Just thought I'd post this to see when everyone expects to reach their break-even point for their Hybrid. You know, that mythical date that no one can ever expect to achieve....at least not according to the media and the oil companies.

Of course, I bet there are some people who have already done it!

Based on my calculations, I paid $3,600 more for my Mariner Hybrid than I would have for a "regular" Mariner Premier. Take out the federal tax credit of $1950 and the $500 state rebate and we are down to only $1,150 difference. I've driven about 6,200 miles in the 5 months I've owned it and average 29.9mpg. That's 93% of the combined EPA. The comparable Mariner Premier would have netted me about 19.6mpg using the same numbers. Based on an average gas price of $2.90 I am saving about $60 per month. By my calculations, I expect to hit the magic break-even point in December of 2007....not the 5-7 years "they" keep telling us about.

 

I came up ~$70 short in the first year, Oct 2005-2006, but I also included the hybrid insurance savings. My break even point is November. Since I bought used, I received no tax breaks.

Bob Wilson

 

My 2004 Prius now has over 70,000 miles on it in 30 months.

1550 gallons of gasoline
$3553.50 total spent on gasoline

My other car gets about 1/2 the MPG so I have saved about $3500 so far.

That's better than break-even without counting the Federal tax write off I received (~$600 value). Actual break-even took about 2 years, but I drive a lot.

JeffD

 

ok, lets see:

my jeep grand wagoneer used about 1300 gallons of gas per year, the insight uses 195.
thats a savings of 1105 gallons per year.
at 2.00, 2.50, and 3.00 per gallon thats 2210, 276.50, or 3315 bux per year saved.
i paid 7100 bux for the insight, including the repair parts needed to get it back on the road.
so thats 3.2, 2.5, or 2.1 years until break-even, in my case, depending on gas prices.
so, if i triple my purchase price to match new insight prices it would take 9.6, 7.7, or 6.4 years, depending on gas prices.

YMMV!

 

My base TCH was cheaper than a comparably equipped base LE or SE Camry with appropriate options added, if I took the federal and state tax credits into account. So it is already paid off on day one. Even if I took a base Camry without any options and compare to TCH it is only $1200 more and at my current driving style and mileage incurred, it will take 2 years to recoup it.

 

My TCH hybrid premium (relative to a otherwise similar non-hybrid '07 Camry) will be paid of by the time I settle my '06 tax bill with Uncle Sam next April. Insurance and gas savings will save an additional $300-500/year (based on 40MPG vs. 30MPG at $2.50/gal). Price based on MSRP, but non-hybrid discount likely to equalize with eventual trade value. Far more important will be the savings in CO emissions and trade with OPEC!

-- Alan

 

I figure I broke even when I drove it off the lot. Here the link to a thread I started comparing the cost of a TCH to a similarly equipped Camry LE. I found that the two cars were just about identically priced after taking into account the $2600 tax credit.

However you can argue that I would have paid about $1500 under sticker for the LE. In that case I'm driving about 18,000 miles per year.

TCH - 18,000 miles/year @ 40 mpg = 450 gallons of gas
Camry LE @ 25 mpg = 720 gallons of gas

At $2.00 per gallon that saves me $540/year. At that rate it would take me 3 years to break even, and I doubt gas is going to stay at $2.00/gallon.

 

This is fun. I've averaged 1,200 miles/week since I bought the car in early August 2006. The previous car was between 18-25 mpg and the HCH is averaging me 48 mpg so far or easily a 2:1 savings. Used 310 gallons Regular Unleaded for $760 compared to 745 gallons Premium Unleaded for $2,000 or a savings of $1,245 in just 12 weeks!!! Let's assume 48 weeks of this driving skipping holidays and vacations and this will be a savings of about nearly $5,000 per year -- in fuel alone! Forget the break-even point ... I will have paid off the $23k car in just a shade over 4 years based on fuel savings alone. Yee-haw. Also, I get reimbursed for my work mileage and since it is only costing $0.04/mile to run then I'm really liking the reimbursement checks now. Cheers.

 

What do you do that requires 1,200 miles a week? Is that mostly weekday at around 240 a day?

Payback comes quick with that kind of mileage.

 

Dell computer technician. The daily commute is a mere 22 miles to the office and then it is an average of 150 miles after that driving around to businesses and houses (so about 175 miles per work day). There was a 1,300 mile trip to Milwaukee last weekend, 700 miles for Indianapolis the week before, 700 miles to Philadelphia before that (all round-trip miles). Only about 5 weekend trips really so most of the miles are from the daily job. It certainly pays back quickly at my mileage. The Dealership laughed when I asked for the 120k warranty and said most people don't need that but I noted how I drive 36,000 miles a year and they fell over (odometer yesterday was 15,000 when I filled up at 12.5 weeks old). Sa-weet!