Am considering purchasing a hybrid. What make and model should one take a long hard look at. Need info on problems encountered best fuel economy etc.
If you’re doing this for financial reasons instead of environmental ones, make sure you’ve done the math correctly. You need a lot of mileage in heavy stop-and-go traffic to recoup the extra cost of a hybrid. Most people will not break even in a reasonable time.
You need to say what kind of vehicle you need. If any will do, the Prius or Civic hybrids would be best. The Civic might be easier to find, Prius is in very high demand. For a larger vehicle, the Camry hybrid is good, and for a CUV the Ford Escape does well. Bigger vehicles, like the Highlander and Tahoe hybrids, don’t make much $$ sense. None do if you pay too much.
What kind of driving do you do? Do you do a lot of stop and go driving in a congested city, or do you do a lot of highway driving? If you do a lot of the former, a hybrid is for you, if you do a lot of the later, you’d be better off buying a small diesel vehicle like a Beetle.
There are 2 professions that SHOULD have hybrids, they are cab drivers(NYC is starting to integrate them into their fleets) and pizza delivery drivers.
Here’s a good place to get your gas mileage information:
Click on “find and compare cars” on the left, near the top.
We have a 2003 Civic Hybrid that has been virtually trouble-free except for having to replace the hybrid battery at 128,000 miles. The car averages about 45 mpg in mixed city/highway driving (my understanding is that a gas Civic gets about 35 mpg in similar driving). The hybrid battery cost $3,000 to replace, so this added substantially to the cost of ownership. I figure that when you include the cost to replace the battery, the hybrid has cost about the same as a regular Civic to drive, taking into consideration the savings in gas and the additional cost to purchase the car vs. a gas Civic.
If you’re doing this for financial reasons instead of environmental ones, make sure you’ve done the math correctly. You need a lot of mileage in heavy stop-and-go traffic to recoup the extra cost of a hybrid. Most people will not break even in a reasonable time.
That depends…If you’re comparing the BASE model to the hybrid model then yes your statement is correct. When we looked last year at the Camry Hybrid…the cost between the Hybrid and the model with all the features in the NON-HYBRID model we were looking at the cost difference was less then $1000. The cost difference between the base model Camry and the Hybrid Camry was about $4000. And we never even considered the base model.
Since your subject line reads “hybrid cars,” I will not bother naming any SUVs.
There are really only two new hybrid cars to look at. They are the Toyota Prius and the Honda Civic Hybrid. You should test drive each of them. You could also look for a used Honda Insight. It was a little two-seater hybrid with no back seat and almost no trunk. Honda doesn’t make them any more, but if you don’t need the extra room, they are more fuel efficient than the Toyota Prius and the Honda Civic Hybrid.
Honda’s hybrids and Toyota’s hybrids don’t operate the same. The Prius operates on the electric motor in low demand conditions. Its gas motor provides extra power when needed and charges the hybrid batteries. The Civic hybrid isn’t the same. It operates on the gas engine in normal demand conditions and to charge the hybrid batteries. Its electric motor only kicks in when extra power is demanded. As a result, the Prius gets better fuel economy in stop and go traffic and slightly worse fuel economy on longer trips where speed is constant. The Civic hybrid gets better fuel economy on long trips where speed is constant and slightly worse fuel economy in stop and go traffic. So not only should you test drive each of these vehicles, but you should also try to decide which one fits your driving style better.
There are really only two new hybrid cars to look at. They are the Toyota Prius and the Honda Civic Hybrid.
I think the Camry Hybrid is an excellent choice…especially if you want a lot more room and comfort.
Oops! I forgot about that one.
If you really are a farmer, chances are you don’t do a lot of stop-and-go driving, which is where hybrids really shine. Save your money and buy a conventional vehicle if this is the case.
Jeremy–You also forgot about the Altima hybrid.
I wish we could get the Altima hybrid here - it’s limited to a few east/west coast states.
As an aside, I live in one of those states where the Altima Hybrid is available. When we bought my wife’s Altima a couple of months ago, the salesman never even mentioned the hybrid version.
Of course, that may be because my poker-faced wife absolutely gushed over the one she test drove- in the dealer’s parking lot! ;o)
Yes I am a farmer in central Illinois its time to trade off the pontiac GP. The wife thinks we should go hybrid. And yes more hwy miles than stop and go.
Thanks for your response.
Then NYBo’s got the right idea. Get a high-mpg regular car. The Altima 2.5l is one. The bidding war is so bad on hybrids now that the cost often doesn’t make sense.
Would probably be lucky to get one for sticker price. If you can wait a year or two, the market will bring out new diesel cars which will be better for those longer highway commutes in terms of fuel economy