We lease a Prius and get about 50 miles to a gallon. Leasing a new car is actually financially sound, especially if you don't like surprises like hundreds of dollars of necessary repairs, and if you can't fix it yourself. The environment is an issue to some of us, but don't flame me if you disagree on that.

DH purchased my "04" Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo in 2010. We traded our "87" suburban we had for 9 years. It started leaking in a couple spots and we had to replace the steering column. A few other things were starting to add up. We got a $3000.00 trade in for it. I like my Jeep. We just don't like payments. One more year and this is ours. I didn't think my suburban got bad mileage (9-10 in the city) 15-20 highway. We keep our eyes open for the best prices. You can add the cost of a payment for an extended amount of time on top of that also. Still with trade-in and end purchase price. Don't forget to add insurance. it almost evens out. Just not having to make another car payment would settle it for me.

That is the reason we bought a Hyundai Veloster (6 speed manual transmission); gets up to 47 mpg on trips and runs about 30-35 mpg in city. Its now 2 years old and just fine with us- We have a truck and it gets 17 mpg -20 mpg unless we hook the trailer up. So the Hubs drives my little car back and forth to work, and the truck sits. Which is fine saves us $$$ on fuel (3.65 a gallon here). Doubt if its ever really gonna go down to the fuel prices when I started driving of .35 per gallon, or if the price of a car will ever go down either.

I drive a 1999 Olds 88- paid off. 30 mpg in town and 36 highway- During that 'cash for clunkers' I went to check out some of the newer cars and the salesman told me to keep my car that I get better mpg's then anything on the lot and if there came a time for even major repairs mine would be cheaper to repair then any of the newer models.Especially the Hybrids. So I still have my Olds. So far the only problem I've had with her is finding her in the parking lots. There are way to many white cars out there..LOL

We bought the Prius in 2007 knowing that mathematically it didn't make as much sense as a cheaper car. Our thought was someone has to buy the new technology in order for it to grow and become cheaper. (Think about home computers in the early 80's. If someone had not paid crazy money for them, we would be here today!)

We have had zero problems with the Prius and it now has over 100,000 miles on it. My husband drives it 40 miles each way to work every day. He will drive it until I drops over dead. Our truck has is a 1991 with 200,000 + miles on it and our van is a 2002 with 160,000 miles. There are no plans to replace them. When the van drops dead, I will be replaced with the highest mileage vehicle we can afford to pay cash for.

If you are concerned about the environmental impact at all, the impact on the planet of manufacturing a car is worse than the difference from improved gas mileage for several years, especially when you consider that the old clunkers that can't pass the emissions test (Yours are surely a long way from that problem!) have a tendency to be shipped to Mexico where there are fewer regulations. Maybe they will replace worse gas hogs down there - hard to say. The break even point would be way down the road. Aside from that, the car payments will offset any savings in gas mileage for quite a long time, depending on what you buy. The gas mileage simply doesn't justify the change. If people want new cars for other reasons, they need to be honest with themselves about their reasons. It isn't to save money and it isn't to save the environment.

We have a Toyota Prius and got 50 to 52 miles per gallon when we took a vacation last week.

Lordy, hope DH doesn't apply this theory to my stash. I say at our age if it's not going to cause a hardship & we want it just buy it. Of course my thinking is colored by the fact I have 3 sisters widowed in their early fifty's.

I got my first prius when I couldn't afford it but needed something that did not nickel and dime me to death. it was easy to drive and was good on the road. then, someone murdered it, literally. a neighbor girl, talking on a cell, hit it so hard it ended up in my next door neighbors yard and muddled the block for a while, they couldn't even get home. had to replace it with something driveable cause the prius was totaled. it took a while, and an estate being settled, but I now have my prius again. it is wonderful, over 40mpg average, comfortable, easy to drive, and I am like many here, it will be driven enough that maybe my grandson, now 8, might get it to drive when he is old enough. Toyotas have been the best cars for me, least expensive and able to drive forever with no repairs or work at all. I got the best I could for what I wanted to spend and am super happy that I did. yes, my insurance went up some, but not enough to worry about..... if you are looking, do a good job of looking and comparing what you want and need versus what you are willing to spend. you will be happy you did.

At 185,000 miles, our 15-year old Rav 4 still gets 32 MPG on trips. We now think our car will outlive us! Not trading it in for anything!