My wife is a conservative hybrid driver. Saves me about $400 a month in fuel.
Tell her to be careful. If this has any truth to it, it sounds like you could get pretty sick.
Since the average saving of the hybrid drivers over is something like $.12 a mile your wife must be driving about 3300 miles a month.
I’d like to see the gas bills and mileage totals to shore that up.
Not challenging, but a savings of $400 a month implies a lot of driving.
“Saves me about $400 a month in fuel.”
As opposed to driving what?
So you can get a net payback on the upcharge of buying a Prius (for how much $$) vs. a (for example only) a 4 -cylinder Ford Fusion SEL (26/34) @ $21,000 in how many months? [Fusion has higher initial quality ratings and (much) lower lifetime TCO when you count Hybrid battery refit.)
BTW, check your math (and you may have already; no flame intended)... to save $400/mo in fuel, at $4/gal she has to be *saving* 100 gallons. Even vs. an Expedition or Suburban that’s 1500 miles per month ( 50 miles every day )
Serious commuter, eh?
FWIW, I *LIKE* hybrid cars and wish I had one ‘cuz they’re cool. I currently drive a paid for reliable vehicle that gets 22/26 MPG (Ford Escape). There is basically NO economic model for me to replace that vehicle with a hybrid anything, not even a hybrid Escape. *IF* all people replace conventional vehicles at end of useful life with hybrids, that’ll be a good thing.
I’d suggest taking out a large life insurance policy on her based on this story.
Just tell her you love her if she asks why.
I save fuel, though not as much as with a hybrid, by driving my 69 VW.
And I have no car payments!