Gasoline vs. Hybrid Vehicle

I absolutely adore my little car, Bianca.  She is 5 years old with 135,000+ miles on her and still going strong with no major repairs needed other than the normal oil changes, brakes, tires, air filters and spark plugs (done at my request at 100,000 miles.) 

Many people know that I really like my car because of the gas mileage, so they ask why I didn’t get a hybrid like the Toyota Prius because it gets better gas mileage than Bianca.

This is our reasoning:

	Yaris	Prius
Price	$12,000.00	$24,000.00
MPG Highway	38	48
MPG City	30	51
Average Price/Gallon Gas	$3.50	$3.50

 As you can see, the Prius is twice the price of the Yaris (back in 2006.)  The majority of my miles are driven at a speed that would be considered highway miles (60+MPH.) Even though my car gets more than 38MPG highway miles, I am going to use what is listed on the manufacturer’s website for the sake of this post. 

You can see from the manufacturer’s websites that the Prius gets 10 MPG better gas mileage than the Yaris with highway driving.  However, lets compare operating costs* to see at what point it would make sense to buy a Prius vs. a Yaris.

Miles Driven/Year		24,000
Gas Consumption/Year:		(gallons)
	Yaris	631
	Prius	500
Gas Used/Year:		(based on $3.50/gal)
	Yaris	$2,209
	Prius	$1,750
5yr. OC (Operating Cost):
		Vehicle $		Gasoline	Total OC
	Yaris	$12,000		$11,045	$23,045
	Prius	$24,000		$8,750	$32,750
	Difference:				$9,705	(Bianca's Favor)
10yr. OC:
		Vehicle $		Gasoline	Total OC
	Yaris	$12,000		$22,090	$34,090
	Prius	$24,000		$17,500	$41,500
	Difference:				$7,410	(Bianca's Favor)
20yr OC:
		Vehicle $		Gasoline	Total OC
	Yaris	$12,000		$44,180	$56,180
	Prius	$24,000		$35,000	$59,000
	Difference:				$2,820	(Bianca's Favor)
25yr OC:
		Vehicle $		Gasoline	Total OC
	Yaris	$12,000		$55,225	$67,225
	Prius	$24,000		$43,750	$67,750
	Difference:				$525	(Bianca's Favor)

As you can see, it would take a little over 25 years in order to recoop the additional price to get 10 MPG more than my cute little fuel efficient vehicle.

Todd and I are currently trying to calculate the operating costs of owning a Hyundai Elantra vs. a Chevy Volt (part electric vehicle) for our next vehicle purchase in 5+ years or when Bianca will no longer run.  We have looked into electric vehicles in the past, but it is never in the electric vehicle’s best interest due to the limited range the electric battery gets.

I really hope I explained this well enough to make sense.

Do you ever compute the operating cost of your vehicle(s)?