Do Hybrids Save Money?

[QuattroMan]

I'm changing the names so it would be little funny!!! OK HERE WE GO!!!



No. That’s the conclusion of Matra, MOD form Ultimatecarpage.com who looked into buying a Prius for his own daily driver. Matra from UCP was interviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition September 30.


Matra first looked at trading in his Subaru for a Prius, and found that at roughly $3 per gallon for gas, he wouldn’t recover his financing costs. Matra figured that at his annual mileage, he’d save about $746 a year in fuel costs, but it would take too long to recover the premium he’d pay for the hybrid.

Next he looked at the hypothetical situation of someone without a car looking to buy either a Honda Civic or the Prius. In this case, the fuel savings were roughly $506 per year, versus a purchase price difference of about $8,000. Without even considering cost-of-money issues, it would take nearly 16 years just to break even.

With the current tax deduction of $2,000 converting to a $2,000 tax credit January 1, which decreases every year thereafter, the government subsidies don’t make the switch economically feasible, either.

The bottom line? Unless gas prices go a lot higher, or the government increases hybrid subsidies, or both, buying a hybrid probably won’t save you money. Of course, there are the intangible but real benefits of reducing your personal environmental impact, but then you have to ask yourself if you’re really getting the biggest bang for your environmental investment.


So Matra,what do you think did you save money?!!!

[PininfarinaPIMP]

My parents are about to buy a Prius, they are actually pretty nice and quick for a golf cart...

[nota]

Hereabouts for fuel costs, the automotive market's least expensive OE-manufactured vehicle to operate is not a thirsty Petrol. Nor is it a lethargic Hybrid, smelly Diesel or tiny Micro-absurdity

Compare the "yearly fuel spend" of Falcon E-Gas (I-6 4 litre LPG) to the figures of other supposedly cheap-to-run motor cars ..

[QuattroMan]

My parents are about to buy a Prius, they are actually pretty nice and quick for a golf cart...

don't do it!!!! I kid you not don't do it, will cost you 10k to fix anything that might brake down.

[Zytek_Fan]

The EPA lies about fuel consumption

[h00t_h00t]

LPG conversions are quite cost efficiant, they aren't that hard to do (Do it yourself for extra saveage). The problem is that it will be heavely taxed once the government see people starting to use it more.

[PerfAdv]

Pretty much not worth it if you consider additional cost, atm. However, hybrids are in a development phase, in a couple of generational cycles they'll be much improved and cost penalty will diminish as technology in this field matures. The manufacturers that are ignoring this breakaway group with pay dearly when they need to catch up.
A taste of whats to come can be seen in the Lexus RX400. Compared with the RX330 it has better acceleration and better mileage. Only, like stated before the hybrid comes with a 20% price penalty.

[kko]

Sry but what is LPG?

[Zytek_Fan]

Sry but what is LPG?

Liquid petroleum gas

[drakkie]

I saw a documentary about this on the german TV a few weeks ago. their results from most expensive to least:

Petrol
Diesel
Hybrid
LPG
natural gas

They only tested the costs per kilometre.The LPG and natural gas were about half of the others.

[RacingManiac]

From what I've heard it's hard to recover the premium you paid for the hybrid when compare to cars in the same size bracket...even if you are paying less per tank. I don't know how would the case compare though, if you were to get a RX400h, vs getting a X5 4.4 or something along that line....

[pussywillow]

cool dude way cool

[2ndclasscitizen]

I remember when the Car Show reviewed the Civic Hybrid, it took three years for it to be cheaper to run than a normal Civic, because of the higher cost to buy it in the first place, and the Prius was worse because its even more pricey compared to other cars its size

[henk4]

what you have to consider is whole package cost. That involves the buying of the car, the additional costs for LPG or LNG systems, including an approved (space taking) fuel tank, additional insurance, taxes etc, maintenance costs.

You have to translate that into costs per km (or mile) by assuming an annual performance of the car over a number of years and then look at the depreciation of the car as well.

When I did such a calcuation in 1985 to determine what engine I would buy for a BX I found that below 13,000 km per year petrol was the cheapest option, followed by LPG at 15,000 km and diesel at just over 15,000. Now I do realise that in absolute terms fuel prices have gone a long way over the past 20 years, but so did car prices. Basically the relative differences have remained the same, which show that if you drive few km per year, petrol is the cheapest option, but diesel and LPG become attractive at higher annual mileages.

One of the aspects that you can hardly quantify though is that with an LPG tank you have to refuel about every 400 km, while a normal diesel car will reduce fueling intervals by at least fifty percent. That saves time and also save you the buying of additional "stuff" at the gas station.