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I'm totally on the same page. After my millionaire frugal friend told me he managed $88/mo TCO, I've been chasing that target nonstop

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10 year old Toyota Prius is going to be roughly $45/mo TCO for registration, insurance, and minimal maintenance. Depreciation is probably another $40/mth. I'm pretty sure that and a Chevy Volt or Nissan Leaf (for low range reqs) is the best you can do.

Time will tell, but in theory the Volts should last a really long time also. The generator only directly powers the drivetrain at highway speeds, and in the gen-1 they were really conservative with allowed pure electric range on the battery.

I'm planning to drive mine until it dies, and suspect that salty winter Midwestern roads will render it unsafe/broken before anything else does.

That’s impressive. We’re around $100/mo for everything excluding fuel on our 2005 CR-V, bought by us in 2011. It’s going to have to last several more years to get down under $90/mo. (If your friend said that 10 years ago, I guess I’m under that already.)

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