Now they say 7.00 gas

I just bought a new car last year. I did a lot of research into the hybrids, but gas would have had to be at least $10 per

I'm not sure why these numbers are coming up so off? :confused3 We bought a Prius 10 months ago. We paid 25K, and a comparable/non hybrid Civic or similar would have been in the 15-17 range. However, we got 7K back in State and Federal taxes...it was a straight refund, not a tax credit. That brought us into the 18K range, so 2-3K more then a Civic. We're getting 50mpg, as opposed to 35, so 40% better fuel economy. We figured our breakeven would occur at 2.5 years assuming gas at 2.50. Now that gas is about $3.50 in our area our breakeven will be sooner. We tend to keep our cars for 10 years plus. We are also finding our routine maintenances to be much less then with a traditional engine. I think the electric engine (gas asssist) is a much cleaner system, then gas alone.

I should also add, DH telecommutes and I'm a SAHM and I do a little website design from home. So if we were commuters, our breakeven would hit even earlier.

Now I'm not sure if there is a tax incentive at this time, but if not, we should certainly make sure they hear us loud and clear in Washington! People should recieve a financial incentive to go this route.
 
I jsut looked it up its actaully $75, i didnt realzize this was on the cheap side compared to your $184..WOW!!
 
Ok, I'm done with my Prius love-fest:rotfl2: but I would like to say this is a great thread and very thought provoking. It reminds me of the Voluntary Simplicity movement. There is a fanastic book out there called "Affluenza: The all consuming epidemic." It really makes you think about choices you make everday.

In response to the posters nostalgic for an old fashion neighborhood experience, Co-Housing is starting to really make it big. It''s something I'm quite intrigued with.
 
ILuvKingLouis--do you mean to say that you received a $7000 tax incentive just because you bought the Prius? If you got a $7000 combined refund that included a prius tax incentive, that is totally different than getting a straight $7000 prius refund. Does that make sense? Just trying to figure out if your refund was $7000 more because you bought a prius.

I average about 11000 miles per year. If I got 24 mpg more than I get right now, I'd save $1375 in gas per year (@ $3/gal). It would take me a long time to see the savings that hybrids bring. For someone who logs a lot of miles, I'd definitely be looking at a hybrid.
 


Our tax return was $7000.00 *more* then what we would have received because we did buy the Prius. We got 4K back from state, and 3K from fed. Turbo tax will walk you through it. The various hybrids all had different tax refund amounts with the Prius being the highest. Here's an article that kind of explains it:

http://hybridcars.about.com/od/news/a/hybridtaxcredit.htm

On the other hand, my mother who is retired thought about buying a Prius but because she pays so little in taxes she would not benefit from the tax credit.

We really benefited because Colorado also had a very generous tax credit in place for the Prius.

I did mispeak earlier, in that this is tax Credit and not a Refund, but I guess the Credit if the preferable one of the two.
 
ILuvKingLouis--do you mean to say that you received a $7000 tax incentive just because you bought the Prius? If you got a $7000 combined refund that included a prius tax incentive, that is totally different than getting a straight $7000 prius refund. Does that make sense? Just trying to figure out if your refund was $7000 more because you bought a prius.

I average about 11000 miles per year. If I got 24 mpg more than I get right now, I'd save $1375 in gas per year (@ $3/gal). It would take me a long time to see the savings that hybrids bring. For someone who logs a lot of miles, I'd definitely be looking at a hybrid.


When we bought our Prius in 2005, it was a $2000 tax deduction on our Federal return. The car isn't quite two years old and has 45,000 miles on it. I don't believe we got any credit on the State return.

Our sedan gets 35 mpg, and at $2.50 a gallon we would have spent $3215 on gas had we not bought the Prius. Our Prius gets 50 mpg, and at $2.50 we have spent $2250--almost a $500 a year savings. If gas stays around $3 a gallon, over the next two years it will be close to $600 a year. Between the tax credit and gas savings, over four years we've seen a savings of more than the $3000 additional cost we paid for the Prius over a similarly equiped car of the same size. (The Prius is a surprisingly roomy car.)

