Friday, 4 July 2008
Buying A Car? Don't Buy A Hybrid To Save Money
« The Crony Express | Main | Rev Louis Coleman Dies »With the increasing costs of gas, the demand for hybrid cars has apparently increased. If you are looking to buy a new car and want to save money, don't fall for the hype surrounding hybrids.
I have always considered the hybrid car as a bit of a scam. It doesn't save the buyer any money and in many cases costs them more.
But look at all of the money I would save on gas? Yes it is true that one can save money on fuel. But is it worth the extra $5,000 you are spending on the car. For the cost of a hybrid is generally more than the cost of a conventional compact car and only gets about 10 miles to a gallon more.
So let's do the math. The average person drives 15,000 miles in a a year. Hybrid A gets 45 miles per gallon while Compact B gets 35 miles per gallon. In a typical year car A will use 333 gallons while Car B uses 428 gallons or 95 gallons more than car A. Even at $5 a gallon that is only $475 a year in savings. It would take almost 11 years to realize the price difference from gas. If the price of gas drops back to $2 it would take over 20 years to make up the difference.
This doesn't take into the account the amount of interest one pays on the $5,000 from a traditional five year loan. Still don't believe me? Take a look at a the results from an Edmunds.com report which ranked the cheapest cars to own over 5 year. Guess what? None of the hybrids cracked the top 10.
You must do considerably more driving than the average person if you are able to make up the difference in the cost between a hybrid and a normal sub compact car. If that is the case then it is worth it for you.
My point was that unless you are going to do lot's and I mean lot's of driving you aren't going to save money on hybrids. The new Honda Civic's get about 30+ MPG in the city and over 35 on the highway.
The Honda hybrid gets roughly 10 MPG more. The price gap between the two would be bridged at some where over 100,000 miles of driving. For the average person that would be around 7 to 8 years before they saw any savings on the car.
I am sure the gap would be wider if we were to do present worth vs future worth calculations on the money.
I own 6 hybrids. Hondas, Toyotas and a Ford HEV. Company cars. The 03' Civic gets 40 -45 highway and better in the city, 01' Prius same, 04 Prius 46 highway, mid 50's city, 00 Insight, std shift, 60 mpg highway, 50's city, 05 Escape, 30 hwy and 40 City. My ecomomy car 1995 Civic a/t got 34 highway but 20 city. Except the Ford I have saved the price difference al all HEVs and pollute less (SULEV). My math is real world driving, I live in the Boston area so lots of parking lots at 8 am and 5pm on the highways. My HEVs don't idle much at these times. All the NiMH battery packs are still fine. The 04 Prius is in a higher class of cars than economy so the ride is much better. The Ford HEV tows my 70 mph Honda Motorcycles just fine. Works for me.