2010 Prius.... would you do it?

Brief back story

The last two years has been very difficult, especially financially. I'm a single father, sole custody of my 6 year old, yadda yadda yadda

My 1998 Tacoma is my only vehicle now. While I get an astounding 22 mpg in it, relatively speaking that's not that efficient. I spend about $275 in gas a month.

Not to mention my daily commute will go from 48 miles a day to probably 3 miles a day, thank god. But driving my Tacoma cold almost all the time will crush my economy.

Long story short, my father wants to help me out... he wants to give me his 2010 Prius. All I would have to do is cover the cost of insurance, registration, etc...

This would become my daily driver and it gets about 50 mpg. Which sounds great...

...but I have no idea what maintenance on this thing is and if it is an expensive car to upkeep. It currently has 45,000 miles on it.

Oh, and I couldn't care less if I'm considered a lesbian now. Sometimes I wish I was one...

 

Have a friend with a04 or 05, he has 250,000+. No problems yet.

 

I'm definitely leaning towards accepting my dad's generous offer.

But I'm wondering if I should tell him to sell it and help me buy an early 1990s Honda CRX which gets 55 mpg, would be a ton less to register and insure and somewhat easy to work on.

Or something similar to that.

 

How long does the battery last on that. I saw something yesterday a guy with around 100K and was pissed he already had to replace the battery. I think it was $2000+

That would sure be a hard deal to pass on though.

 

For free why not? I just got one a few months ago for my 600 mile a commute a week. I love it but remember the Prius is also horrible in MPG the first 10-15mins of a commute. Not Tacoma bad but you would be hard pressed to get better then 20-30mpg until it's warmed up. Having a truck and Prius is the best of both worlds.

 

That problem is very overrated. And if it does fail it's better to just get a reconditioned battery for 500 bucks.

 

I wish I had a Prius! I spend like 120 a week in gas! I'd get a black Prius and murder it out

 

I used to own one of those 90's CRX. It's the HF model. Honestly, I'd take the Prius. The HF is a no frills, weight conscience, base model. We're taking manual transmission, hand crank windows, and not a lick of safety equipment except for seat belts. Plus the "55 mpg" is highway driving with a tail wind while drafting a semi. I averaged low to mid 40's with city driving. Stick with the Prius. It's about the same fuel economy with much better amenities.

 

Prius all the way! You'd be crazy not to accept your dad's generous offer. The insurance won't be as bad as you think since you'll receive the multi-vehicle discount (with one driver).

 

While I am probably the world's biggest Prius hater(not really the car, but most of the self righteous a-holes that drive them), I would probably even take advantage of an offer like that. Although is it going to save you any money with your commute changing to only 3 miles per day? You might be spending more on insurance than it will save you.

 

This is assuming you're keeping the Tacoma. Given your short commute, I don't think you'd save much. So, say you get half your current MPG because you're running cold (which is probably unlikely). If you're only travelling 6 miles a day, that's 30 miles a week or 120 miles per month. At 11 mpg and $4/gal, you'd use 11 gallons a month or $44 per month.

For the Prius at 50mpg, you'd use 2.5 gallons per month or $10 per month. So if you can insure it and register it for $34 per month, it will be cheaper.

At 17 mpg you'd use 7 gallons and your cost would be $28 per month which means you'd only save $18 per month.

Another option is to bicycle or walk.

 

I've heard stories of 200,000 miles and still ticking just fine, I've also heard that at 100,000 miles the battery needs replacing.

But I'd imagine as more and more the 1,000,000 or so Pruises on the road start to approach this replacement, the price should come down.

Hell at 166,000 miles I'm about to drop $1100 on my Tacoma's clutch.

That sucks... I will mostly try to ride bikes to my daughter's school but that's just not a realistic expectation 5 days a week.

I think his is Barcelona Red (or whatever that's called). Kinda matches my Sunfire Red Tacoma.

First thing I'm gonna do is paint the wheels black and give it some tint (the sun here is brutal).

Yeah I've always wanted that HF model. And lol @ your "55 mpg" comment.

I think I will take my dad up on the offer. Really hard to pass up.

Just didn't want to get myself into a vehicle I have no clue about that may end up costing a boatload to maintain.

 

These are things I'm considering... but the commute to/from my daughter's school will more than likely not be the only part of my driving.

I might be looking at a sales job where I'd be driving all along the front range and into the hills a bit.

At that point I think the savings on gas will outweigh the insurance/reg costs.

 

Probably true, if you are driving more than just daily commute. I know I do a lot of extra driving. I have an 05 civic(35ish mpg) and it saves me a boat load of money, with my 18 mile per day commute. Although I like to drive the taco a lot more, so it probably doesnt save me as much as it could.
This is the first time in my life I have ever been pro prius!

 

Eh... I don't get into the the stigmas behind a vehicle (and trust me, there are tons of self-righteous dbags in Boulder who do drive Priuses etc...)

All I care about is: will it save me money? Be reliable and safe for me and my daughter.

It could neon pink with "I'm saving the world, what are you doing?" stickers all over it for all I care if the answer is "yes" to all the above.

 

I have a prius to drive every day and a tacoma too the schdeulded maint in the book is as simple as oil change tire rotation. Mine is a 2009 with 86K on it and I havent done anything to it besides that. its an awesome car I get about 51 mpg average it can get up to 54 if you stay about 45-50 mph 55+ it goes down a little. Jump on that Oh yea did I mention I am a U.S. Marine and all my Jr Marines make fun of it all the time, but I only ut gas in it every two weeks or so. Whos the dumb ass now

 

So the way to figure it out would be to find out how much it's going to cost to insure it. Then, estimate your miles per month and divide it by your Tacoma's mpg.

Divide the miles per month by the Prius' 50 mpg. Subtract the two numbers and multiply it by your gas cost per gallon to see how much your saving. Then subtract the insurance cost. If it's less than 0, it will cost you. If it's greater than 0, it will save you money.

Let's say your driving is the same as now and you're still shelling out $275 per month in gas with a shorter commute for your kid's school but a different job drives your miles back up. If I divide that by $4/gal, you're using about 68 gallons per month. At 22mpg average, you're travelling about 1500 miles per month (1496 actually).

With the Prius, you'd use 30 gallons to go that far. So you're saving 38 gallons or $152 @ $4/gal by driving the Prius.

If the cost of insurance is less than $152/month, it will save you money.

 

Insurance on my Prius is more than my Tacoma and my RAV4 they said its like that because if you get hit in one your more likely to be hurt thats why.

 

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/are-hybrid-cars-more-expensive-to-insure1.htm

 

Yeah definitely my first plan of attack... figure out how much to insure.

Right now my 98 Tacoma is $50/mo for full comprehensive + glass + extra coverage for idiots w/o insurance, etc...

I'd imagine the Prius would be more, I dunno.