A recent move to the DC area had me putting more miles in a vehicle for work than I had anticipated. A brief family discussion later and we made the decision to do a vehicle switch. The goal was simple; get a small car that has good gas mileage. I admit it, I have a personality of extremes. The natural move was to sell my most prized possession, a Dodge Ram 1500 quad cab truck, and buy a used Toyota Prius.

This was not an easy switch. I am an avid part time angler and full time American so driving a truck is something of a cultural image requirement. This switch means that my fishing boat would have to be pulled around by the family SUV and I would be relegated into a clown car the majority of the time.

I knew a few months down the road I would need some conformation so I decided to keep detailed track of my fuel consumption, costs and mileage. This data is indented to show the quality of the decision. The result is pleasantly surprising. The high level details of the data gathered are:

Time: 105 Days

Miles: 5199

Fill-Ups: 13

Avg. Gallon Cost: $2.73

Total Savings: $971.44

CO2 Savings: 4,500lbs

The following visualizations detail the difference between driving a Prius and the same average usage as if I was still in the truck. The first view is the running savings from the switch. There are three areas that I saved money; lower payment, lower insurance cost, and, of course, gas.