Not that too many people are actually buying new vehicles these days….but here is something to consider.

With high gas prices, a car that gets 45mpg seems like an obvious choice and financially savvy. With high gas prices, a truck that only gets 20 mpg seems like a stupid choice. You can buy a new Toyota Prius hybrid for about $22,000 - that is if you can find one on the lot. Alternatively, you can buy a new Toyota Tacoma pickup truck for about $15,000.

I know it’s easy to bitch about high gas prices or make fun of gas guzzling pickup trucks. However, do the math (without time value discounting) and figure out how long it will take you to recover the $7,000 sales price differential assuming you would drive both cars the same amount, say 15,000 miles per year at current gas prices of $3.75 per gallon and all other things remain constant(insurance, maintenance, gas mileage, etc.). It would take you about 4.5 years before you break even. If gas prices decline to $3, you’d have to hold onto that Prius for 5.6 years before it makes about as much sense as that gas guzzling pickup.

What if gas prices go up? At $4 per gallon, it would only take you 4.2 years. At $5 per gallon, you’d have to put your gas savings in the piggybank for 3.4 years. And on and on it goes. What price would gas have to average in the first year before your savings on gas mileage would offset the higher sticker price - about $16.75 per gallon.

There are many reasons to pick one vehicle over the other. Maybe I am wrong, I just get the sense that gas mileage is being overly emphasized.