail on Sunday newspaper, which ran the story the college article is a thin re-write of (visible here [www.mailonsunday.co.uk]), used a stock photo from 1994 to illustrate the pollution (visible here [www.mailonsunday.co.uk]). There were, of course, no Prius in existence or being manufactured in 1994.
Sudbury is no longer as polluted, as INCO and the city have planted over 8 million trees there since 1979. The best history online of the Sudbury devastation/reforestation [www.gmcanada.com] comes from GM Canada (the trees were all cut down in 1871 to help rebuild Chicago after the fire), and it provides telling photos of some of the reclamation from 1979 to present.
The acid rain problem David Martin of Greenpeace is talking about in is the situation pre 1972. INCO on regreening and SO2 emissions [www.inco.com]
You are awesome! Thanks for exposing the ding dong that wrote this article.
Holy smokes. As I was reading each claim in the article, the language seemed awful vague in terms of sourcing it’s claims or putting any perspective around it. Now it’s clear. I don’t think the internet has ever seen such a smackdown. I’m not sure if “One Man’s Blog” actually endorses the nonsense he reposted, but it sure sure doesn’t help his credibility.
Well, Dan, I wish I could bring my 1985 Chevy Caprice Classic to your shop. I am pushing 300,000 miles. And it still gets around 20 miles to the gallon (small 305 V8). Had it since 1992.
I just find it hard to give up, even though filling up is more expensive, since I can’t just use regular gas, not that regular gas is all that cheap these days. But I always get those knock and ping problems unless I use premium.
I have no idea why this model (Caprice Classic) of Chevy cars has lasted so long. I see a few of them on the streets here in North Carolina (the 80’s models) but I don’t seem any other domestics cars from that era. Some Suburu’s and Honda’s but that is about it.
I think they made the best overdrive transmissions and engines for those cars, in that period of time. I could be wrong however. I know that New York City taxis, and some police forces employed the use of the Caprice as well.
Whatever the case - I don’t think I will be buying an H2 or Prius anytime soon!
Robert C.
BMW 3 series Diesel in Europe does 60 mpg, as does Mini diesel, how come we don’t see them over here? I know which I’d rather drive, BMW or Prius, hmmmm
Just to clear things up… 60 mpg with a 3 series is a dream that will hardly ever come true. Even in Europe
I’m from Europe and I drive a BMW 320D (2 liter diesel engine; 100kW=136HP). The average consumption of my car over 3 years that i have been driving it is 34,6MPG (6,7 l / 100 km). Even smaller diesel engines in the 3 series hardly do over 40MPG (if they are not driven by a grandma :)).
Figures like that are reachable with smaller European cars like VW Lupo 3, which should have the consumption of about 78 mpg but realistically achieve about 58 mpg.
Yes the small European cars are a much more viable option than hybrids. Also, it drives me insane to hear people who know nothing about automotive technology talk about it in an authoritative manner. I doubt American society would be in the mess it is if every car owner were forced to work on his own vehicle and understand the technology behind it. Also this understanding would help to eliminate some of the stupidity attached to cars and other technological objects since maybe people would recognize them for what they are: Mere technology and not symbols…… Of course considering how the crunchies are eating up the hybrid fad I think Detroit might plan a come back by producing and flex fuel vehicle that is fueled on compost and granolla…
I’ll admit that the Prius in it’s current form is not the most environmentally friendly vehicle, but there are improvements being made. As new models are rolled out, I think you’ll notice substantial differences in terms of environmental friendliness.
“This little gem” is a great example of how the Internet gets used to spread false information. The comments that follow provide ample refutation of the silly assumptions and strange logic, but how many people will read only the “gem” and skip to something else?
While I was researching my book “Moving to Australia, Two Texans Down Under,” I came across a similar, much-circulated piece that claimed crime shot up in Australia after the conservative Howard government faced down our version of the National Rifle Association and put in sensible gun control laws. Not so. False. But how many checked the readily available statistics.
This Prius-bashing, pro-Hummer piece is no gem. — Bob
Ah yes I must just love my H2. Actually I am phd educated socialist who knows a lot about machines. Hybrids are a fashion statement. Some one I know just dumped $65 K on a Lexus hybrid suv (It gets an amazing 25 around town and 20 highway) . I asked her why she bought it instead of a more modest conventional vehicle that gets better mileage and she replied :”I know they are great but I supporting research in alternative forms of transport….” All she is really supporting is Toyota profit margins… I give it about 10 years at most and people will look back on this as just another fad…..
My friend don’t be deceived. It is very obvious by the way in which you wrote your article that you are biased. Do you work for GM? I live in Michigan (the auto capitol). Please don’t try and tell people how enviromentally friendly they are. You using the hummer as an example shows a total bias and lack of credability. Maybe you work for foreign oil. In that case I understand why you would tell people to drive that gas guzzeling pollution machine. The future is here join it.
