While it appears to be a cost based question, it may not be. We don’t know the OPs priorities and that makes a useful response difficult.
I say BUY a new Prius “PLUG-IN” hybrid. That way your commute will be completely on electricity, but the “hybrid” will be there if you do drive far enough to deplete the battery. The electricity for the plug-in recharge is way cheap compared to gasoline. I would suggest adding some fuel stab ilizer to your tank since it will be long intervals between gas purchases.
Plug in hybrids cost way more than the gas they save.
Plug in hybrids cost way more than the gas they save.
Unless you have the right commute…Unfortunately most of us don’t.
The plug in Prius is unacceptable to me. It only goes 10 to 15 miles on battery alone. The Volt has 3 times the range of the Prius plug in.
@jtsanders OP has stated that ownership costs matter little to him and he wants to drive a “green” car regardless of cost. In that case, I would suggest he buy the car at the end of the lease and keep it another 5 years since his annual mileage is so low. That makes him a conservationist as well since Toyota does not need to build a new car.
Its a double edged sword. No new car means no one on the assembly line putting one together and no check at the end of the week. No sale for paint, upholstery, tires, lubes, radios, belts, hoses, and so on. We should conserve, but no point starving or riding horses to do it. Just in my view, its a balance.
@Bing I was being somewhat tongue in cheek! If OP gets a new car, it will free up his old Prius for another buyer who cannot afford a new car. If that buyer puts on a lot of city miles, it will be good for the environment.
The job issue is a moot point. Cars wear out fast, and if too much money spent on them, it leaves less for more permanent things. In California car owners spend more money over their lifetime on transportation than on home ownership. In low income neighborhoods many people really never get out from under car payments.
Environmentalists want to shut down everything that uses fossil fuels. They themselves, however, consume more than the average citizen, and want to keep it that way. When I go to their presentations, I ask a number of them how they got to the meeting. No one walks, very few ride bikes or take public transportation. They nearly all drive. Al Gore consumes ten to twenty times the energy in a year that the average poster here consumes.
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