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Originally Posted by McSwell
I'm trying to decide whether it makes sense for me to get a Prius, and I think it comes down to the gas mileage I would get with it, vs. the mileage I would get with another small car, likely a Corolla.
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I own a 91 Corolla wagon with 210k miles. (Love it, wish they still made wagons...) Manual xmission, and I get ~33 mpg in town, slightly over 40 on the highway. I
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I think the average mileage for the current Prius is ~48 mpg overall, which is "only" 10 mpg over what I get now. If I were to keep my Prius for 200k miles, like I have my Corolla, that should give me a savings of (200k/ 48) - (200k/ 37) ~= 1200 gallons. At *current* gas cost, that would be a savings of ~$3600. If I can also take the low emissions tax break (that may expire, though, right?) of $3500, the savings would be around $7000. Add that to the price of a Corolla, and it comes to just about the same as the price of a Prius. Of course, the price of gas could go up or down...
So my question: because I get higher than average mpg on my Corolla, am I likely to get higher than 48 mpg on a Prius? Or are all you Prius owners such careful drivers that you would also get 36-38 mpg on a Corolla? Or is this an impossible question to answer?
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First, I think you need to look at the Scion series instead of the Corolla. The Scion has the same 1500 cc engine and the Scion xB was the leading alternative to the Prius when we bought ours:
http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/payback.html
You should realize there is no 'manual transmission' for the Prius. If you are comparing apples-to-apples, use the automatic of the Corolla-Scion-Yaris models. Only the Scion and Yaris have the same 1500 cc engine block. But if you are happy with the manual transmission, by all means, realize there is a performance impact. There are two manual transmission hybrids, the Honda Civic Hybrid and Honda Insight but both are either out of or announced to be going out of manufacture.
There is a camp that believes driving technique and non-hybrid technologies can achieve hybrid efficiency. I wish them well but I have a hybrid electric and am interested in the whole package. Still the folks at CleanMPG.com have a growing wealth of knowledge about non-hybrid driving techniques and technology.
For me, there are unique aspects of the Prius hybrid-electric that I enjoy investigating:
http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/priups.html
http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/pri_tt.html
http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/pri_RevC.html
Understand that I'm driving a "Prius I", an NHW11 model, not the "Prius II", an NHW20. I've only had it for seven months so my MPG includes the 'learning curve.' I did study how to achieve better Prius driving performance and wrote a FAQ to share the techniques I know that work. For the FAQ and details backing that FAQ:
http://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/prius-faq.6645.html
http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/
There are more advanced Prius driving techniques but without proper instrumentation, I'm hesitant to recommend them. I like techniques that have reproducable results.
So do you have any other questions?
Bob Wilson