Oh and by the way our Prius gets 45 to 49 miles per gallon in the city. Your 5 year thing is totally innacurate. Instead of purchasing an outrageous amount of Saudi oil every month that money goes to a car payment. Hmm sounds like responsible hybrid owners are also concerned about our national security.
Hehe… I don’t live in Michigcan or work for GM or any car company. I don’t support the American automobile industry since I think most of their products are garbage. I own only toyota cars and honda bikes….. Regardless of that, for the stated reasons above hybrids are not green nor a viable form of technology. The issue here is how you calculate efficiency and environmental impact. One example outside of cars is green building standards. I live in the Northwest and recently read about a home show that showcased a 4900sqft “green” vacation home that allegely met the LED certification process. Ok they claim it is green by certain standards. However, if you look at the fact that it is absolutely huge for a single family, overprice hence not affordable by most standards, and is intended as a second home (hence displacing real hard working rural people) it does not really seem that green. Here’s the rub. You “aka environementally conscious not too radical liberal” buy what ever the establishment continues to sell you and keep perpetuating an incredibly corrupt system or can look a little closer develop comphrehensive and effective theory and maybe actually change something for the better. Enough said typing with a broken finger is getting old….
“Chris Demorro”
CNW Marketing Research, Inc. “dust to dust” article is a flawed with many unrealistic assumptions.
Nickel mining has absolutely nothing to do with people who drive a Prius: If you believe the Canadian government doesn’t have environmental laws then you are clearly confused. If you believe a Hummer is an environmentally friend vehicle then you are confused! If you believe that a Prius stops functioning after 100K miles then you are clearly confused. If you believe that a Hummer can go 300K miles on average then you are clearly confused. If you believe the world is flat, that would make sense considering the lack of logic in your posting.
After reading a few of these posts, here and elsewhere I have come to conclude the following. People who buy support, or otherwise view hybrids favorably, are almost wholly motivated by emotion. Thus, I buy a hybrid because it makes me feel good. It cleans my conscience of the fact that I am really not doing all to much for the environment and unwilling to make REAL changes to my life. Also, I get mad when any one points this out because any criticisms of hybrids are merely based upon emotion rather than fact and mostly put out there by people who do not care about the environment…. RIGHT? Or am I missing something about the fine counesuers of a $100k Lexus that gets 22 mpg or a Prius that only lasts 8 years and will never save enough gas to justify its existence?
DK, I know nothing about Lexus drivers, but as a five-year Prius driver, I think you may be, as you suggest, missing a few things.
1. I am counting on my Prius to last a lot longer than eight years. I have no idea where your suggestion that it won’t comes from, but long experience with Toyota products gives me hope that I’ll be driving this one until technology comes up with something better.
2. I enjoy my belief, so far well substantiated, that my car will start when I want it to, go where I want it to, and stop when I want it to, reliably. I haven’t spent a cent for repairs other than regular maintenance.
3. By using my bike when I can, public transportation when it’s convenient enough, and my Prius only when a car is really required, I am burning less than 10 gallons of fuel per month. Over a year of mostly urban driving, I’m getting 45 mpg or better. Whether my fuel savings will justify the cost of this car, which I bought new, depends on (a) how long it lasts, (b) its resale value when I stop using it, if I ever do, and (c) the cost of fuel over its lifetime. For quite a while now, the trend for fuel has been pretty steadily in one direction, wouldn’t you say?
4. Being a hatchback with fold-down rear seats, my Prius can function almost as a small truck. Using tie-downs, we’ve moved household items as large as a four-drawer dresser safely from place to place. With the rear seat in place, passengers in the back ride comfortably.
5. It accelerates well and, with cruise control as standard equipment, it is great to drive for long distances.
6. And, you’re right that a part of my joy in this car has to do with a feeling: that I am polluting the air a little less when I drive than I would be in any other car I know of. It is a pleasure to sit at a red light, using no fuel until the light changes and I accelerate smoothly away.
I know I am fortunate to be able to afford a Prius. I suspect I might have been more ecologically responsible if I had bought a smaller, used Toyota. One of those I had a while back served me for years for ten-cents a mile, all costs considered. So maybe I should admit that for me the Prius is a luxury car. Of the feelings I have about my car, one that plays a not very large part is guilt. — Bob
Bob…….
1. What your missing is that the batteries your beloved hybrid wont last much more than ten years. They are only $4000 so don’t worry…..
2. As the other posts suggest mileage is only one factor. Production impact and other environmental/social factors should also be considered.
3. Lexus is a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota. My comment about the Lexus’s applies very well to the Prius crowd also….. I would suggest you read up on marketing/brainwashing and watch a few commercials about hybrids in more introspective light.
4. 45 mpg really is not that exceptional. My wife’s 2001 Corrolla gets around that. And I am certain a diesel of similar size would average around 60 all for much less than a hybrid.
5. The method with which you defend your position mostly substantiates my claim. You bring in extraineous points that are mostly irellevent, and as far as I can tell lack technical knowledge of either cars or environmental cost accounting…..