2013 Hybrid Cost of Ownership Analysis & Fuel Cost Comparison!

Depreciation is part of the cost of ownership as is insurance.

Your car has depreciated much more than 10%, the typical car depreciates 10% just by driving it off the lot, the leaf more so because of improvements and price drops in the 2013 my.

I think the leaf is a great choice for you and for many. We just should not pretend some of the costs are not costs, or that they are not worth it. The mercedes CLA is being advertised as only at $29,000;-) No one is saying yeah but its tco is much higher than buying a 6 year old used prius or civic (lower depreciation, maintenance not too bad, insurance low).

 

well, i leased. so i lost a ton since i will never own the car (turning it in for a new one in about 3 months!) but then again, any other option would have been a money pit as well.

 

Dave actually you probably made out better by leasing. Its the smartest thing on this new tech, especially if you like the features of the new one better.

Leasing makes tco much easier. Lease costs for the 3 years + insurance costs + electricity divided by the 3 years you owned it. Now that nissan has worked out some of the improvements/savings buying may be a better deal for you (if you plan on driving it for over 5 years). If you feel bad about leasing you can probably cut a deal to buy the car for less than the residual on the contract.

 

Actually the 2011 LEAF is not worth buying and it looks like the 2014 isn't either (specs not out yet) but eventually an EV will hit the market is worth owning. So I will wait for that unless someone is willing to give me a Tesla S

 

Wrong. Try the "Build Your Own" option. You can select the Hybrid at $36,190, the I4 at $36,190 or the V6 at $37,420. As you have correctly stated, AWD is irrelevant because it's not available on the Hybrid. I agree that the $450 differential seems to be from out of nowhere, which tends to call into question the reliability of the rest of their data.

And yes, they apparently used the old 47/47/47 figures for the Fords, so I would imagine the Lincoln Hybrid figures have probably been revised (read: lowered) too.

 

Oh, there it is. Ford had completely dropped the V6 option from the Fusion, and I was thinking the same was true of the Lincoln considering the MKZ Ecoboost is the large one for the Fusion.

Only the C-max hybrid had the EPA numbers adjusted. The 2014 Fusion's are still at 47. The MKZ always had lower ones at 45mpg. Mostly due to the larger wheels and tires.

The change to the C-max numbers wasn't recent enough for them to not use them.

 

Yeah, you're right. Makes me wonder how come the presumably bigger, heavier Fusion Hybrid gets better gas mileage than the presumably smaller, lighter Cmax Hybrid.

EDIT: I just looked them up and much to my surprise, the Fusion is only about 8 pounds heavier than the C-max. So I guess it's all in the aerodynamics.

 

Yeah, the loophole Ford used for the C-max required it to be close to the Fusion in weight. If the Fusion is ever put through the full 5 test cycles, then its rating will likely drop.

 

...I also keep waiting for Elon Musk to give me a Model S! but I figure he would also have to give me $75,000 to keep me whole on taxes. That example would be 30% fed gift tax and 15-20% state taxes and then Musk would have to gross that up (because IRS/state would also tax me on the $75,000 he gave me to defray taxes...).

In VA depreciation is good! We pay quite high annual car tax on the blue book value, which means something that retains value well like Prius is hit harder (even before we apply the new $64/yr hybrid fee). A used Plug_in may make sense here someday. I will keep an eye on it. Hopefully we are getting rid of our nutty $64 hybrid fee.

 

Agree with life cycle view on costs/benefits analysis.
Would only add to your bullet points:

Reduced necessity for "oil wars" where our military folks suffer the consequences.

 

Sorry but oil wars were never necessary.
Durring WWII there were battles to keep the oil away from the Nazis but that was not an oil war.

Control of the oil in the middle east (how did they get on our oil) has been mainly justified by the cold war, but the Soviet empire is no more. Who gaines? Mainly Islamist Fundamentalists, BP, and Haliburton. Yes the Iranian coup was more about BP's profits, than any concern for the Iranian people. Friendship with brutal dictator in Iraq, because of Iranian revolution, blow back from that coup. Both gulf wars blow back from that enabling of hussain. The Soviet Afghan war, yep, Islamic fundamentalist sponsored by the US and Saudi Arabia against the Soviets. The US/Afghan war, blow back from that. We never got a drop of oil, but paid in blood and treasure. Iraq was not our friend, Kuwait is not our friend. Saudi Arabia is not our friend. We need to be worried about Iran, but this insane carter doctrine was never right. Iran doesn't need to be our enemy.

Reducing oil consumption is much cheaper than war, but we need to not go to war. Just paying for the oil is cheaper than war too.

Oil prices rising because of oil and economic security should be priced into any analysis, not these gulf and afghan wars.