Since MeanOldLady is in Minnesota, I wonder if that means it won’t work over ice?
Sure, there’s little doubt that the Plug-in hybrid is the car of the future, starting in a couple-five years and maybe for 20 after. But they still use gas (just not always).
Note that today, with all the great deals, you can often buy a new car with a better deal than a lightly used late model used car. The CW of buying a lightly used late model used car is currently wrong.
CW?
If you want to guage future, it often helps to look at the past.
Do we still have cranks on cars? No, so why not?
Do we still have stick shifts on cars? Yes, why so?
Do we still have carburetors on cars? Yes, so why?
Those are rhetorical but they help you understand what will create a niche market and what will fall by the roadside so to speak.
Market forces can force changes, like Vinyl -> Cassette -> CD -> mp3, or the government can force it as seen with the switch to digital TV.
I just bought a fresh off lease VW jetta with the diesel engine, and I expect to have it for at least 10 years barring an accident. I can run biofuel in it without modification. It gets 43 MPG and as long as it gets proper maintenance, should have no issues.
[we tend to keep vehicles for about 10 years, though my international scout lasted 17 years and ended up with us putting 287000 miles on it before it died as a result of an accident.]
Current nonhybrid/electric vehicles will be with us for quite a while yet. I doubt there will be an instant moratorium on manufacturing standard vehicles thanks to the intransigence of manufacturers … look at the gas hogging penismobiles still being designed and produced. 8-12 miles to the frigging gallon of gas, my fucking ass.
There’s little doubt it’s the car of the immediate future. There’s plenty of doubt that it’s the car of the future. Plug-in hybrid designs don’t solve any problems - they just push them back a bit.
The hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is the car of the future.
Ha, okay, so it didn’t exactly blow up. The transmission decided to retire indefinitely.
Aggh, people on Segways are such dorks!
So I revisited the discussion with First Dude last night, and he said something like most American-made vehicles will be hybrids within the next 15 years. Wait, 15? So why did you say in 5 years, I’d be kicking myself? He was probably drunk when he said it, or maybe I was. Or most likely, we both were and he was exaggerating a bit, but I took it all seriously because I’m a giant doofus.
And yes, what the hell is a CW? Conventional wisdom?
Conventional wisdom.
Or chai wallah, possibly.
You DOLT! Of course a hoverboard would work on ice. Sheesh.
Snow though…
I dont get how “Plug-in hybrid designs don’t solve any problems” and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles do.
CW is Conventional Wisdom.
I drive a hybrid for work,
the gas mileage blows ass considering the painful lack of power, the super irritating hybrid nonsense like battery chargers that kick on hard every time you touch the brake pedal making light braking a near impossibility, the dumbass addition of second gear to Drive and Neutral as gears you dont need a button for. (seriously what F**king possible reason could you have for making second gear a no button gear?)
I dont have time to go into the many things I hate about the honda insight but when you consider my 10 year old MIDSIZED sedan gets about 27mpg and the brand new Insight gets about 32 you should begin to understand. My car performs like a car should perform, the hybrid is a constant source of annoyance.
If the price of a new car model goes down, does that not drive down prices of the used models also? How would it be cheaper to buy a new model than a used one? I agree that it is cheaper than ever to buy a new car though, but as someone who always buys used cars, I think people tend to overestimate how much repairs and stuff will cost compared to making a car payment every month.
(Some car models like what the OP is looking into tend to go forever. A used Honda with 80,000+ miles on it has lots of life left, esp. for an occasional driver like she is. I bought a Honda a few years ago with 100,000+ miles on it for $6,000. KBB is $5600 now, I have put less than $800 into it, including tune ups and 2 sets of tires and I drive the heck out of that thing.)
Not that there are no reasons to buy new, it just sounds like the OP is looking for a good value for a lightly driven car.
Not necessarily. And you forget the cost of financing-used cars have a higher rate while new cars can be 0%.
I see - I think that is specific to buying a car that is only 2 or 3 years old, something I haven’t done. By the time I buy a car it is half price, something a few interest points won’t make up for 
Sigh…
I need to bring up my old rant on this…where do you find this half price 2-3 year old cars? Can you actually link to one so I can see this mythical beast?
I think you misread Velma’s post. She said she doesn’t buy 2-3 year old cars.
Plug-in hybrids still require gasoline or diesel fuel, which are nonrenewable and dirty. FCVs only require electricity, which may or may or may not be renewable and/or dirty.
If the price of a new Ford goes down, that doesn’t necessarily drive down the price of a used Honda. The ridiculous deals currently available on Chrysler and GM overstock are so cheap that the used car market hasn’t had time to catch up yet, and probably won’t.
True. But then you are stuck with a GM and who knows what will happen to that car’s value I am a convert to Honda, so my opinions are about those, which is what the OP was considering. I hear Toyota is similar.
Blinking Duck, I don’t buy 2-3 year old cars, I haven’t ever really looked for one so I don’t know if they exist or not. I would imagine you are right, they would be hard to find, although maybe they get repo’d or something if the new car buyer can’t make the payments. I think the newest car I ever bought was 6 or 7 years old which is long after the car takes its biggest hit in resale value.
I sometimes drive a hybrid (Prius) for work and my only complaints are the unusual body-shape, which isn’t that hard to adjust to. If the dash display isn’t lying, it gets better than 32 mpg over most trips, too.
A Corolla gets 29 mpg combined and costs $10,000 less.