Breakeven: It's getting shorter, says USA Today

Since I was due for a new car anyway, My payback started on day one!

 

I still don't get why people say that there is a Hybrid premium on the Prius. If you compare the Prius to any other car make that is in its size class (midsize like for example a Malibu, Accord, Avenger, Fusion, etc) and equip them with a few of the options and all of a sudden the price difference is gone.

 

Maybe the premium is lack of decent seats.

 

No no no, you got the wrong part, its lack of front legroom thats the premium!


My return on investment was immediate with the first tank of fuel I put in it.

 

To much traffic? I can't find any way to get to the USA Today site!

 

Payback?? Giving up my 17.36 MPG Dodge Durango and going to the Prius is more cash in my pocket every month. My savings in gas pays the car payment and and fuel and STILL it is less than I was paying for fuel ALONE for the SUV. At today's prices, it is going to be about $100 less in net cost per month.

 

LOL
after my old car finally broke down last year I was driving our spare vehicle ('91 Explorer) for a few months. When I traded it in gas was 2.59 gallon, the savings from that vs. driving the explorer almost evened out $70 a week in gas x 4 = $280 or practically making my NEW car free. Now that its $4 gallon it would be costing me $105 a week to drive that vehicle. It's like I am getting paid to drive it now. I love my Prius.

 

It's all about cash flow, man.

Even if I had to pay a few thousand dollars cash to a Toyota dealer, up front, I'm saving a couple hundred bucks a month, every month.

Even if it were break even, I'd rather give X of my dollars to a JDM than the same X dollars to Big Oil.

 

At a consistent 53 mpg or better, PZEV (no smog checks), no idling, glide and brake regeneration, Sirius satellite radio, JBL sound, large interior space, fusiform shape, easy 5k service intervals and many other features - I pay it forward and reap the "payback" every day. Instead of "substituting oil for knowledge" I model what I teach - a conservative approach to life. The true payback is long-term sustainability, not short-term profit.

 

so why does that article claim that the camry hybrid has a shorter payback period then the prius does? must be an error.

 

What kind of payback period can I expect for a Hummer H2? :evil:

 

Let's do it simple way

Cost
Camry Hybrid > Prius

MPG
Camry Hybrid < Prius

So why does it take longer to get your money back in a prius? I'm really confused...Are they comparing a prius to a Fully Loaded v10 camry or something? i don't get it .. someone please explain

 

This is what I was saying in the other thread on this subject. Edmunds which I think has the best of intentions does a sloppy, lazy analysis then the rest of the media who really have no clue what this is all about pick up the 'expert analysis' and just regugitate Edmunds' stats.

Hybrids recoup higher cost in less time - USATODAY.com

It's not 'bad' per se but I dont understand why Edmunds just doesn't use all the resources that they have at their disposal on their own site.

 

Is there a non hybrid prius? Then how can you really calculate a payback period? The argument that you compare cars that are similar is silly.

Then would it be legitimate to compare a BMW 325 to a Honda Accord V6? What's the payback for that price difference? Oh yeah, never.

 

Again, here is Edmunds providing info to a bunch of media dopes and Edmunds can't get a couple of basic concepts right. How are the media dummies supposed to understand?

Either the Prius is a stand-alone hybrid with no non-hybrid counterpart so there is no valid comparison...
or more accurately...
the non-hybrid counterpart of the Prius ( a 5 door 4c hatchback ) is the Matrix ( a 5 door 4c hatchback )!!!

The Package #2 Prius goes for ~$23900
The Matrix with the same features goes for ~$20500 with the same equipment ( no SKS )

If a proper comparo is to be done these are two to compare

 

Although the accuracy of their numbers is being called in comparison, I found it interesting they mentioned the breakeven period for the Saturn Aura Hybrid is 24.3 years.

Is Jonnycat26 going to sing the praises of GM's BAS mild hybrids again?

 

The problem that I see here not in the numbers themselves, it's in what's "behind" them:

For the Camry, there's an obvious hybrid and non-hybrid model. It's easy to calculate that the hybrid version is about $880ish more expensive than the conventional. Based on the difference in FE, with an assumed driving distance and cost per gallon of gas, it's easy to figure out that it would take about a year and three-quarters to save the $880ish more that you paid for the Camry hybrid (if you bought one.)

However, now we come to the Prius and what I see as the rub. The article is claiming that the Prius "hybrid premium" is about $2,200. Using the same methodology as was done for the Camry; it's easy to see that with the assumptions in the "pay-back" figure using all the stated assumptions is a little more than 2 and half years. But that's all in the article... The problem is that is have absolutely know idea how they came to the somewhat (IMHO) ridiculous conclusion that the "hybrid premium" on a Prius is $2,200. What comparison are they making (last I checked, the Prius only comes as a hybrid)?

The best that I can see that they did was compare the Prius to some other model (probably the Camry, but I'm guessing.) Does anyone have any idea what kind of methodology they used for this? I'm sure that this has got have been discussed before...

Oh, and to answer you question, based on the calculations summarized in the article, the Prius has a longer "pay back" time simply because it has a larger hybrid premium (not that I understand how they got that.) Only the Prius' superior FE enabled it to make up that handicap as quickly as it did.

 

Bingo!

When I was ranting on this a second ago, I completely forgot about the Matrix (though I think that's still a "fruit salad" comparison.)