Posted on 06/06/2006 6:16:07 PM PDT by G. Stolyarov II
A Camry hybrid costs about $5,000 more than it's nonhybrid brother, or is it sister?
If a driver goes 15,000 miles a year with an efficiency of 39mpg s/he will save about $500/yr. Easy math. It will take 10 years to get your money back.
The good news is a Toyota will last 10 years and 150,000 miles. The bad news is Americans won't drive the same car for that long. But then neither will anybody else in any other country. The Japanese will change cars every 3-5 years.
This is one of the reasons why the hybrid market only makes up 1.2% of US vehicle sales.
So, does that mean hybrids aren't worth it?
Hardly...what it means is if more people bought them the price would go down.
It also means that money is spent in making cars rather than consuming gasoline... and there is a different kind of savings there.
The question - are there trade-offs worth it?
No hybrid is worth it.
It's even worse, if you take interest into consideration.
Better yet. My friends VW Golf TDI diesel regularly gets 50mpg at highway speeds.... 75 mph in Utah. No hybrid can do that.
The future is turbo diesels... not hybrids.
Who the hell drives only 15,000 miles a year except for the 80-year-old grandmother who only goes to church on Sundays? I drive 15,000 miles a year just going to work.
And what is all the fussing on the Free Republic about hybrids? What is wrong with hybrids? You don't have to be Governor Moonbeam or ALgore to like a hybrid. Hybrids are going to be the future of the car industry. The internal combustion engine is on the way out and hybrids are just the beginning. Get used to it. Soon we are going to be driving in battery-operated cars in which you type in the destination and then the car drives itself, automatically compensating for traffic and taking alternate routes as necessary. Then we will be taking to the skies as "personal airplanes" will become commonplace.
So? To some folks "hybrids" are live wives?
Diesel is the way to go. A good diesel-powered auto will go 400,000 miles or more. Not only do the match the hybrids in fuel economy, they save tons of energy and environmental impact by simply lasting longer.
The energy savings and environmental impact of hybrid will be dwarfed by losses in both areas when cars need to be replaced far sooner thier diesel counterpart. I'm betting that few, if any, hybrids will get new batteries when they go bad, and the car will be scrapped. Furthermore, no one is talking about the environmental impact of building heavy-metal batteries, and disposing of the same at salvage.
Hybrid technology works well - every locomotive in the modern world uses it (diesel-electric) - but those vehicles are built to much different standards, and used in much different ways.
I advocate gong to sail cars out here in the west. If windwagons were good enough for our forebears, why not sail cars for us?
My 1986 (original owner) Honda Civic hatchback is at 252,000 miles and still going strong!!
I still get 34 mpg.
add HPDI 2-stroke engines to that list.
Bad analysis to support a reasonable point ...
It doesn't matter whether people sell their cars before they recoup whatever savings on gas are imagined, because this will be figured into the sale price when they dispose of the car (assuming it is drivable).
ML/NJ
If God had wanted hybrid cars He wouldn't have created the internal combustion engine.
"add HPDI 2-stroke engines to that list."
There was a local company that chased 2-cycle technology for years before throwing in the towel. Tiny little engines, great fuel economy, wonderful performance... and horrible emissions.
If someone ever gets the emissions part figured out, and has proven reliability, all in a package that is as cheap as a conventional motor, they might have something.
An 8 year old car that needs $7K is more likely to be junked than fixed (unless it's Rolls or some such)
I meant that hybrids are like "wives" to some people. You need to get a newer one every three or five years.
I've always believed diesel cars and pickups should have the exhaust pipe in the front. The drivers can then enjoy what the rest of us get.
Then why did he create the horse and buggy?
"When they come out with an SUV or pickup hybrid...."
I'd love a hybrid pickup that has 110 VAC and 220VAC jacks for powering tools, etc. A few hundred thousand of those driving our streets would come in real handy in the event of a massive power outage - can you imagine how handy they'd have been in the Katrina aftermath?
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