NY Times – The Cost of Higher Fuel Economy
I’ll insert a disclaimer here and say that I expect some controversy over the numbers. For instance, you can easily price compare a hybrid and non-hybrid versions of some of the cars, such as the Civic, Camry, Escape, etc. But how do you compare a Prius to another, non-hybrid Toyota to establish the price difference and payback time? There isn’t an exact model that matches the Prius in every way. That can throw a big monkey wrench into the payback figures.
At present fuel prices I’m not sure any car on the list with a payback period beyond about 5 years makes economic sense for an average driver who puts 12,000 miles a year on the odometer.
Toyota’s hybrid drive is good stuff. The technology is proven and the price is right. A 1.8 year payback is darned reasonable, and that’s without any government incentives.
I hadn’t heard about Lincoln’s hybrid system, but they even outdid the Prius.
The Jetta TDI shows what a modern diesel can do.
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Two things.
1. The links you’ve been posting today have not been coming up as links for some reason.
2. I did something similar when my ex was car shopping, but broke it down in that case to a “how many miles do you have to drive for the hybrid to start saving you money”. With the SUVs she was looking at, the best case was still over 200,000 miles, and that required $4 gas the whole time she owned it (which seemed like a stretch back when I crunched the numbers for her…..Thanks Obama).
Oh, and comparing the Prius to the Camry is a bit of a stretch. In terms of size, it has nearly the same room as a much cheaper Corolla, which sends the time for it to pay for itself to nearly a decade.
Well, the Jetta TDI is sure helped by the fact that it’s only about $400 more expensive than a regular gas Jetta. And the long payback time of the hybrid Fiesta seems mostly due to the fact that it only manages 0.5 mpg better than a standard version.
But it seems like the critical factor in determining the payback time is the cost difference – especially for the Volt, which costs $12k more than a Cruze.
Now, do they include the extra interest you’re paying for the bigger loans on the more expensive hybrids in determining the payback time? If they don’t, that’s going to extend it even more (and again, the Volt and the Leaf, both with price differentials over $10k, would come out big losers.)
LD: Like I say, I think that part is going to be controversial. It’s certainly something reasonable people can disagree about.
Some specs from Consumerreports.org:
Wheelbase -
Camry 109 inches
Prius 106 inches
Corolla 102 inches
Width -
Camry 72 inches
Prius 69 inches
Corolla 69 inches
Length -
Camry 189 inches
Prius 179 inches
Corolla 176 inches
I’m not sure the overall length matters much when you’re comparing sedans to a hatchback. The Prius is identical to the Corolla on width, but closer to the Camry on wheelbase.