CNN/Money - Wary of purchasing that hybrid car ev

More than half of those polled said that in five to ten years, hybrid cars will be able to deliver the same performance as a gasoline engine in the next five to 10 years

OMG i sure hope that doesnt happen. that would be a HUGE step backwards for the Prius!!

 

Such quickie surveys are utterly worthless as a measure of what is really motivating respondents to buy or not to buy. While I'm sure Kelly Blue Book's staff of social scientists worked long and hard to craft their penetrating survey, I'm unimpressed.

For many persons their true motivation for not buying a Prius is that they can get a Hundai or a Chevy for a lot less and end up saving money in the long run. But is that what you say to Kelly Blue Book? Heck no! If you say that, you might just sound like a poor man. It's far better for one's presentation of self to adopt a different vocabulary of motivation and say something like, "Hmm. [strokes beard or bare chin] I'm skeptical of this hybrid techonology. Sure, some version of hybrid technology might be the future of the automobile, but I'm waiting until they get the bugs out." Rather than sounding like someone with insufficient disposable income, he sounds like an engineering sage.

The only "survey" that counts is the one Toyota is administering every day when they sell Priuses as fast as they can make them to geeky quasi-environmentalists with sufficient disposable income.

 

Weird that you said that tonight. 4-day new driver here, this crossed my mind driving home tonight and am trying to figure out the right balance between toying with good MPG, and not pissing off any of the drivers around me by driving too randomly. Don't want folks thinking that these are slow econoboxes like the perceptions of the 70s. They aren't.

 

Well, I just paid about $4,000 LESS to own my Hybrid!

The cars I had narrowed my final search down to were: Audi wagon, Volvo wagon, Subaru wagon GT, Infinity G35 (wild card) and the Prius (for some reason, my gut choice)..

Hence, I saved at least $3,000-$6,000 compared to all other potential selections, by going with the Hybrid model!

Kewl!!

 

:? I must admit that I was a little leary about buying a hybrid....my husband the conservationist suggested I look into it. My first choices were the Forrester (but no curtain airbags), the Honda CRV and the RAV4. Living in the Northeast, I was convinced I needed AWD.

Anyway, I love to do research and spent countless hours researching the Prius. Rented it for the weekend and knew it was the car for me. My worries about snow driving have been cleared up (thanx to this site), I hate paying over $40 at the pump to fill my Sienna, and the enviornmental issues far outway any nervousness I have about trying new technology.

Ordered my Tideland Pearl pkg 6 on Monday!!

I'm proud to be GREEN! I think if others spent more time looking at the facts, then they would be proud to be green too! :mrgreen:

 

I had my eye on a hybrid since they first hit the market. I always thought it was strange that automakers did not try to produce something that could get 50mpg or better. So I did a lot of research on these sorts of cars. It was concerned about things like maintenance, life of the battery. The Toyota brand is know for longevity, that fear was lessened. So with the miles I drive that I get reimbursed for work I could actually save even more money driving a hybrid, the Prius made perfect sense.

 

The inferential formulas to which you refer only work if your sample is drawn using some kind of random procedure--whether simple random or stratified random; if not, then inferential statistics are meaningless.

Then you also have the problem of the stupid questions on the survey. Apparently, they actually asked people whether they thought hybrid cars would deliver the "same performance" as non-hybrids in 5-10 years. This question assumes hybrids do not deliver adequate performance now, which is false (indeed, the Accord and Highlander hybrids already offer better performance than their non-hybrid counterparts). Such questions also assume the respondents know what the hell they're talking about. How many of those 400 respondents know anything at all about the likely course of automotive engineering development in the next 10 years? Zero. You may say that this at least gives you information on respondents' "impressions," but since these impressions are based on no information whatsoever, your "impressions" snapshot is without any value, and those "impressions" are likely to change radically given the least bit of change in circumstances (such as, for example, more "information" (more advertising, most likely) or more spending money).

 

"The two most important causes of consumer skepticism, according to the survey, were the potential costs of servicing a hybrid vehicle and maintenance over its lifetime. "

The answer to this is the 8 yr/100k coverage on the hybrid system.

This kind of marketing worked for Hundai, who had to overcome initial quality embarassments; it should certainly work even better for Toyota, coming from a superb quality reputation.

 

Also saved money on my Prius, since I was planning on buying the Avalon Limited. Figuring on the sales tax savings (1.5K), fed tax deduction (.5K all said & done) and the disparity in list prices - 10K with nav system - I saved about 12K.

The distinctive look and roomy interior for a mid-size all helped in pushing me towards the Prius.

Cheers,
Jeff

 

My brother just emailed me about his families decision to go with a ICE Honda Accord over a Prius....It's all about the money.....

Here's his quote about the Prius......

"Thought about the Prius but don't want to spend 30k on it."

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco\";p=\"107310)</div>

Got that one covered...

Within reason, of course... heh heh.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bshef\";p=\"108555)</div>

If he was looking at a $30K Prius, that means he must have been considering the package 6 prius.

Last time I checked, getting features like the NAV in the Honda Accord would put you up to about the same price as the package 6 Prius.

There were probably other concerns... the Prius is smaller for example, so perhaps he was looking to spend less for it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveinOlyWA\";p=\"107318)</div>

Yeah... that part of the article really made no sense to me. The 04/05 Prius is by no means underpowered compared to conventional ICEs of the same class...

Plus look at the RX400h, the Highlander Hybrid, and the Accord Hybrid... they all provide MORE performance (from a horsepower point of view) than their conventional versions... plus they all save on gas compared to the conventionals.

I think the question is somewhat badly worded and implies that Hybrids are weak now but will catch up in a decade... that's not true. They equal or surpass in power and gas mileage right NOW.