Rep Power: 0

The time has come and I’m going green. Tomorrow, I will trade in my RX-8 for a 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid w/ NAV. No, I’m not the tree-hugger type; still want to know how the ice age ended without cars and factories. I do know this will lower the impact on our environment though.

While filling my RX-8 with gas, I kept thinking about what else I could do with the money I could save or didn’t have to spend on gas. 45mpg in the 2006 Civic Hybrid (test drove the car over night and followed the same route to and from work, and a friends HCH fuel mileage) compared to the 20mpg in my RX-8.

The numbers work for me, including the $2100 tax credit from Uncle Sam. The clincher for me was a family vacation (4 of us) to Mexico. During discussions with my wife, while relaxing at the pool, I realized we could make two more expensive vacations to Mexico or wherever over an eight year period just on gas savings and that’s with today’s gas prices. (8 years, due to recouping the cost difference when purchasing the new car)

I give up what I wanted (RX-8) and gain something more (expensive family vacations, upgrading our beach condo, paying for our kids law school, well part of it, if they get that far) just based on fuel savings alone.