If gas goes to $7 a gallon, in two years it's more than made up for the additional cost, not including any potential tax credit.

Anne
 
okay, time for comic relief.

I am doing my part in keeping that car in the driveway

1) I am flying to WDW in September for $49 each way, I mean, who knows what price per gallon could be by then ya know?

2) I'm stayiing on site and not renting a car at all, using Disney's transportation the whole 8 days and we all know what a sacrifice that can be!

3) I can not buy an SUV altho I'd love to own one, I have to many kids to fit us in one along with our luggage if we did choose to drive! Have to seat 6 minimum and 7 lots of the time so we do not have the small car options that lots of folks do.

4) DH drives a company car and that is huge for us $$$ these days.

5) and finally, we combine trips when we can. Example: no one gets a tooth ache until I also have to go to the doctor for something else b/c they are both on opposite side of town. Example 2: everyone is limited to one bowl of cereal for breakfast and 1 slice of toast b/c trips to the store for bread, milk and eggs are costing us a small fortune and I can't fit what I need in my fridge for a week
(8-10 gal milk, 4-5 loaves bread and 4 doz. eggs)and have had to turn off my extra freezer to save money. Don't even ask about our cheese consumption. . .

And have a happy day. My last fill up for my 2006 Chevy Uplander (new at $23,000+/- a few dollars, (our old van lasted 10 years and then we gave it to our grown married son and it is still going) was over $70.00. It gets around 18-20 mpg but was what we could afford.

so much for comic relief!
 


Carpooling is the way to go, we are going to start ours back up. Work is 30 miles away RT and we all get 30-32 MPG. So it's 2 gallons saved per work day per work week or $6 X 5 X 47 = $1410 a year / 3 = $470

I paid $470 for my last Disney trip last Sept during free dining. 6 days of Magic for free if we can keep it going :hippie:
 
Look at it this way ... the gas companies have no reason to bring the prices down. There have been great amounts of data showing what prices were last year and what they are now.

If the oil companies are able to get oil cheaper, but they're still able to sell it to us for a higher price ... of course they're going to sell it for the higher price.

I know the govenor here and a bunch of other states have lobbied Congress about this. I don't know about you, but it makes me sick to think that gas companies have made a 1 billion dollar proffit when I'm bustin my rump to keep my tank filled to get to work.

Of course, we could always buy stock in a gas company. At $100 a share, I'm sure we'd make something off of it in the long run.
 
Ok, I'm done with my Prius love-fest:rotfl2: but I would like to say this is a great thread and very thought provoking. It reminds me of the Voluntary Simplicity movement. There is a fanastic book out there called "Affluenza: The all consuming epidemic." It really makes you think about choices you make everday.

In response to the posters nostalgic for an old fashion neighborhood experience, Co-Housing is starting to really make it big. It''s something I'm quite intrigued with.

I read Affluenza when the book was released. (old edition). there is a newer edition that came out last year.

Another great one is Not Buying It. This is a book about a couple that bought nothing --and I mean NOTHING-- except necessities (food, shelter, gas) for one year. And even the food budget was pared down to only necessitities.
 
$7 a gallon to "get people to quit driving"? And just how - pray tell - are people supposed to "quit driving"?

The area I am in now (where I live 7 to 8 months out of the year) is very isolated and there is NO public transportation at all - none.. How would the year-round residents here get to work? The people who work in a 25-mile radius don't even make enough money to pay $7 a gallon for gas and those who earn more have to travel 45 miles+ - at the very least - to get to work..

Indications on the national news already show that people are making drastic changes in terms of shopping, dining out, making any big ticket purchases, etc.. $7 a gallon for gas would create a huge problem for our economy - one that will have an impact on everyone - not just those in certain income brackets..:sad2:
 
Haven't they done away with these insentives as of this year? I thought that was the case.

In LA for a while they were allowing Prius drivers to drive in the carpool lane even if there was one person in the car. Several people got them because of that alone!

