Tweaked hybrid gets 80 miles per gallon

Okay, so it is $370 + $350 + $250 which is $970 a year in actual costs excluding fuel. That is still more than your $800 fuel bill annually. The point being that the actual operating costs are higher than most people realize (and higher than you estimated).

I've never heard of Rapeseed but I'm open to almost anything that works. Can Rapeseed be grown fast enough and in enough quantity to be viable? Are there any uses for the by product?

I've never heard of Rapeseed

Rapeseed (Brassica napus). Because Americans get all squirmy when they hear the word "rape" in Rapeseed, it's more commonly known by the marketing term Canola (Canada Napus Oil Low Acid).

Most fuel crops are rated by the amount of energy they can produce per area of land per year. Rapeseed produces about 1000 kg of oil per hectare per year. Output can be increased beyond this by growing particular cultivars (most of which are patented) and by intensive fertilization. However, because this leads to all sorts of patent licensing issues and intensive fertilization, while increasing the total output, requires much more input energy and might not achieve a 3 to 1 net energy ration.

There are other potential fuel crops that produce much more than Rapeseed. Avocados (Persea americana) produce more than 2200 kg of oil per hectare per year, but they don't grow well in North America's vast prairie lands. If I owned farmland in California (and could stomach the state's loopy politics), I'd seriously be looking to trademark the term "Guacamoleum". Oil Palms (Elaeis guineensis) produce more than 5000 kg of oil per hectare per year, but they don't grow well anywhere in the U.S. outside of Southern California, Florida, and Hawaii.

Of course, even the Oil Palm is small potatoes. The fuel crop with the potential of American fuel independence is algae. Some strains of algae can produce more than 40,000 kg of oil per hectare per year. And those are naturally occurring strains. A simple organism like algae should be relatively easy to genetically modify for maximum oil output. Because algae grow constantly, they can be harvested year round. All they need to do this is lots of sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to grow in.

The water doesn't even need to be fresh. Salty brackish polluted wastewater will suit the algae just fine. The algae ponds don't even need to take up existing food growing farmland, and the water doesn't need to be fresh. In fact, the best locations to grow algae is in the middle of the sunny desert wasteland.

Unfortunately, before algae's full fuel potential can be realized, some investment will be needed in developing oil algae farming and oil extraction techniques. Currently, the only companies that engage in large scale algae growing are Amway and a few hippie food supplement producers. I don't know if they are the ideal companies for developing an emerging algal based renewable fuel industry, but they are the best current place to start. Eventually, someone is going to put some money into this, and make a bundle from it.

The real costs of hybrids will be dumping the old batteries. Besides the cost of replacement, dumping 100 million tons of batteries in landfills will get old quick. Recycling might work, but chances are good you will have to PAY someone to do it.