I am considering the purchase of a hybrid vehicle when my Ford Escape lease expires in April. Is it worth the extra cost(higher sticker price) to buy a hybrid vehicle such as a Toyota Prius or Ford Hybrid Escape? We put about 15,000 miles per year on our car.
As an advocate of clean air and lesser dependence on foreign oil it makes sense, but from a hard dollar standpoint I’m not so sure. I am debating between the Escape Hybrid and Toyota Prius.
briham:Is it worth the extra cost(higher sticker price) to buy a hybrid vehicle such as a Toyota Prius or Ford Hybrid Escape?
It would depend how much you drive, what kind of price you could get on a non-hybrid, what kind of fuel efficiency the non-hybrid would have, where gas prices are going to go, etc.
Toyota has a “Fuel Cost Savings Calculator” on its website that will let you figure out how much you’d save in gas costs annually by driving a Prius. Just for laughs I ran a comparison with an imaginary vehicle getting 12 mpg at $2.00 per gallon and driving 50 miles a day, and I came out with over $3000 annual savings in fuel cost. But that’s a pretty extreme comparison.
My brother and my parents have Honda Civic Hybrids. From my observation, if you currently do a lot of freeway driving, it definitely helps reduce the amount of money you spend on gas. My brother has a 60-something mile commute every day (round trip), and he easily gets 650+ miles on one tank of gas.
If your driving is primarily urban, stop-and-go stuff, though, it’s not so hot.
Really, rjung? I thought the hybrids’ biggest efficiency advantage was actually in urban driving, owing to that cool regenerative braking thingy. Is that just the Prius?
Comparing the Escape Hybrid to the Escape Standard (AWD version of both) at 15,000 miles / year, using EPA mileage estimates…
As you can see, hybrid vehicles benefit more in city driving, due to regenerative braking, and the non-linear increased drag of wind resistance at higher speeds.
The price difference between the Hybrid and the standard is $3,390, assuming you pay MSRP. (Please don’t pay MSRP)
So, it would take between eight and nine years to make up the cost in gas if you’re doing all highway driving, and about four years if you’re doing all city driving. Hybrid vehicles sometimes demand higher relative prices than their standard counterparts. You might have to pay MSRP for a hybrid, (such as the Prius) while only the unprepared generally pay MSRP for regular cars.
It depends on where you do most of your driving, and how long you plan on having the car. Keep in mind that gas prices may change while you own the car, and the unknown resale value of a hybrid, as well as the relatively unknown long term maintenance costs.
At this point, it seems to me that having a hybrid vehicle is more about consuming as little as half the fuel resources as a standard vehicle, with lower emissions than saving money. That being said, I hope we’ll see more hybrid technology advances that make it more cost effective as well as being more eco-friendly.
A recent blurb in Scientific American talked about how the auto manufacturers are working on engines where a computer controls how many cylinders are actually firing based on current workload.
They are apparently getting better fuel efficiency this way than the hybrids.
The Chrysler 300C Hemi (a V8) has a system whereby 4 cylinders shut down while cruising on the highway. The dormant 4 cylinders will kick back on in milliseconds when the gas pedal is depressed. This helps the 300+horsepower Hemi powered 300C get some pretty decent highway mileage.
Probably not. I have a 2005 Prius on order (finally replacing the '93 Honda), and a couple helpful Republicans have taken it upon themselves to let me know what a sap I am. I must admit I found their arguments against the fiscal soundness of my purchase compelling, but as I didn’t buy the car to save money, it’s not really a concern. You’ll have to drive many, many miles with expensive gas to recoup the estimated $3500 markup the hybrid technology costs you; and those miles lead to wear on the battery, which is something of an x-factor in figuring the costs of hybrid ownership. The cars simply haven’t been on the road long enough to guage real-world durability of hybrid powerpacks.
(See 1980.) This car can be seen in Casino, if you can stay awake long enough.
Tis a good idea, if it works. But my faith in the Big Three at making any technology more sophisticated than the wheel and axle work is vastly diminished by the last thirty years of domestic production.
I have a hard time accepting the utility of hybrids. Road and track drove a test PRIUS for 15,000 miles…they averaged just 42 MPG! I used to drive a SATURN SL! (1.9 lier engine, manual transmission). I kept track of my gas mileage over 120,000 miles-I averaged about 38.4 MPG. It seems to me that you would have to drive a Prius for a LONG time to begin saving any money…why not buy a car witha asmall engine (like 1.2 liters, and amanual transmission). This would save you money up front, and yield you a better savings.