Dawn


I'm not sure why these numbers are coming up so off? :confused3 We bought a Prius 10 months ago. We paid 25K, and a comparable/non hybrid Civic or similar would have been in the 15-17 range. However, we got 7K back in State and Federal taxes...it was a straight refund, not a tax credit. That brought us into the 18K range, so 2-3K more then a Civic. We're getting 50mpg, as opposed to 35, so 40% better fuel economy. We figured our breakeven would occur at 2.5 years assuming gas at 2.50. Now that gas is about $3.50 in our area our breakeven will be sooner. We tend to keep our cars for 10 years plus. We are also finding our routine maintenances to be much less then with a traditional engine. I think the electric engine (gas asssist) is a much cleaner system, then gas alone.

I should also add, DH telecommutes and I'm a SAHM and I do a little website design from home. So if we were commuters, our breakeven would hit even earlier.

Now I'm not sure if there is a tax incentive at this time, but if not, we should certainly make sure they hear us loud and clear in Washington! People should recieve a financial incentive to go this route.
 
Haven't they done away with these insentives as of this year? I thought that was the case.

In LA for a while they were allowing Prius drivers to drive in the carpool lane even if there was one person in the car. Several people got them because of that alone!

Dawn

They've changed the tax incentives, and it depends on what model of hybrid you buy.

One of the reasons DH bought the Prius was to use the HOV lanes outside of DC, although he's often found he gets through faster in the regular lanes because there are so many hybrids now.

Anne
 
$7 a gallon to "get people to quit driving"? And just how - pray tell - are people supposed to "quit driving"?

The area I am in now (where I live 7 to 8 months out of the year) is very isolated and there is NO public transportation at all - none.. How would the year-round residents here get to work? The people who work in a 25-mile radius don't even make enough money to pay $7 a gallon for gas and those who earn more have to travel 45 miles+ - at the very least - to get to work..

I agree with this. My Dh is an electrician. He needs tools, ladders, equipment, wire, Etc. A truck is his only option. I also live in an isolated area..NO public transportation AT ALL!!! DH needs to drive about 30-45 mins to work everyday if not further. Plus he does service calls, which means he's driving all over the place. It's just not practical to "Stop" driving. We still have other bills to pay and Kids to feed. It's crazy!!

Kimba
 
They've changed the tax incentives, and it depends on what model of hybrid you buy.

One of the reasons DH bought the Prius was to use the HOV lanes outside of DC, although he's often found he gets through faster in the regular lanes because there are so many hybrids now.

Anne

The Federal tax incentives are starting to be phased out. The way the law was written, each car manufacturer has a quota of 60,000 hybrid vehicles. Once they have sold that number of hybrids (total of all models/years), then they are on a clock to eliminate the rebates - for the first two calendar quarters after the 60,000 hybrid is sold, the buyers get only half of the original rebate amount for the car they purchased. For the next two calendar quarters after that, they get only 1/4. After that, there is no tax credit incentive left for that manufacturer's cars.

Currently, only Toyota has passed that limit - they did it during the 3rd quarter of last year. So from Oct 1, '06 to 3/31/07, you only got half of the Prius's $3150.00 tax credit. Right now, and until 9/30/07, you only get 1/4.

Its a strage system, but is one that makes some sense in trying to foster competition among multiple car manufacturers to get them in the market. The manufacturers that haven't been as successful as Toyota so far, right now have a bit of a price advantage in that their buyers will pay less for a car priced the same.

Beware, though, as I've been checking this out, I've found a bit gotcha in the tax law. The Alternative Minimum Tax plays havoc with the tax credit anyway.

The Hybrid car tax credit does NOT reduce your AMT calculation, so if the tax credit would push your regular tax calculation below the AMT, then your AMT tax is now higher - and that is the amount you have to pay in tax - effectively limiting the amount of benefit you get from the hybrid tax credit.

