Would you drive/purchase a hybrid car?

[davy39]

I read once that a majority of people drive hybrids because of what it say’s about them… Well that is exactly why I cant do it. I like the concept just can’t handle the metrosexual, mac lovin, I phone wearin, obama momma, green, treehuggin pot smokin, elitist, misunderstanding , falling for any type of liberal propoganda, college proffesor, coffehouose poetry readin, non gun toting peacenic,steryotypes that go along with the wimpy machines. Plus I need something to pull my boat which uses more gas than 50 prius’s just to cruise the lake
Other than that I like the concept

What a post!!! I love it, I love it.

 

[Princess18]

Hi Whatevergirl,

Future Husband was driving a truck that gets 16/18 mpg and once gas went over three dollars a gallon he started researching hybrids and more fuel efficient cars. We looked at the Toyota Prius, the Honda Civic Hybrid, the Toyota Yaris and the Honda Fit. The price difference between the hybrids (the first two listed) and the smaller, fuel-efficient cars (the last two listed) was about $12,000. On this point, I am in agreement with the poster who said it would take 20 years to make up the difference with savings gas. However, once driving the latter two cars, we discovered that we really were not interested in these models, as they were just not as comfort-laden as we like. Instead we started comparing the hybrids with the non-hybrid Civic and the Toyota Camry as these are more similar models and the price difference was about $5000 – making the “time to recoup in gas savings” only five years.

After much grilling of the salesman and the repair department, we settled on the 2008 Toyota Prius (in Hooker Red). The warranty on the battery and transmission was seven years (I think) and we were assured that the models needing overhaul were older ones from when the car first came out. The battery system has undergone several revisions since then and they are not finding problems with this new generation. Addtionally, for another $15 a month on our payment, we were offered the option of extending the warranty on those parts for the lifetime of the car (which we declined - engineer FH was satisfied with the technology after researching it to death).

We’ve consistently gotten 50 mpg in the city and 43 mpg interstate since we bought it and are both totally in love with the car. The Prius is no longer eligible for the rebate on your taxes because they have sold the maximum number of models allowed under that exception. When we looked at the Civic it still had about $2000 left on that option.

If they ever come out with a Hybrid convertible I may cry with happiness.

 

[dprewett]

with more nuclear plants though–wouldn’t our pollution problem grow?

No, Nuke power will be the power source of our children. Shoot the waste into space.

I always wonder why countries that hold all the oil need Nuke power but we should not.

 

[whatevergirl]

whatevergirl;3430352:

with more nuclear plants though–wouldn’t our pollution problem grow?

No, Nuke power will be the power source of our children. Shoot the waste into space.

I always wonder why countries that hold all the oil need Nuke power but we should not.

I know it’s not meant to be funny–but I laughed at your comment–shoot the waste into space. It’s scary when you really think about it.

 

[Biblioassistant]

I’ll probably buy a Honda Fit. It’s just me, and it gets great milage.

 

[manualman]

… Instead we started comparing the hybrids with the non-hybrid Civic and the Toyota Camry as these are more similar models and the price difference was about $5000 – making the “time to recoup in gas savings” only five years.

This is a good point, but requires more detail. It’s true a Camry hybrid or Civic hybrid cost only about $5,000 more than COMPARABLY equipped non-hybrids. But the hybrids normally only come fairly loaded. Compare a base Civic hybrid with a Civic LX stick shift and its more like $10,000. Same for a base Camry hybrid versus a Camry CE stick (admittedly a rare car). With the regular version of these cars, you don’t need to buy all the frilly googas. You can’t buy a hybrid without them.

The tax credit was phony for most families anyways. If you have kids, have a mortgage and give to church then the hybrid rebate usually put you in the AMT “GOTCHA!” zone. (AMT prevents you from getting most of the rebate). They arguably did that on purpose.

 

[whatevergirl]

I’ll probably buy a Honda Fit. It’s just me, and it gets great milage.

Honda makes great cars–we recently bought an accord, and love it. Then they changed the body style this year. But, still…it’s awesome. I think Honda would make great hybrid cars, as they do all of their fleet.

 

[water]

If you have money, go for this BMW; it beats the Toyota hybrid on MPG
goodcleantech.com/2008/03/bmw_beats_prius_in_mpgs.php

 

[Princess18]

This is a good point, but requires more detail. It’s true a Camry hybrid or Civic hybrid cost only about $5,000 more than COMPARABLY equipped non-hybrids. But the hybrids normally only come fairly loaded. Compare a base Civic hybrid with a Civic LX stick shift and its more like $10,000. Same for a base Camry hybrid versus a Camry CE stick (admittedly a rare car). With the regular version of these cars, you don’t need to buy all the frilly googas. You can’t buy a hybrid without them.

