Well, I called the Toyota dealer. The expectation was that, if they could offer us something that made financial sense, that we would stick with the (or "a") car. I mean, it wouldn't make sense to go car-free from a dollars and cents point of view if we could, say, get something for $100/mo. We decided on a price threshold.
Once we were in there, we started looking around. It would be nice to get a Prius. They're very fuel efficient, and the new Prius V (the wagon) has lots of people room and lots of storage room. Too bad they're far too expensive.
Long story short, it dawned on me just how good the mileage was. That would save us probably $70/mo in gas. And it turns out that it is $20/mo LESS to insure each month, as it qualifies for a "green vehicle" discount. A little more figuring, and it turned out that, the cost of owning the Prius would be no more than the cost of owning the Matrix. We'd have more people room, more cargo room, and would be reducing our carbon footprint significantly.
That, and with our East-Coast road trip on the horizon, it will knock about $600 off the price of gas for that trip. It seemed a no-brainer.
In five years, the lease on the Prius will be up. Perhaps we'll go car-free then.
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