On the plus side, when I started my research a few weeks ago into a hybrid car, the Prius was what I wanted in my heart, but I kept finding myself drawn by the higher tax incentives that were reducing the price of other cars... with the AMT thing, the low tax incentives on the Prius don't make a difference now.

Ted
 
There are also many people out there who still feel they need to drive monster SUV's. I've actually heard some (women especially) who say that they drive the big SUV because they feel safer than if they were in a small car and basically one person's attitude was "too bad, I'm still going to drive it". To me, that is just selfish because everytime someone adopts the attitude that they have the money to drive the big SUV and fill the gas tank, they are contributing to the problem and making it that much harder for those of us who can't afford to fill our tanks anymore.

I think you hit the nail on the head here! It is these huge gas guzzling vehicles that are increasing our overall fuel usage. We are at a point where our refineries can't keep up so we become dependent on both foreign oil and foreign refined fuel.

I think a huge fee when purchasing a "non-fuel efficient vehicle" would slow that down. If every time a vehicle that go, say, less than 20 mpg was purchased, there was a $5,000 fee added people would re-think it. That $5,000 would then go into a fund that would be distributed at license plate time to those who do drive a fuel efficient vehicle to help them pay the higher fuel costs caused by the non-fuel efficient vehicles.

I also think getting a man who is making millions and millions of dollars off the refinery busines out of the presidency will help tremendously.
 
I think you hit the nail on the head here! It is these huge gas guzzling vehicles that are increasing our overall fuel usage. We are at a point where our refineries can't keep up so we become dependent on both foreign oil and foreign refined fuel.

I think a huge fee when purchasing a "non-fuel efficient vehicle" would slow that down. If every time a vehicle that go, say, less than 20 mpg was purchased, there was a $5,000 fee added people would re-think it. That $5,000 would then go into a fund that would be distributed at license plate time to those who do drive a fuel efficient vehicle to help them pay the higher fuel costs caused by the non-fuel efficient vehicles.

I also think getting a man who is making millions and millions of dollars off the refinery busines out of the presidency will help tremendously.


I couldn't agree with you more! I've often thought a carbon tax would be nice. If you buy a car with poor fuel economy you pay a carbon tax, if you buy one with good fuel economy you get some sort of tax break.

Now here's my really unpopular idea (and I'm not a vegetarian). Since raising livestock is also a high energy, high resource consumption activity, I think meat should also have a carbon tax. I also think soy products (like Boca burgers, and veggie dogs) should be partially subsidized so that families could still get their protein but from a source that's a little kinder to the planet.
 
I couldn't agree with you more! I've often thought a carbon tax would be nice. If you buy a car with poor fuel economy you pay a carbon tax, if you buy one with good fuel economy you get some sort of tax break.

Now here's my really unpopular idea (and I'm not a vegetarian). Since raising livestock is also a high energy, high resource consumption activity, I think meat should also have a carbon tax. I also think soy products (like Boca burgers, and veggie dogs) should be partially subsidized so that families could still get their protein but from a source that's a little kinder to the planet.

Oh, I'm all for that! I love Boca Burgers and the Morningstar Farms corn dogs, but I just can't rationalize over $3 for four corn dogs when I can buy a case of 24 regular corn dogs for the same price. If we used the tax on meat to subsidize the non-meat alternatives I could buy more! As it is, we eat so little meat it isn't even funny.
 
Oh, I'm all for that! I love Boca Burgers and the Morningstar Farms corn dogs, but I just can't rationalize over $3 for four corn dogs when I can buy a case of 24 regular corn dogs for the same price. If we used the tax on meat to subsidize the non-meat alternatives I could buy more! As it is, we eat so little meat it isn't even funny.

I love them too. I absolutely love the buffalo chicken nuggets. Wrap it up in a tortill with a little lettuce and some blue cheese dressing and I'm in heaven!

I do agree that they (Boca, Morning Star, etc) are on the pricey side. I try to buy them with coupons and on sale. I'm glad someone likes my radical idea of taxing meat and subsidizing soy products :)

Of course, I don't think any politician could run on that platform and win!:rotfl2:
 

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