Reply #12: Love hybrids but... [View All]

Both my wife's car and my minivan are 14 years old. They run well and (right now) are not demanding much maintenance.

Let's say we sold the wife's Sebring and got $2,000 for it (ha!). I then used that as a down payment on a Toyota Prius that cost $24K including tax, title, license and every other fee you can imagine.

I just spent $22,000 to get better gas mileage and pollute less. But $22,000 buys an awful lot of gas. Now I'm paying around $300 a month in payments and getting better gas mileage. How long before the Prius pays for itself in savings?

As I said, I love hybrids and electric cars, but in pure financial terms it simply makes no sense.

How is possible to financially justify such a purchase?