Toyota, Honda, Ford Hybrid Tax Credits

RisingSunofNihon ^ | June 11, 2006 | Dr. Bill Belew

[G. Stolyarov II]

Toyota hybrids have hit the ceiling - the tax break ceiling.

The limit of 60,000 cars was surpassed already, BUT, because of some funky law, buyers have until Sept. 30th to buy a Prius and still qualify for the $3,150 government tax credit. After that they can only get half a credit.

Qualifying for the credit is easy -- finding a Prius is the hard part.

I got an email from a fellow in Canada who says they have a bunch of them just sitting around. Would anybody like to fund bringing them here to the Bay area of San Francisco? The price of a used Prius goes up here. There is money to be made there somewhere.

The following hybrids are eligible for tax credits -

2006 Ford Escape 2WD- $2,600

2006 Ford Escape AWD - $1,950

Haven't reached the 60,000 limit yet.

2006 Mercury Mariner - $1,950

2006 Honda Civic - $2,100

2006 Honda Accord - $650 - $1,300

2006 Honda Insight - $1,450

Haven't reached the 60,000 limit yet.

2006 Toyota Prius - $3,150

2006 Toyota Highlander - $2,600

2006 Lexus RX 400h - $2,600

2007 Toyota Camry - $2,6000

2007 Lexus GS 450h - $1,500

CA will issue 75,000 HOV stickers to hybrid owners...the current number of stickers issued is 56,775 -- with about 8,000 more pending.

Which of these cars might you be planning to buy?

[G. Stolyarov II]

The question here is whether the money saved via the tax credit will be greater than the money lost by purchasing the hybrid car and paying more for fuel and/or for the car itself; it is a question of specific calculations which I cannot answer a priori. Suffice it to say that the tax credits provide a greater incentive to purchase hybrid cars than the absence of said credits. See Dr. Belew’s blog at RisingSunofNihon

[GSlob]

You presume that all those in search for "high moral ground" credit [the only use of the said high ground is that it is very convenient for urinating on those below] - so that all those in search of this HMG credit already got their hybrids. There is an intangible element in greenpissing.