Are hybrids worth it?

[poorsod]

It depends. If you do a lot of highway driving, consider a diesel. If you do a lot of city driving, a hybrid is better.

 

[Milhouse]

Originally Posted by ohm

Also factor in resale value - I recently read an article saying that there's such a demand for the prius that they appreciate when you drive off the lot. For what it's worth, it's probably cheaper to buy a non-hybrid but my next car will be a hybrid because I think it's important to support the technology.

Is that high resale value after a lease of 2 or 3 years, or is it after an ownership of 5 years and 60,000 miles (at which point you may be getting into large repair bills for batteries and such)? In general, civics seem to maintain high resale levels even after long periods of ownership, so I really don't know. Have civic hybrids even been around for 5 years to find out resale values? I don't pay much attention to them.

And most importantly, is the plural of Prius actually Prii or Priuses?

 

[Aureus]

Originally Posted by skiwebster

+1 on the you won't save money but you will save the environment. people who buy a hybird thinking they are saving money are wrong (unless you plan on putting a ton of miles on it).

:shhh: The construction and eventual disposal of the batteries used in Hybrids is very bad(tm) for the environment.

 

[visionology]

My thoughts.

- Diesel doesn't get a big enough MPG difference to warrant its very high cost per gallon.

- Unless you get some serious tax breaks typically the MPG will be negated by the premium over said non hybrid car

- They are worth it if you are trying to do your part to save the environment or ween our country off of oil, one mpg at a time

- Most are pretty hideous, command a premium, and in some cases like the Prius are hard to get ahold of

- For $28,645 I would never drive a Prius, that is a lot for a compact car. You can probably best comapare it to a Corolla and the Insight to a Civic as benchmarks since they don't have perfect comparisons.


Personally I could not get a hybrid at least in their current form. I'd be more likely to get a car for regular highway driving in which MPG is typically increased and an electric vehicle for the city in which you can go without gas entirely. Unfortunately the only electric vehicles, other than small golf cart like concoctions, are the Volt due in 2010 which goes 40 miles on a charge and the Tesla which costs over $100,000.

 

[TCN]

How much is a hybrid battery to replace? Thousands right? My understanding is that they don't last all that long either.

Buy a Chevy Malibu or a Saturn Aura; better looking than an Accord, and about 30 mpg. American too.

 

[WN2]

Originally Posted by Dragon

As for diesels, I think you just have to try out various models. I have driven some that seem like gasoline cars, and others that sound like tractors. The high end ones (like MB) are not like tractors at all.

Modern diesels are nothing like tractors. Fuel economy is superior to the gasoline models and performance is often better than with comparable gasoline models. Also more comfortable to drive with manual transmission since the torque is so much higher.

An example:

BMW 320i - 0-100km/h in 8,2 seconds, fuel economy 6,1l/100km (38MPG)

BMW 320d - 1-100km/h in 7,9 seconds, fuel economy 4,8l/100km (49MPG)