Hybrids won't save drivers money, Consumer Reports (April 2006)

From my perspective, everything in your quoted post here, taken as a whole, implies it is always a bad idea to buy a hybrid and anyone who does is stupid. That is what I was pointing out.

You seem to be making a number of assumptions with your argument, the foremost of which is that people will be buying a brand new vehicle. In my case, when I was looking for a car in December, I could choose a used Corolla for $7500 or a comparable used Prius for $8000. I figured it would take 2 years with current gas prices and my driving habits to make up the $500 purchase price difference with fuel savings, which made the Prius a worthwhile choice.

Obviously, people that don't need a vehicle save money by not buying one. But the point of the thread is comparing hybrids to conventional cars, not comparing cars to public transportation.

 

They obviously did not try Linux on the Mac either.It will likely run some of the latest lightweight distributions.

 

Windows, like chastity, is its own punishment.

Bob Wilson

 

That's how I got my hybrids too..... used.

Unfortunately that means the original owner took a major loss on tradein. If a new Corolla is 19 grand and a new Prius is 24 grand (plus taxes), then the Corolla owner lost $11,500 on tradein, and the Prius owner lost $16,000 on tradein.

 

Seems like a good reason to buy used cars to me! Much less depreciation to worry about.

 

The higher the fuel costs the lower the hybrid car depreciation...

 

Depreciation will always be uncertain until the day you trade out.

 

The funny thing is in 2006, Consumer Reports did not have the imagination to understand what we regularly do in 2017:
Prius Prime Plus in my hands | Page 14 | PriusChat

Only sadder thing are those who in 2017 still advocate nearly decades old technology and thinking. They are unable or unwilling to understand a world that has changed and choose to live in an ossified memory that they advocate today. Truly the living dead.

Bob Wilson

 

Depending on age and mileage and other conditions, they may or may not have received good deals on those depreciations. We lack sufficient information to make meaningful judgements.

 

Doesn't stop certain members here, from making meaningless judgements unfortunately
.

 

That's normal - the more expensive the car, the more you lose as you drive out the showroom. Drive a $120,000 TESLA (Aust base price) home and you've instantly had as much depreciation as a PRIUS would cost to buy.

 

On the subject of reliability which has been talked about at length, when I was researching my car and ended up with PRIUS, I spoke to a mechanic who has had a lot of TURBO experience - he said that he's seeing more Petrol/Gasoline turbos fail than diesel, he suspected because they run a lot hotter, and a lot faster in most applications. He basically suggested that I steer clear from non-diesel turbo (I'd had 2 diesel turbo cars before.

I also spoke to a number of PRIUS owners, and each one has just had routine service costs, plus tyres, no other problems. Helped steer me toward PRIUS.

My wife's FOCUS, only 62,000 miles, serviced consistently, just cost $1400 on an overheating problem (water pump, electric fan & motor etc), and now the Power Steering is giving error messages - a new pump is apparently about $1000.

 

Your logic sounds about right, but if demand exceeds supply of new vehicles depreciation can be temporarily suspended.

 

True. I imagine anyone who wanted to sell their Prius Prime in the midwest would probably get back what they paid for it, based on the scarcity.

The Tesla Model S and Toyota Prius actually have very similar depreciation rates. They both hold their value better than most vehicles.

 

Hello all,

I'm new to the forums here and this is actually my first post and I'm really hoping my 2 cents on this topic has already been stated, but I'm not going to review the 200+ prior posts to find out.

I did not by my Prius to save money, or recoup costs, or to get refunded fuel dollars.
I bought one because I want to send a message to automakers about the direction I want to see the industry go.

I want them to keep making them and improve them, and the only way that happens is to show continued interest.
The fact that they are great cars and can easily hit the 200k and 300k marks is just a bonus.

Cars, especially if you continually buy new, are not investments, but expenses.
You will never ever recoup your money if you hold the car max 5 years.
And for people like me, that want the next set of advancements as soon as they come out, it never happens.
But I'm ok with that.

 

Welcome to PriusChat!

 

UPDATE - on my wife's FOCUS:

No recurrence of Steering - but today it's gone in for AUTOMATIC GEARBOX problem which showed up this morning (wouldn't select a gear, then wouldn't re-start) - hopefully not another expen$$ive problem. Might just be a detent switch.

 

The obvious solution is to get her a Prius!!!

 

How do you feel about self maintenance? Solutions to many car problems and issues can be found on the internet. Our HHR had a shifter issue for the automatic. It didn't lock when placed in park, which meant the key couldn't simply be pulled out of the ignition. Dealer likely would have replaced the entire unit for at least sevral hundred dollars. Turns out taking off and replacing the plastic cowling is really easy, and the fix was to flip a detent switch back. I only had to enlarge a hole in the plastic shifter frame to make doing so easier.

 

A used hybrid will certainly save you money if it costs you nothing! Find out how.

Hammer Time: Two Steps To The Left