Should you buy a used hybrid?

It's so much fun to be on the "dumb" side of the fence listening to how hybrids do not make financial sense. My math: 90000 miles at 50mpg vs 25 mpg at $2.5/gal => 9000 bucks. That's a little less than half the cost of the WHOLE CAR.

I'm still stunned that the 50mpg is still the average mpg after 7 years. Good job Toyota.

 

The old saying - don't believe everything you read.

 

Hybrids typically lose value faster than comparable conventional models, and their value really starts to plunge as they approach the end of their "hybrid components" warranty. (Warranties on the battery and other hybrid features are typically eight years and 80,000 miles.)
????
valeu plunge? well not seeing that

 

$4500 actually, it'd cost $9000 for gas on a car that gets 25mpg, and $4500 for gas on a car that gets 50mpg both over 90k miles.

 

The better question is "can you buy a used hybrid" instead of "should you buy a used hybrid". Used Prius's are still selling for not much less than new - even high mileage 2004's.

 

"The Toyota Prius, another hybrid, retains 58% of its value after two years, Nerad said, and 41% after five."

The KBB embedded tools on MSN's own auto pages has my 2005 fully-loaded Prius retailing at $19,800. Which -- what do you know? -- is almost exactly what I paid when I bought it used just 4 months ago from the Toyota dealer. With high miles, even (56k).

By my math that's 76% of value after 2 years (assuming it sold new for $26,000 - I don't know if that's right but I think it's close.) And that's the price listed from a KBB lookup today. Four months ago....

This guy she's quoting is a KBB analyst?? Meaning he gets paid to know this stuff? Where are all these 2005 Prii with premium sound, VSC, and navigation selling for $15k? I want to complain to my Toyota dealer that he ripped me off!

Even though I'm now seeing Prii all over the road these days, the one I snagged from the dealer was still the first used Prius they'd had in months (a trade-in on a new Prius, actually) -- and I happened to call them the very hour they were putting it out on the lot. If I hadn't taken it there was a woman waiting behind me ready to make an offer.

I'm not saying the author is in somebody's pocket, but when you read a story as out of touch with the facts as this one is, it makes you wonder.

 

As dragonrand mentions, online used car evaluators (Edmunds NADA KBB others?) seem to agree that Prius depreciates quite slowly. We have wondered here before why this info does not make its way into reviews like this MSN, or Consumer Reports' famous piece a year or two ago.

 

I bought mine right at the end of it's 3 year warranty. Yep, that's what we get in Australia even though we pay over 50% more for the car than you do in the USA.

new price for a base model $37400 and it has been since the series came out in 2004
I paid for my base model $25000 after a lot of haggling and trading one dealer against another

My car has retained 66% of new value over 3 years

Had I bought a popular GM product here, a Holden Commodore Acclaim which is the basic Commodore
New price for basic Acclaim about $32,000
Used price at about 3 years old $18,000
That's about 56% of new price retained over 3 years

Given that both cars are just out of warranty I would expect the vehicles to depreciate at the same rate into the future so I'll be better off percentage wise and fuel consumption wise.

Oh the Commodore gets about 10.5L/100km and I drive 25,000km a year
10.5 x 250 = 2625 litres per year @ $1.40/litre = $3675 this year to drive a Commodore

Prius uses less than 5L/100km but I'll use that number anyway
5 x 250 =1250 litres per year @ $1.40/litre = $1750 this year to drive my Prius or about $1900 saved on fuel.
With increasing fuel prices my Prius will have cost less than the Commodore in only 3.5 years or less and will still continue to depreciate more slowly. A benefit I will reap when I trade up to a newer Prius in 5 to 10 years.

 

Out of curiosity, I ran my 2005 through the KBB calculations. I paid $22K for it new. With 37K miles now, in excellent condition, private party pricing is $18,735, a drop of 14.4%. Retail is $21,030, a drop of only 4.4% after two years!

Yeah, these reports and reporters need a reality check.

 

Ran the same number for my 2006 I bought used a year ago for $ 20 000. Todays blue book value $ 19 270, that is a 3.6 % drop in a year!
I love my Prius!!!

 

I know I have said this before, but the comments in the MSN article were what was said before I bought my first Prius four years ago. They were not correct then and not correct now.

I gave $24,600. for my 2004 Prius new. I got a $200. internet coupon discount. I got $2000. tax credit. I sold it for $20,500. That means I paid $1,900. to drive it for 3 years not even considering the saving I got for on gas milage.

I have not seen where anyone has had to pay for a replacement battery for a gen 2 Prius. Even that taxi driver that put 400,000 miles on one. Geez.

 

I'll be honest about this situation. I didn't think at all about the dollars and cents of buying this car. I knew I was going to spend a certain amount of money buying a car, and that this one was going to be an indulgence of one sort or another. The high tech trip, or the high power trip was how this went. I went far enough to check the NADA prices on this car to make sure I was getting a decent deal. Looked at this way, I could compare the cost of fuel spent on this car against what I would have spent on gas for that GTO that got 16.7 mpg on the test drive and conclude that I've come out ahead. And I came out nicely ahead of the person who bought the blue '05 in Richmond for 26k, which was roughly the price of a new one when I bought mine in July '07 for 19k.

But wait, there's more. I've saved myself the court costs that would have resulted when I wrote Mississippi in burnt rubber on Virginia Beach Blvd. in broad daylight about two weeks after buying the GTO, the plane fare to where I am now in school, taxi fares everywhere, because after that, I'd doubt that I'd have had a driver's license. See how much money I've saved by owning a Prius instead of a GTO? Still, that damn GTO (which was modded to an alleged 600 hp) haunts my dreams...

 

According to KBB, my 2006 package 3 with 22,500 miles appears to be worth 87% of what I paid for it at the dealers almost two years ago, and it is worth more than I paid if you take into account the tax credit. I want a job where I can get paid good money to offer opinions that people may base their conduct on without having to bother to determine if my views have any basis in reality!

 

Just checked mine. I spent $22,800 on it, has 19,500 miles on the odometer at nearly two years. Bluebook value: private party is about $20,000 (12% depreciation) asking price at a dealer is $23,100!

I get 50 mpg lifetime, compared to 24 mpg in the car it replaced. (I'm an engineer, I always keep records). You just can't argue against numbers like that.

 

I think that's pretty typical. People make a big deal about the hybrid premium, but that wouldn't explain the popularity of features like automatic transmission and power locks that don't pay you back if that's how consumers thought. People are comfortable spending a certain amount of money on a car and then look for a car in that price range with features they like. People looking for a midsize car are typically expecting to pay $20-30K, why not get one with really good gas mileage as well?

 

I generally do not buy new cars, but the cost of used Pruii was rediculous. I bought last May and got $2100 off list. A used Prius with the same options was only a couple thousand less. It just did not make any sense to buy used.

 

we looked at buying a used very high mileage insight and the lady wanted 2k more than kbb value for it. ebay auctions were showing the same trend.

that's why we only have one hybrid...

 

That's almost exactly my experience - bought used about a year and half ago. Except I'm In Canada and I have option package B (2004 Canada).

Buying used worked out really well for me considering I saved $12-14000 over the new one. The 3 year bumper to bumper warranty literally ran out as I drove it off the lot - but I've had no problems at all so far.

Buying cars new never made financial sense to me and with a reliable car like the prius it is especially true.