Hybrids are the hottest on highway

They are but a step along the way to full electric I hope.

Who gets 48mpg in the city? I get 59mpg easy in the city.

 

wow... that article is riddled with innaccuracies.. and btw.. why do they keep calling the Prius a "little" car??? Have they ever ridden in one or gone to Hope Depot in one??

 

Agreed...

This guy, Bob Ryan, is a salesman? That's frightening as he's obviously never even driven the Prius across the parking lot.

Strangely, these beliefs continue to persist: (1) driving on the battery is the key to improving gas mileage, (2) the car drives completely on the battery below XX mph, and (3) it switches entirely to gasoline above XX mph and thus does not get any better mileage on the highway than any other car.

I don't doubt that this is why some people are disappointed with their mileage when they get a new Prius.

Tim

 

whoa, whoa, whoa.... tahoe hybrids get better mileage than a camry? *checks respective websites*

Toyota Camry 19/28
Chevy Tahoe Hybrid 20/20

wow, that's a really cheap claim... not to mention that the CTH costs over $50k and the camry starts at under $20k... i really don't think 1 mpg will off-set your savings, but i could be wrong!

 

Yea. But that's only because your "mile" is shorter than ours!

 

Just looking to be educated here, what are some of the inaccuracies the article is "riddled" with? Other than the questionable claim that a hybrid Tahoe gets better fuel economy than a standard Camry, the article seemed like more of a recitation of factoids from cited sources.

 

See the quote I mentioned about the operation of Prius...

And I'm not entirely sure about this, but the author seems to confuse the ozone layer problem, global warming, reduced smog emissions, and reduced carbon emissions several times. I know they are related but the author seems to think it's all the same thing.

Tim

 

Toyota Hybrids come with a 10-year or 150,000-miles warranty for the battery and eight years or 96,000 miles for other parts, he said.

Pretty sure this is incorrect? I think battery is 10 year 100,000 and other is 3 years 36,000

"With the credit, a fully equipped Hybrid Tahoe costs just about the same as a regular Tahoe," he said.

Sure MSRP this may be correct, but a quick check on carsdirect.com shows a fully loaded Tahoe going for 5K under MSRP. So the real difference is around 8K before tax credit.(still save more money going with the hybrid in the long term)

Ryan said that in a hybrid vehicle, stop and go driving at a slower speed, referred to as city driving, runs completely off of the electric motor.

I'm not 100% on this one but all Hybrid's after the first mile or so use at least some gas. It doesn't matter how slow you are going it's going to use a little gas. The guy makes it sound like if you drive 100 miles at under 35 miles per hour you don't use any gas.

 

When we just picked up Pri #2 the salesman said that they are selling anything small--Corollas, Yaris, Scions etc.

And if we wanted a Tundra we could get a really good deal!

 

Guessing that's an Aussie gallon and an Aussie gallon is the same as a Pommie gallon, the equivalent would be 48mpg per US gallon.

I'm running at an average of 43mpg (US) or 52mpg (UK) right now... mainly freeway.

 

I'm getting 52 mpg (US) right now driving around in Boston (very heavy stop-and-go sometimes) on a lot of 15-20 minute trips. I know my routes well and I drive very carefully for fuel economy. In a more rural area where "city" means rolling along virtually non-stop at 30 mph, 59 mpg (US) would be very achievable.

Tim

 

I am getting 54(sometimes 57) in the city but I ruin it every week by hopping on the highway for 1 hr to visit my friends. So I ave 51. it blows but I still haven't fully broken in my baby. Plus I stopped trying to drive it slow to please other drivers because I like getting to my destinations,lol
Who wrote this terribly inaccurate article anyway?

 

California and others require 150k mile/10 year warranties on hybrid powertrains...

 

Surprisingly their mile is exactly the same as your mile, its the gallon thats bigger, by about 20%, so fuel consumption would be 20% better than those quoted for US gallons.

 

Yeah, pretty clueless on the whole. BTW this paper is in MA, USA not UK or AUS.

48mpg city is EPA rating. Most of us can do much better.

The Chevy dealer is downright lying, and the reporter is just regurgitating those lies. The features on the Tahoe Hybrid appear to be roughly equivalent to the 1LT package. The 1LT MSRP is $40,460 for 4x4, $37,610 for the 2WD. The non-hybrid qualifies for 0% 72 month financing, which Chevy values at $9,686. The non-hybrids also seem to be readily available at ~5-6k off MSRP. The hybrids on the other hand are all but impossible to find (you can't even build/price one on their website) and if you do I'll bet you pay full MSRP (or more) plus the hybrid is excluded from the 0% financing.

So,

Tahoe 1LT 4WD:
MSRP: $40,460
Discount: -$6k
MA Sales Tax: $1,723
Interest $0

Total Purchase Price: $36,183

Tahoe Hybrid 4WD: $53,295
Discount: $0
MA Sales Tax: $2,664
Interest: $12,758 (scaled from Chevy's number corrected for MSRP)
Hybrid Tax Credit: -$2200

Total Purchase Price: $66,518

I guess the fact that the hybrid is nearly twice as expensive as the non-hybrid is pretty much the same as saying they cost the same

GM also loves to use that line about the Camry:

Car ------------ City --- Hwy --- Cmb
Tahoe 2WD ------- 14 ---- 20 ----- 16
Tahoe 4WD ------- 14 ---- 19 ----- 16
Tahoe 2WD Hyb --- 21 ---- 22 ----- 21
Tahoe 4WD Hyb --- 20 ---- 20 ----- 20
Camry 4cyl 5sp -- 21 ---- 31 ----- 25
Camry 4cyl aut -- 21 ---- 31 ----- 25
Camry V6 aut ---- 19 ---- 28 ----- 22
Camry Hybrid ---- 33 ---- 34 ----- 34

So technically the Tahoe Hybrid does get better city mileage than the V6 Camry. Of course the V6 Camry goes 0-60 in 6.1 to 6.8 seconds depending on who you ask and gets significantly better mileage on the highway and in mixed driving. The 4 cyl has the same acceleration as the Tahoe but gets much better mileage. Then there's the Camry Hybrid which is still 1/2 the cost of the Tahoe, with better performance and it gets 62% better mileage. SO "better mileage than the Camry" is stretching the truth just a wee bit. GM does seem to love their cross class highway only comparisons though. Like when they were pushing the Cobalt XFE as more efficient than any compact car, neglecting to mention that the Cobalt is classed as a sub-compact And compared to the larger, faster Corolla its only 1mpg better on the highway, and 1 mpg worse in the city. Funny thing is Chevy's real subcompact the Aveo is even worse than the larger Cobalt

Pretty clear this guy has no idea what hes talking about. She just called a couple of dealers and did some surfing on the web and called it an article.

Rob

 

My comment on the site:

Was tough to get it all in under the 250 word limit

Rob

 

The Camry gets 21/31 mpg. Your figure is for the [gas guzzling] V6.
2008 Toyota Camry | New Toyota Sedans — Yahoo! Autos

 

No, it's because I do the conversion for you because most Americans eyes glaze over when you mention kilometres. (Present company exempted)
Actual consumption in real units is 4.0L/100km. :yawn:

 

No it isn't
4.0L/100km
59 mpg US
70 mpg UK
I'd update my signiture but with pictures in it it is a pain in the ar$e.

Get off the freeway to improve your mileage and your driving pleasure.