She drives over 2000 miles a month. Her Trailblazer got WORSE miliage that the Suburban we had previously. I haven’t put pencil to paper with the new gas prices, we many be saving more than $400 a month.
If we had not bought the Escape hybrid, we would have bought the V6 Escape or a Subaru, neither of which were less expensive than the hybrid.
I wouldn’t know about the payback on a Prius. We need AWD and more room, the Prius was never on our list.
Well I congratulate you on the savings then. We’re fortunate enough to not have a daily commute or a high non-business mileage burden.
When it comes time to buy a new vehicle, I really do *want* the AWD Escape hybrid. It won’t have to make economic sense to me — it’s what I want. That’s a small part of the American dream ;-) Not sure I’ll get the full ‘green’ package though — just the full-zoot stereo and the moon roof.
Last note — a very conservative friend of mine has a Prius and loves it. He likes the torque (also drives a Corvette).