F8L recently posted about his ~$13k in savings from driving his Prius vs his old Prius. Every year or two I sit down and do the math for how much money and how much fuel I've saved driving my Prius (56+mpg) vs the Ford Expedition (12-13mpg) I used to drive as well. While it's difficult to get an exact number on the dollar amount the gallons of gas saved is a much more visual and accessible number. At about 87000 on my Prius I've now saved over 5000 Gallons of gas over the Expedition!! Thought I'd post a few images of what 5000 gallons of gas could be stored in.... 5000 Gallon Wine Barrel: 5000 Gallon Aquarium Tank: 2000 Gallon Fire Engine Tanker: 5000 Gallon Tanker Truck: We ARE doing some good for this world folks. That how much one person has NOT imported from a terror supporting nation, that's how much CO2 I have NOT produced, that's how much fossil fuels I've saved for later use for those needs where alternative energy is not useful. Whatever your beliefs about tree-hugging, global warming, whatever, this is a good thing when one person can save that much gas without compromising his/her transportation, fun of driving, or convenience.:cheer2:
Great post Evan! It is indeed inspiring and a great reminder for those who have a few gripes here and there about certain aspects of our cars. This is the best reason to own a Prius if you must continue to own a personal vehicle. The satisfaction of saving vast amounts of money and resources is overwhelming. As for CO2 this is what I came up with. My truck vs. my Prius Total est. CO2 output by Truck = 63.67 Tons Total est. CO2 output by Prius = 17.61 Tons Total CO2 emissions reduced by 46.06 Tons over the last 93,000 miles of driving. (Multiply gallons used by 0.0089 = tons of CO2)
That's a LOT of gas! Depending on temperature and barometric pressure, that's enough to fill FOUR Goodyear blimps! (Unless you've seen one up close, that may or may not be impressive - I have, and it is!).
It is pretty staggering. My values used a bit less than the 19.4lbs. of CO2 output for every gallon of gas consumed. The truck would have used 7153 gallons of gas. Using U.S. short tons and the 19.4 value that would have been 69.392 Tons. Metric Tons would equal 62.951.
