Interesting Yahoo! article about hybrid after 150k miles

I am always suspicious of "percentage" reports because it is too easy to obscure important, revealing metrics. I have done a similar report for Prius by mapping model year vs. mileage to get an idea of how many miles they are putting on the road compared to used Hummers. Although there is expected variability within a given model year, the Prius were the true 'road warriors' compared to the Hummer. In my case, driving another nail in the coffin of the CNW Marketing "Dust-to-Dust" report.

I like the methodology but wish the raw data were available to compare average road miles per year.

Bob Wilson

 

I don't understand why the CNW report bothers hybrid owners so much. Everyone knows it is false. - "There's one hybrid that stands head and shoulders above the rest--and it's not the Toyota Prius..... The Honda Civic Hybrid, which first went on sale back in 2003, had by far the highest percentage of high-mileage listings: 5.4 percent of the total."

I thought Civics were supposed to have bad batteries that fail early: "The ratio of used Prius listings to used Civic Hybrid listings matched the ratio of their respective sales totals--meaning the battery-life issues may not have played much of a role in the cars' overall durability."

(shrug) Here's the rest of the list:
#1 5.4% Civic hybrid

#2 (tie) 2.7% Ford Escape Hybrid
#2 (tie) 2.7% Toyota Highlander Hybrid
#4 2.1% Prius
#5 1.5% Lexus RX400h
#6 0.7% Camry hybrid
#7 0.6% Insight

 

Here is my earlier report that shows the distribution of miles/year of different models:
Prius vs. HUMMER: Exploding the Myth | Page 6 | PriusChat

This is the type of data that could lend credibility to the Yahoo numbers. But I was thinking about my past experience with the Honda Civic vs Prius. The Civic was lower and more difficult to get into and out . . . not a problem for a highway car. In contrast, the Prius is a little easier to get in and out, better suited to smaller duration urban trips.

Bob Wilson

 

It occurs to me that another factor not thought of in the article is consumer satisfaction. The data is taken from used car listings. I

 

I think that the difference may just be that Prius owners keep their cars at an unusually high rate as compared to other brands.