What is wrong with this Article?

Hi Fibb,

What is wrong with that article? Its not the first to be like this. The writter tries to not be brand specific. But the technology is too new, and the Prius so much more than a hybrid, that by writing the article this way they do not give much useful information at all.

 

Mr Average is a mythical man who has a choice to buy a Camry Hybrid ($25,350) or a Conventional 4 cylinder automatic Camry SE ($22,390).

Mr Average like 90% of Americans does 80% of his driving in the suburbs and city where a SE will uses 11.2L/100km while a Hybrid will use 7.12L/100km.
Mr Average does 25,000 kilometres per year, 20,000 of that on suburban roads and 5000 kilometres on his annual holiday to the lakes which is on the highway.
As the fuel consumption of a Camry Hybrid and SE are within 0.6L/100km on the highway I'll allow that as error.
Around town the Camry Hybrid will use 1424 litres of fuel per year but the Camry SE will use 2240 litres. a difference of 816 litres per year.
Petrol currently costs about $1.00 per litre and if it doesn't it will by the end of the year so in the first year Mr Average in a hybrid would reclaims $816 of the $2960 hybrid premium leaving a premium of $2144.
Next year the price of fuel hits $1.25/litre, not out of the question I would think.
Given the same driving Mr Average reclaims a further 816 litre saving $1020 of his hybrid premium is now there is just $1124 remaining to be paid off.
The following year Mr Average is paying $1.50/litre still driving the same commute reclaims a further $1224 putting him $100 ahead.
The year after this Mr Average is paying $1.75/litre for petrol, used pickups and SUVs are lining the streets as people strip off the identifiers and dump them and Mr Average puts $1428 in the bank. As Mr Average changes cars every 4 years he heads to his Toyota dealer for a new Camry SE, because now all Toyotas are hybrids.

For a person who did 80% of their travel on highways it wouldn't be worth getting the hybrid on financial grounds.

 

When driven on interstates as a daily commuter, the hybrid powertrain isn't contributing as much, so you might as well shop for a fuel-efficient gasoline engine, he said.

The author knows virtually nothing about the Prius, or he wouldn't write that.

We know that the Prius has an under-sized 1.5 liter conventional motor which is heavily modified for efficiency, so it saves significant amounts of gasoline even when the conventional motor runs. But we know from watching the fuel economy gauge go to 99.9 on any sort of downgrade that the car is excellent at coasting and borrowing a bit of battery to maintain speed.

I can get over 53 mpg with the cruise set @ 63 mph. What cheaper car can come anywhere near that? My '99 Civic gets 39 mpg highway, usually and at most 40 mpg.

Saying the Prius is not a good car to commute in is ridiculous. It just proves the author's ignorance of the Prius.

Harry

 

I think the writer is speaking about hybrids in general not just the Prius.
It may be better to do highway trips in a Prius than a corolla but what about if you throw a Hylander hybrid or Explorer or how about the Chev hybrids, what a joke.

I think comparing same cars hybrid and non-hybrid the writer is right. But one must remember most people do most driving in town.

 

Right, because the writer wrote the article to be brand neutral. And that means, he cannot go into details that make the Prius what it is. Because that would be favoring one car in the eyes of the reader.

 

That's part of the point. This is a Canadian publication aimed at Canadians. I just paid $1k less than the MSRP of $29.5k for the cheapest Prius here (but it's not the same as the US base).

That said, I'm also counting on $4k in Government rebates. You could get lesser rebates though of $1k for a manual Corolla (base $14.5k) or Civic (base $17k) though.

Regardless, gas is even more expensive here than in US. Tomorrows price in Ottawa ( The price of gasoline* for May 2 ) is $1.244 per litre. That's about $4.68 US per US gallon. In Montreal it's like $5.14 US per US gallon.

Anyway, I noted that Edmunds list the Prius as having the lowest true TCO for cars under $25g. Between that, the Consumers Reports stuff and the gas and oil prices seeming to inch up every day, I think Prius sales could take off if Toyota has the capacity to ramp up quickly.


It's funny, 2 weeks ago I started looking for a new car and couldn't have imagined picking such a "funny looking" car. But I'm a practical engineer (software and electronics) and functionality, reliability and fancy technology will trump looks every time. Now when I look (from the right angles, like direct side) I see a beauty. Especially black.


