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I wish I could go the public transportation route, but thanks to the pitiful bus system in greater San Diego, I'd have to take 3 busses for approximately 2hours each way to get to work (to cover 20 miles) and with a slim margin for connections if any of the busses were late.

Even if you lose money buying or on salary, you'll make it up with time saved and money saved from not driving. It costs 56 cents a mile to drive. Average commute time was 26 minutes in 2000.

Add it up. Living far from your job costs a lot of money, contributes to pollution, and contributes to poor quality of life (ever been grouchy due to your commute?).

I'm not picking on you. This is an issue all over America. Many people have a dream of living in some idyllic place, but at the same time want the jobs available in the city. Make compromises. Live in that smaller place in the city. Work at that lower paying job in the suburbs. Your life will get better, I promise.

Assuming a 7 year ownership (beyond that it gets much more complex due to the car breaking down etc) we get a yearly cost of about (Purchase cost)/7 + yearly insurance cost + (Miles Driven/year)*(Cost of a gallon of gas)/(MPG). For many people if they actually did the math it works out that even with gas being $2.50/gallon it's cheaper not to buy a hybrid car!

Honda Civic Hybrid: 49 mpg city, 51 mpg highway, MSRP, $21,850
Honda Civic: 30 mpg city, 40 highway, MSRP, $17,310 (you can get it cheaper, but that's comparably equipped)

Cost difference: $4,540
Take off the federal tax benefit of $2k, and the cost difference is $2,540

Let's round the MPG difference to 10 mpg on average and assume the average cost of a gallon of gas over the lifetime of the cars is $2.50 (probably too low, but let's leave it there because that's what you suggested).

2540 / 2.50 = 1,016 gallons of gas before breaking even.

If you exclusively drove on the highway, that's 40k miles to break even.

If you split your driving evenly between city and highway (35 mpg), that's 35k miles to break even.

If it's mostly city driving, it's 30k miles to break even.

AAA says that a person, on average, puts on 75k miles in 5 years.

So, back of the napkin math says a Civic Hybrid will break even in 2 to 3 years.

Add to it car pool benefits (in California, at least), and the value question becomes even clearer. Take the car pool lane over the Bay Bridge every workday? Save $3 a trip, or $750 a year, not to mention a heck of a lot of time.

Now here's the real clincher - the reason people should drive a more fuel effecient car isn't because they'll save money, it's because they are doing the right thing. Drive less, and if you must drive, use a more fuel effecient vehicle. It haa a bigger positive impact than recycling beer cans.

Back to your question - why should companies give incentives to employees that are more fuel effecient? Again, it's the right thing to do. As a side effect they'll also benefit from it. More exercise (from biking, walking, etc.) = a healthier workforce. Indirect and direct benefits for promoting more car pooling or using alternative means of transportation. Oracle saves a huge wad of money every year by encouraging their employees to take public transit so they don't have to build more parking. California give tax benefits to corporations that have alternative transportation programs.

Online shoping is attractive mostly because of the time that it saves. Another factor is transportation cost, which AAA calculates to be 56.2 cents per mile, which it appears PNC did not account for in its calculations. And from their cost breakdown, it doesn't look like AAA is even taking into account medical costs, which is why I personally try to minimize the number of miles I drive (fear of injury or death).

And the word of the day is... INSURANCE FRAUD. Meaning 5 years in prison and a $50,000 fine if you get caught.

Some of the first road maps in this country included photographs of poorly marked intersections. Check out the third photo down.

• $3,782 in depreciation
• $1,603 in insurance
• $975 in fuel
• $915 in maintenance
• $741 in finance costs
• $415 in other costs

If an organization calls itself ??AA, it's gonna take away you freedom... MPAA, RIAA, FTAA...

I guess I better look for a new insurance provider...