Only messed up the math in one way: you’re paying 57%, which is about half, not .57%, which is about 1/200. Drop your decimal point when you switch to percentages.
Yes. I drove a friend’s Escape and it was very different. I didn’t like it but not a deal breaker if I was buying one. It felt aggressive like I was throwing it down a gear.
Similar: there are fuel-tracking apps on smartphones. The fuelly thing sounds interesting though in that it lets you compare to other cars, must check that out.
A hybrid will definitely not do as well in colder weather as my brother found out (Chicago area, mostly very short trips); the car uses the gas engine to warm things up in cold weather. He found more of an improvement in warmer weather and (I think) longer trips.
Yes, that’s true about short trips, especially in cold weather: in such situations, a hybrid will have to rely entirely on the gasoline engine, and so the mileage will be more like a conventional motor. Where I live, in a small town, that is hilly and can be quite cold in the winter, the hybrid advantage in terms of mileage is reduced by a lot when making short, cold, trips up and down hills.
I did find something that helps in cold weather to improve mileage of a hybrid (or, actually, any car): don’t use the main cabin heater until the engine is fully warm. Most hybrids will still shut off the ICE while stationary in cold weather when the engine is not yet warm, if the cabin heater isn’t turned on. We use the seat warmers instead – the ICE still shuts off. Obviously this won’t work if you need to defrost the car; it only works for us when departing from our garage.
In the winter we also have snow tires on the Prius, so there’s really no chance that it’ll get as good mileage as it gets in the summer.
well that’s going to be true of any car. Are you saying it’s a bigger margin with a hybrid?
That hasn’t been my experience – I would say the effect is the same. I will point out that in general people who drive hybrids pay a lot more attention to what affects mileage. Part of the reason is that hybrid cars’ instrumentation makes it undeniably apparent when your mileage is poor, and when it’s good; an alert driver starts to make adjustments when possible. But also it’s a bit part of owning a hybrid – a desire to maximize mpg.
The Prius is about 30% heavier, is slightly more spacious on the inside, and has a bit more power (134 vs 117 HP). Yet, it gets 30% better mpg, by your numbers, than a car that is sold largely on the merits of its fuel economy. That’s pretty spectacular in my book.
I believe Mercedes as well.
The European manufacturers seem to like diesel.