So lets see, you pay no more money out of your bank account, the extra cost of the hybrid comes from a loan that pays for itself in gas savings. You pollute less, in some states you get to drive in HOV lanes or get priority parking spots, more of the money you spend stays in the USA as opposed to going to OPEC, you spend less of your valuable time in gas stations (not to mention, what do think the chances of are of there being 1970s gas lines sometime in the next 5 years?). And after 5 years you get an extra $1700 for your trade-in.

Sounds like a very good deal to me.

The Prius is admittedly a hybrid champ and makes good economic sense, but it has no traditional counterpart to fairly compare against.

Now that gas is $4/gal., that has dropped to 4.5 years. Glad I bought the Prius! I am NOT a tree-hugger by any means, but this car makes economic sense to me … I plan on driving it for many years.

@Brian: You’re right. The answer to all that is evil and unholy about petroleum consumption isn’t a hybrid. It’s a program of free unicycles for everyone that keeps getting shot down in Congress. It’s a conspiracy, I tell you.

@leah: Thanks fro the link.

@Mark: That’s not a bad deal at all. We have a few similar tax breaks in the U.S., but they’re not nearly as high.

@Andrew: I that there are many different reasons to buy different kinds of cars, but the common wisdom is that bying a hybrid will save you money. What I was trying to show was that the premium paid for a hybrid is difficult to recoup with savings at the pump.

The engines in these cars simply are not equivalent. Most cars offer some sort of engine choice with different characteristics, and people typically pay $1000-3000 more for an engine which is bigger or better in some way. Hybrids are similar–the engine characteristics are completely different, so that plays a big part in what people buy. Many people like the quietness and high initial torque that electric motors provide.

Some of the hybrids in your comparison have more horsepower and faster acceleration than the non-hybrid version. I know the Lexus GS450h does. That’s the main reason for the variation in mileage advantages for hybrids.

http://suddenlyfrugal.blogspot.com/2008/05/pay-more-to-save-more.html

Keep up the good work.

You’re right on both counts, though – spending money to make money only works when you have money to spend in the first place. And the costs of these technologies will only come down due to very large economies of scale.

I think we’re still quite a few years away from the legitimate claim that “i bought a hybrid car to save money”. Save gas, maybe. But save money overall, no.

Great. They make hybrids, but like anything good for the environment or healthy for your body, it isn’t cheap. The people that really need the better MPG can’t afford it. Poor people.

While I actually kind of like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, it is awful for you. It is all salt and butter. This is what poor people eat because it costs a buck a box. If you are eating out of the health food isle, then you’re lucky, because you can afford to eat healthy. Poor people can’t afford organically grown transfat free french fries.

The cars that poor people can afford are going to become the ones that nobody wants. Old SUVs and big V8 Crown Vics. There is no fairness to this world. If you can afford a hybrid, you need it less. If you can afford wind or solar, you don’t really care about your electric bill. You just spent 20-40 thousand on a freaken wind mill. You feel good about yourself because you’re saving the environment. I think it is good to do this. I think each house should have solar panel roofs and wind turbines to generate electricity that they can push into their car batteries and kitchen stoves. But I live in a fantasy world where I believe this can be done.

If those that can afford these things though continue to spend the extra money to purchase these products, over time I think these products become the norm and hopefully changes are made with lower end products. Once again I’m living in a fantasy, but I don’t know what else to do. I like this fantasy better than the reality that life is unfair and there isn’t a thing I can do about it except be grateful for what I have and hope the best for others.

What a load of crap. I’m full of it. Nothing we say is real. Nothing we say changes anything. Death is the only constant.

Time to take my pills….

The Prius:
The Prius really is at the top of the gas mileage heap, being rated by edmunds at 48 MPG city and 45 MPG highway, but as Adam said that’s variable. The price is in the 20k range, making the payoff time 2-3 years, but I couldn’t include it because it didn’t have a non-hybrid counterpart. I wanted to, but it would’ve been like throwing into a hybrid/non-hybrid 0-60 MPH comparison when it doesn’t have a hybrid counterpart.

Federal Tax Credits:
Federal tax credits begin to phase out once the manufacturer has sold 60,000 vehicles, so the credits aren’t as big as you’d expect.

The maximum Federal tax credit for hybrid sedan is currently $2,350 for the Nissan Altima. The Saturn and the Chevy will get you about $1,300, the Civic will net you between $525 and $1,050 (depending on how fast you buy one), and neither Toyota or Lexus currently qualifies for a credit.

More info here:
Hybrid Tax Credit Info From the IRS

Hybrid Batteries:
Hybrid batteries are more expensive than a typical battery and they seem to run aboiut $3,000 to replace. Fortunately, the manufacturer’s warranties seem to be in the 10 year / 100,000 mile range (150,000 for Californians).

In terms of recycling, Both Honda and Toyota have phone numbers on hybrid batteries, and Toyota been recycling them since 1998.

Biodiesel:
This could take up another article.

Bikes:
I have had a bile bike leaning on the back of my couch for approximately 4 years now. It used to get ridden, but the U.S. really isn’t set up to protect bikers from traffic. In the Northeast, people drive like idiots, and as someone who broke an elbow getting run off the road on a bike, I can tell you that trading life and limb to save a couple of bucks on gas just doesn’t seem worth it to me at my age. If we go all European and bikes become much more common, I think that would be great, but I’m not counting on it until gas goes up another $4 per gallon.