How do you like the hybrid vehicles vs. an SUV?

Question

I have a 2005 Chevy Blazer that I love, but with the gas prices... I'm afraid we'll have to part ways. I've seen the prices of the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid and others, they're quite high, but I need a vehicle that gets better gas mileage than my 17 mpg Blazer. Those of you that went the way of the hybrid, did you find it was worth any extra costs? I'm overseas, so I can't test drive anything just yet but I would like to be able to play the elimination game here so I at least have an idea about what might work for me when I go home.

Thanks!

Answer 1

well the Honda Civic hybrid gets about 45mpg. Some Toyota Prius owners say they can get about 50mpg on their Prius.

It is cheaper to get a Honda Civic (non-hybrid) or a Toyota Corolla though. An average Honda Civic is about $17,000, the Corolla is about the same too. The Hybrid Civic is about $23,000 and the Prius is about the same. The thing about hybrids is, you'd have to drive a lot of miles in order for the $5,000 price difference to make any sense. And on top of that, hybrid car batteries are about $4,000+ to replace. Most people say the batteries last about 150k-200k miles before they need to be replaced. A while ago one guy i heard about a guy who had to replace a battery in his hybrid with 155k miles i think it was and it cost him almost $5,000.

So basically you save gas, but you end up paying another $5k+ for the car, and then $4,000+ for a new battery when its time.I was going to buy a Hybrid civic, then did my homework and decided for a non-hybrid one instead because its actually cheaper in the long-run, tax rebates aren't enough to offset added cost of a hybrid and a new battery.

Lets say you have a base civic vs a hybrid one.

36mpg regular vs 45mpg

(both using the best estimated gas mileage)

Say you drive 12,000 miles a year.

That's 333.3 gallons for the regular car &

That's 266.6 gallons for the hybrid car

Lets say gas is $4.25 a gallon where you live.

$1416.53 for a regular car

vs

$1133.05 for a hybrid

So overall, you save about $283 a year driving a hybrid.

let's say you never have to replace the battery, so cut the cost of that off, just the added cost of the car, which is another $5,000.

So you'd have to drive $5000/283 = 17 years

....to break even. Are you really gonna keep the car for that long? No, and even if you did, your battery would have to be replaced 2-3 times by then.

Lets go for an extreme and say you drive 20,000 miles a year.

Regular = 555.5 gallons

Hybrid = 444.4 gallons

Let's say for this one gas is up to $4.50.

so you have...

Reg. = about $2500/yr

Hybrid = about $2000/yr

So you save $500 a year driving 20,000 miles with gas at $4.50 So in order to offset your $5k additional cost, you gotta drive 10 years to break even. Then from there its all savings, unless of course that battery has to be replaced, in which case you have another $5,000 possibly to offset.

Even if you get a $1,000 a year tax credit, you save $1,500 a year. Which means it takes about 3.5 years to break even. Then add the cost of your battery (lets get real here, that battery is going to be replaced at one point or another) and your back waiting another 3.5 years to offset the cost of that battery.

Hybrids are great technology, they just need to be refined more. Another 10mpg isn't worth the additional $5,000 of the car up front, then you add the cost of replacing the battery and in the end you just pay more for the hybrids. Sure you don't fill up as much, but what's that when you pay a thousand or even thousands in additional costs anyways? Save your money right now, maybe by a good fuel efficient car like a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla and drive that. Until hybrids are the same price as a regular car or within a few hundred dollars of one, i won't be buying one, financially it doesn't make sense too.

The only hybrid i would buy, is the Honda Insight. Came out back in 2000, everyone avoided it because gas wasn't expensive back then. Did you know it gets about 65+ miles per gallon? not many people know about the car, cept those who read about it or own one. It's a great little machine, good luck getting your hands on one though. They were about $20.000 brand new back in 2000, they sell now for just about the same. Why? because it gets 65+ mpg from the factory and its in demand. All those lucky insight owners are saving hundreds a year on gas for a car they bought for cheap too. Not only that, if they decide to sell it in some cases they won't lose a dime, they might get some money back even!!! The tax credit on one was about $1,500 i believe when it was released.

Sorry for this being so long, just thought i'd give you as much info as i know about these cars!

Answer 2

A hybrid is just a drivetrain option.

It is not an either/or situation of hybrid vs. SUV.  There are SUVs available that are hybrids too, like the Ford Escape Hybrid/Mercury Mariner Hybrid/Mazda Tribute Hybrid, the Toyota Highlander Hybrid/Lexus RX400h, the Saturn Vue Green Line, and the Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid/GMC Yukon Hybrid.

More info at:

http://www.hybridcenter.org/

http://www.hybridcars.com/

http://www.greenhybrid.com/

http://www.cleanmpg.com/

http://www.mixedpower.com/

If fuel efficiency is your sole criteria, then I suggest checking out:

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/ or http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/

and find the most fuel efficient vehicle that meets your needs or size class.