I knew this day was coming.

Last year when we bought an SUV, I went along with it knowing full well that in 12-18 months it would be gone. Some things you just need to get out of your system.

During the last 4 months of its tenure in our garage, I began hinting at how cool it would be to have a hybrid. So, after taking the hubby to see An Inconvenient Truth he was beginning to warm up to the idea. We started gradually. We knew that hybrid SUVs, while providing better gas mileage than the their original counterparts, weren’t good enough.

I suggested the Toyota Prius, clearly the hybrid leader, but was immediately shot down. No way, no how.

We test drove the Camry hybrid, Accord Hybrid and Civic Hybrid. The Camry was like driving a sofa, I would fall asleep just looking at that car. The Civic was too spartan, a drastic shift from the sweet SUV it would be replacing. Finally we drove the Accord. Good acceleration, nice interior, good stereo, all of the niceties we have come to enjoy. And we almost bought one.

We lollygagged just enough. On a slow day at work, the hubby decided to go drive the Prius, just for kicks. And darned if that wasn’t the winner.

We now have a nicely equipped Prius taking its spot next to the now gas-mileage inferior Mini Cooper. We have totally geeked out when driving the Prius too. Looking at the mileage display is like gas porn.

I calculated what we are saving now that we’ve gotten more efficient vehicles. (I know, the ones we traded are still out on the roads, but it’s progress). By my calculations we were, collectively, at 37 miles per gallon with two cars. Now we’re at 77. And now that we work near each other, we’re carpooling 2-3 times a week. There’s 40 miles saved per day. In total that’s 1,300 fewer gallons of gas per year. At current gas prices, that’s almost four *thousand* dollars per year.

Now to totally geek out. According to this source, the invisible icing on the cake is… per year, we’ve reduced our CO2 emissions by 23,210 lbs., our carbon monoxide emissions by 401 lbs., and for you asthma sufferers like myself, our nitrogen oxide emissions by 26 lbs.

It’s greenalicious.