1 Reason Not To Buy A Hybrid
That one reason? It simply is not worth it! Just because gas prices have gone up, people think that they will save a ton of money by simply buying a hybrid. “But this new car gets almost 50 MPG! I am going to save so much money in gas!” Yes, you will save some in gas, but what about the higher insurance costs? Monthly payments? Financial Guru Dave Ramsey fully agrees as well.
Scenario 1
Here is my scenario. Driver Dan has a 2002 Toyota Tacoma, and he feels like someone has just poked him in the eye every time he fills up. He sees an ad on TV for a new Prius, and decides to go check it out. After all, that Prius will get almost 25 more miles to the gallon than his pickup. When he is talking to the car salesmen, he finds out that he can trade in his pickup for almost $6,600 dollars! That means he can get his new Prius for around $17,000 with the trade in. Not too bad for a new “gas sipper” he thinks to himself…
According to this car loan calculator, the monthly payments would be around $330 a month. Right away, this “$17,000 car” is closer to $19,700 with all the interest included. How much would he save in gas? Considering the average American drives 15,000 miles a year, his truck would consume $3,225 (gas at $4.30). With the Prius, he only spends $1387 on gas. What a deal right? Wrong! Add in the $330 a month, and he spends $5437 during the course of the year, over $2,000 than he would have spent if he stuck with his truck, which only gets 21 MPG… Of course if you change your driving habits, it is possible to get 60 MPG with a Prius, look at this post from Guy’s Blog.
My next post will talk about alternatives to getting a Hybrid, escaping burdening car payments, all while getting simliar gas mileage.
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July 26th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Not to mention a 2002 truck will probably outlive a 2008 Prius.
Rabenstrange’s last blog post..To the Mall
July 26th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Your scenario fails if you are looking at someone who needs to buy a new car because he needs a car, not to replace a serviceable car.
If the person walks into the dealership and is given the choice of buying a 2008 Tacoma vs. a 2008 Prius (and all he needs is just a car for personal use), the Prius IS the better deal.
You will also have to pay interest buying that new Tacoma AND the much higher fuel costs.
July 27th, 2008 at 2:05 am
@Quincy: Yes I know it is obvious that if a person were to buy a car RIGHT NOW, that the Prius would be better than a Tacoma. What I am saying, is that because of years of low gas prices, Americans have bought more than their fair share of trucks and Hummers. So I was making up a scenario that thousands of people are in right now. “I have a truck, do I upgrade to a gas saving car?” The answer is no, it isn’t worth it if you look at the numbers. I’m sure if one needs to get a new car, which I believe to be a bad idea!, then a hybrid might not be a bad idea. That isn’t the point of my post though. Thank you for your comment though, I really appreciate feedback from readers.
My next post is going to show how over hyped Hybrids are altogether. I have a Civic that gets 42 MPG on the highway. It cost under 5K, had only 60K miles on it, and it runs like a top.
July 28th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
[...] Last post, I wrote about how it wasn’t a good idea to trade in a car to buy a new Hybrid. In fact, if someone had a Toyota Tacoma, a truck, it still wouldn’t make sense economically. So today I want to illustrate another option, that can almost double your gas milage without having to purchase a new Hybrid. I have been a long time fan of Honda Civic’s especially the ones from the 90’s. My 1994 Honda Civic averaged 35-37 MPG, and and the freeway, it has gotten 42 MPG many times. While looking up trends in MPG, it seems that less and less cars are getting more fuel efficient. This surprised me a lot. According to Fueleconomy.gov, with the new specifications, only one car from 2008 averages over 35 mpg. That is ridiculous. [...]
July 28th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Hybrids are getting better, but they really are not as great as some say. My husband is an automechanic who is quite savvy in this area and he is not impressed with most hybrids - yet.
Pam in Colorado’s last blog post..Sleep
August 3rd, 2008 at 8:11 am
i actually read somewhere that companies like toyota actually pay off the various governments and car testers and companies to report higher fuel effeciencies, emissions, and performance in the hybrid cars aside from how the article points out how expensive that they are. im a big fan of many of the alternative energy cars like biodiesel even though there is still an emissions problem and many other electric and solar cars even though they have many problems as well. i think that money spent to save the environment is well worth it and if there is runaway oil costs which i predict withing the next century, and if there is sea level rise and global warming which is already happening i think it is imperitive that we find alternative options no matter what the cost
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September 21st, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Good Layout and Design. I like your blog. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. .