I see your point, but it’s not what I was getting at. We were not interested in a base model, or else we would have stuck with the Fit or Yaris. You are absolutely right, that staying with a base model and/or manual is still far cheaper. However, for those like us who like the extras, shelling out more for the hybrid version wasn’t much of a stretch. We were trying to get the most mpg AND the most comfort.

Your comment on “hybrids normally come loaded” reminded me something that I forgot to say. We went in to order one, expecting a three-month delay before we could take it home. They had a “Sport” model on the lot, which they were not able to sell, because (as you mentioned) most people wanted to keep it as cheap as possible. Since it was the last day of the month and they were trying to get as many commissions in as possible, they sold us the Sport model for the same price as the regular, about a $1700 savings for us. Their idea, which makes me believe that there are enough people refusing to pay for the cushy extras for them to fear not being able to sell a hybrid even when gas was $3.25 a gallon.

But you’re right, the “base” hybrid is still more opulent than a base Civic or Camry.

 

[Sabda]

There sure are a lot of opinions on the hybrid cars. A co-worker has a current edition Prius and gets an actual average of 48 mpg (lifetime), 2/3 of that on the highway. IIRC, that was a $26,000 car fairly loaded.

By contrast, I have a brother in law who has a Civic hybrid that he uses exclusively in suburban driving and he has yet to top 36 mpg.

If your goal is REALLY to minimize your impact on the environment, the current hybrid tech is (IMO) NOT the way to go. Instead, learn to drive stick shift and get a conventional low option Civic, Corrola or Focus. When driven modestly, these cars can get 28mpg suburban and 40 on the highway. They can be had for $16,000 and the stick is downright FUN once you get good at it (note my screen name?). Granted, at that price they won’t have all the fancy googas that come standard with the hybrids (NAV, power seats, electric mirrors…), but WHY are those trinkets needed? Plus, they don’t generate the extra tens of thousands of pounds of toxic nickel mining tailings like the hybrid battery packs do. (dirty little secret)

I disagree with an above poster on the coming plug-in hybrid technology. When that gets viable I’ll join the hybrid bandwagon. Plug-ins are a dream come true for power companies. For decades their problem has been that power demand peaks during the day, then drops off dramatically at night. Nuclear and coal fired plants can’t be turned on and off like that, so they typically run all night and energy is simply wasted waitng for demand to spike again when the sun comes up. Plug-ins will mostly get used for work commuting and will be charged mostly during the time when electric companies have a LOT of excess output going to waste. Even coal powered plants these days are a cleaner source of energy than the automotive internal combustion engine (in average condition on a watt-to-watt basis). When the plug-ins arrive, they’ll be a huge improvement.

For now, go retro: get a stick shift!

We had a 1992 chevy cavalier that dh used to drive to work all the time. It was a little 4 cyclinder stick. It got almost 40 mpg. Unfortunately it was totalled when a lady pulled out in front of dh on a rainy day on the highway. :crying: Dh would LOVE to find another cavalier like that.
We also currently have a 1989 chevy s-10 which gets almost 30 mph. It’s also a 4 cyclinder stick.

I have difficulty buying all the hype, when we already have cars on the market that do get great gas mileage.

 

[Catholicracer]

We had a 1992 chevy cavalier that dh used to drive to work all the time. It was a little 4 cyclinder stick. It got almost 40 mpg. Unfortunately it was totalled when a lady pulled out in front of dh on a rainy day on the highway. :crying: Dh would LOVE to find another cavalier like that.
We also currently have a 1989 chevy s-10 which gets almost 30 mph. It’s also a 4 cyclinder stick.

I have difficulty buying all the hype, when we already have cars on the market that do get great gas mileage.

I SECOND THAT!!!

My Dad use to have a little 1989 Subaru that got 45mph so why cant the cars today be made to do that with out being a hybrid? Cos they use to be able to.

 

[nick_aksureh]

Actually, the environmental effect of hybrid cars is HIGHLY controversial. While the media tend to push the governmental propaganda that it is super great and everything, there are some issues:

1. The making of the hybrid engine takes a lot of materials and specialties from all over the globe, which means that a lot of extra fuel is being used in it’s creation.
2. The materials in the fuel cell aren’t exactly biodegradable, and basically act like a big battery, with very short life compared to the life of a pure-gasoline engine. Contrarily, a pure gas engine can be repaired or broken down for parts and is not a much of a “pure waste” as the fuel cells.
3. There’s an article floating out there about the H1 Hummer, talking about how a high % of it is reusable (steel parts, etc.), it may actually be less harmful than the Prius to the environment.

This is less common knowledge, b/c most people don’t consider the energy that goes into making a product, but instead only operating it or disposing of it. In this case, the Prius is really the only “environment-friendly” choice in operating it.