Well, I haven’t been paying that close attention, since I don’t own one. But I do remeber hearing that “creeping” driving and stop-and-go didn’t help the fuel efficiency as much as maintaining a constant speed – my brother even prefers to driving 55MPH instead of 65MPH now, because it gives him an incremental boost in miles-per-tank.
I am curious, would it cost more to finance and/or insure a hybrid vehcle. After all, the resale value and possible repair costs could not be known, could they?
The fuel efficiency benefits are highly dependent on where and how you drive the Prius. On the highway, the Prius does better, though not enormously so, than a subcompact. In the city, it mops the floor with any other car on the road. It actually gets better milage in stop-and-go traffic, so fuel savings can be considerable in that environment. Again, you’ll still have to drive it a long time to realise those savings over the cost of the technology. I do a lot of city driving, so my savings are likely to be greater than the average driver.
“Utility” is difficult thing to difine for all consumers. I didn’t buy a Prius to save money on gas. I bought it to minimize my consumption of fossil fuels, and hence my production of emissions. The Prius produces fewer CO[sub]2[/sub] and smog-producing emissions than pretty much any other car (the Insight might beat it out). To me, those features are worth something to me, and hence have “utility”.
Like I said, the two conservative aquaintances who felt the need to disabuse me of my tree-hugging delusions argued from the standpoint of pure costs (as well as the fact the car is Japanese, but I won’t go there), in terms of investment vs. gas savings. If that’s all you care about, don’t buy a hybrid. If reducing polution is worth something to you, buying a hybrid is a good option.
I have a 2001 Prius that I got in October 2000. Is it worth the cost? I haven’t done any real analysis, but I get a tank of gas about every 2 weeks or longer, which is nice for convenience sake. I’ve never had to pay for any work besides the usual oil changes, tires, etc. I don’t know what kind of warranties they’re offering these days, but mine was 8 years/80K (I think). I’m getting close to 60K.
I got it mostly because I’m a sucker for the latest technology when I can afford it. Well, I am kind of an environmentalist, I admit it.
My readout MPG average is usually 42-45, but I haven’t ever calculated actual mileage. Maybe I’ll think to do that next time I fill up.
I find that even though everything I had read says that the Prius is supposed to get better mileage city than highway, that I get better mileage highway (according to the guage). I imagine “city” driving could be interpreted in several ways.
Overall, I’m very happy with it and plan to keep it until it craps out and I’ll probably buy some other Hybrid or another Prius after that (USED!).
According to my car insurance provider (AMICA) insurance is going to be about what I would pay for a 4-cyl. Camry, with all the safety features the Prius has. I haven’t gone over financing details yet, but the guy at the dealer told me it makes no difference as far as they’re concerned which car I buy from them, as long as I can afford it. I’ve got a perfect credit rating, so I expect the rate to be about what I’d get for a Camry.
In short, if you expect to save money on gas, the price of the car will out weigh it. You can get a nice little Echo that gets 45mpg for around 13 grand, or you can get a nice Prius that gets 45-60 mpg for 24grand. 11 thousand is a lot of gas. Lets say 2 bucks a gallon, that is 11,000 / 2 = 5500 gallons of gas. At, let’s say 50mpg for the Prius, that would give you 275,000 miles you would have to drive to just start saving money on gas, or you could buy an Echo and drive 275,000 miles for the cost of a new Prius.
Now, if you want to support the tech, then go for it. I did, and I own a 02 Prius. I get an average of 45 mpg during the summer and an average of 40 during the winter. Stop and go, I can get of 60 mpg if you are really easy on the acceleration (you can drive up to 48mph on battery alone, but any quick acceleration will start the engine). Free way, you can get 50 mpg if you drive 55, 45mpg if you drive 65, and 38-40ish if you drive 75.
Also, don’t think you can just drive like normal and get good mileage. You wont. You have to learn how to drive the car for the best mpg. For the Prius, it is heavy accel until you reach speed, very light gas after that, and breaking needs to be done so lightly, that you have to adjust you stopping distance. Of course, you can just drive heavy footed and get 35 mpg, but why bother with the cost of the car then.
If you are doing a cost comparison, don’t forget to factor in the tax savings of buying a fuel efficient car. I believe the credit has been reduced, but IIRC it was up to $3k in the year purchased. I think that has since decreased, and may be down to $1k. You’d have to check on that, but it is real savings.
In addition, in CA there is a proposal to allow those with low emision vehicles to drive in carpool lanes regardless of the number of persons in the vehicle. Although this has been delayed due to federal vs state thingamajigs (couldn’t think of a good word for that), many in California have high hopes that the carpool driving for hybrids will eventually come to pass.
I still don’t think it makes economic sense, but don’t forget to factor in the $2000 tax deduction for hybrids. The deduction goes down to $500 in 2006.
