Another blast at the bullshit about hybrids, this time from a non-automotive site. If you're thinking buying a car that gets good mileage, hightail it over there and read. It's a re-hash of what I've posted here before but this time it's from a different source.
Instead, we're offered gas-electric hybrids -- which is fine, but far from inexpensive (and thus far from economical). Hybrids cost around $2,000-$10,000 more to buy than conventional, gas-only versions of the same car with similar trim and equipment. Even at $3 per gallon, you'll have to burn an awful lot of fuel before reaching break even. Indeed, a number of recent stories have "done the math" -- and found that, for the average buyer, a hybrid can be more expensive to operate than a "gas guzzling" conventional car.Toyota is selling everyone a "bill of goods," goods that cannot be delivered.
And there's always the risk -- downplayed by the automakers but real, nonetheless -- that down-the-road upkeep/maintenance costs of complex hybrid technology (especially the battery pack) could be very, very expensive indeed.
3 comments:
It's clear Eric Peters is pushing diesels, but he doesn't have to falsely trash hybrids to do so. It's true that some hybrids have a long ROI period, but for some people hybrids make alot of sense. It all depends upon which one they're looking at, what it is being compared to, and how much they drive.
For example I'm a pretty good hybrid candidate. I put 25K miles a year on my commuting car. I'd love to have a good used hybrid or diesel, but good inexpensive (<$10K) used cars of either type aren't available.
Kevin, EVERYBODY who writes about cars who isn't on the take or an invironazi is warning us about the incredible costs of ownership and the almost zero fuel savings. We all believe what we want to believe, but in this case you might ask yourself if EVERYBODY is wrong. Auto Extremeist has also been factually writing about this subject for a couple of months. Even the (choke, vomit) LA Times had a short two sentence paragraph buried in a story that mentioned the "supposed" fuel savings of hybrids.
So where is the proof that hybrids cost so much more than other cars to own, and get so much worse milage relative to the estimates than other cars? Mr. Peters had none in his column.
I've looked around on the Internet and I see claims, but no proof. Some people say it costs thousands of dollars to replace the battery packs: That may be true but where is the evidence that this has to be done more often than major engine work on a regular car?
Milage wise, just about every car gets less than advertised. I do agree that hybrid milage will be affected more by driving habits, but that is the nature of car. They're designed to be driven in certain ways and in certain situations and if you drive alot outside its envelope then I can see how milage might be lower than expected. But that's the owners fault for buying a car that doesn't match their driving habits. Most posts I've seen on car-related sites by people who actually own hybrids like the Prius tend to report gas milage close to what is advertised.
Hybrids ain't perfect but I'm still waiting some proof that they a hoax.
p.s. A straight diesel (eg. without a used veggie oil add-on system), like a VW Jetta, would actually cost me more to drive my 30 mpg Accord, let alone a hybrid that even half worked.
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