I'm pretty sure the prius will depreciate by 11,000 in 5 years. A lot of cars will be coming out to challenge the prius. I think these comparisons are full of crap. Like I said I was not going to be able to get a prius for less then 27,000 in total but the 'bolt came to 16,500, a full 11,500 less. The insurance for the prius is higher than the cobalt so I don't know where that crap came from. Let's compare real world numbers using my insurance numbers and the fact that I only buy cars in cash (no interest) You can't use average insurance on each vehicle like that because a different population own the prius compared to cobalt and so if a single person owns both cars the insurance cost for the prius will be higher than the cobalt because prius owners are more conservative drivers who get in less accidents in general. I'm also taking the depreciation off of the msrp of the prius I was trying to get. cobalt real total price: 16,500 Insurance: 100/mo * 12 * 5 = $6000 (this actually was true for me) repair: 1300 fuel: 5000/35 * 3.5 * 5 = 2500 resale: 5450 total: 20,850 prius real total price: 27,000 insurance: 135/mo * 12 * 5 = $8100 repair: 1500 fuel: 5000/55 * 3.5 = 1590 resale: 13,000 total: 25,190
Yeah, I'm right there with you. My Prius costs less to insure than my 9 y/o SUV that books for $4k. ~$600 a year in Phoenix, one of the most expensive cities in the country to get insurance in (due to high autotheft for cross border chop shops). Our insurance actually went up when we moved from LA to Phoenix And we carry much more coverage than state minimum. Its certainly true that for someone that drives as little as aliendroid, the fuel saving benefits of the Prius are reduced. And if you assign the Prius a ridiculously low resale value, and overpay upfront then you can make the Cobalt seem cheaper. Whatever floats your boat I guess. Rob
Actually there is still the Corona... or had in the 90s so it's as old as you think (even though the Corona left NA much early). There's also the Carina (Carina-E)
Of course, we are, as usual, off topic. Wikipedia has an extensive history of the Toyota Corona. For anybody who might be interested, here it is: Toyota Corona - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I guess I'm not as ancient as I thought I was.:dizzy:
whoops.. my mistake.. guess it really is gone now... after 2001. haha.. nah I just know my Toyotas =P
Make sure in your calcualtions you factor in the fact that cobalts are made in Lordstown Ohio, the R&D is in mainly in Michigan, and the selling corporation is an American company. Seems more important today even to me than it did one year ago.
The Lordstown plant is being re-tooled for the Cobalt replacement. It's going to be called the Cruze (where does GM get these names?). It's supposed to get fuel mileage in the 40MPG range. I sure hope it's as successful as the Cobalt. We met a lot of really nice GM folks from the Lordstown plant when we raced our Cobalts at the Mid-Ohio race track. My original post was inaccurate in that the Cruze will start production in Mid-2010 as a 2011 model.