And then every once in awhile, I see a Pinto or an AMC Pacer bubble car of the 2000s'. But who cares, as long as it's not a pastel color...

 

Oddly enough, the Prius is the only hybrid out there where one cannot possibly calculate the "hybrid premium" - there's nothing to compare it with. For the HCH and TCH it makes more sense to look at the economics.

See also this ridiculous post - Hybrids the answer? - iReport.com (note the comments).

 

I get 65+ mpg driving on the highway(mostly) with my HCH-I, show me a gas only car that I could get 50+ in...

 

Okay, i'll bite. A question for the article author: Explain the hybrid sales increases, expecially the Prius sales increases? I feel so foolish for having all these $30 fillups each month.

 

I just wanted to share my personal experience with this matter.

My car is a 2006 Hyundai Sonata V6- EPA 19 city/ 29 hwy.
My wife's old car was a 2007 Hyundai Tiburon EPA 20/28.

We traded in the Tiburon for her 2008 Prius (currently averaging 45.4 mpg @2200 miles- can't wait for that first break-in to hit).

We went from driving my Sonata everywhere to driving her Prius everywhere. I keep a log for my fillups in the Sonata and the day we got the Prius, I went from filling up once a week to once every 3 weeks. We were filling up her Tiburon about once every week to week and a half. We now fill the Prius up once every week and a half to 2 weeks.

Before:
Average fillup on the Sonata - $48-50 ( x 1/week = $192-200/month)
Average fillup on the Tiburon - $35 ( ~$105-140/month)
Total-$297-340 per month

Now
Average fillup on the Sonata - $48-50 ( x 1/3weeks = $60-65/month)
Average fillup on the Prius (~3/4 tank)- $28 (~$84-$112/month)
Total- $144-177 per month

Worst case scenario savings of $163 (-$163) in gas

Now, the prius increased our car payment from $300 to $470 (+$170) for my wife, but decreased our car insurance by $10 (-10). We also got a much better interest rate on the Prius than we had on the Tiburon, but I won't factor in intrest savings.

Now, add it all up - $170-163-10 = -$3

I am ahead 3 dollars a month on average, so I personally don't see that much of a premium. But that's just my two cents.

 

Sorry I wasn't having a go at you, just saying when you look at all hybrids across the board the author is correct however the Prius is still a very economical car on the highway. I wonder how economical an efficient conventional car would be on the highway if driven at no more than 90km/h and usually at 75km/h and hypermiling techniques?
I'm one of those people who drives at or a tiny bit over the 110km/h speed limit. When I hit the highways I am normally going a long way and travelling 20km/h faster on an 8 hour leg of a journey allows me to cover 160km more or cut nearly 2 hours off a 900km drive. My time has a value to me especially when I'm on holiday and I suspect that is the case for a lot of working people.
A lot of people who drive long distances are driving as part of earning their income, that 2 hours or 160km might be another sale or a day off at the end of the week.

 

For another perspective, let's assume that the hybrid alternatives do not save any money. Or, that they cost slightly more over the ownership period. In that case, owners would have little to fall back upon, other than their vehicles are quiet, comfortable, reliable and clean.

Perhaps some owners would be willing to pay for those 'hybrid advantages'. Certainly, other vehicles cost more than their 'equivalents', and buyers pay more because of size, speed, noise, lateral acceleration or styling cachet. Fine for them, as well.

In a world with rapidly increasing fuel costs, one must wonder if the advantages offered by all those other vehicles will increase in value. Because they will need to...

 

While of course I understand your meaning, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that you should not be so sure - provided that the non-hybrid car you compare to is a full battery electric vehicle. I get the equivalent of about 130mpg in my EV. Off the highway, I do much better.

 

And where does one buy an affordable pure EV with a 900 to 1,200km per day range at 110km/h? Lets compare apples with apples.

 

With batteries that are now currently available, and at non-fabulous prices, electric vehicles are not the highway cruisers that Patsparks desires. But still, they might provide urban transport solutions for a very large number of vehicle users. I wish there were more of them available.

For the long-legged runs, the energy density of gasoline still tops the batteries. And if you are going to burn petrol, why not get the most out of it with a hybrid?

 

Why people think the price is worth the money in savings in gas. What planet are they on. The Prius is not a high priced auto, check out the american cars. Look at the Saturn, its hard to find decent American car at this price.

 

?? Downhill?