By the Editors of Consumer Reports Full Article
More about ownership costs: Visit the Consumer Reports Web site at www.consumerreports.org.
With gas prices soaring, Consumer Reports’ latest analysis of overall ownership costs shows that drivers can save anywhere from $500 to $4,250 over a five-year period by choosing selected hybrids rather than similar conventional gasoline-powered vehicles.
Six of the 12 hybrids CR experts looked at — the Toyota Prius and hybrid versions of the Chevrolet Malibu, Chevrolet Tahoe, Ford Escape, Saturn Vue and Toyota Camry — can save consumers about $500 to $4,250 even without tax credits, and pay back their price premium after only one year. For several of these hybrids, owners can save even more by taking advantage of federal tax credits.
CR experts compared the five-year owner costs of 12 hybrids with those of similar conventional vehicles using CR’s new-car owner-cost estimates.
The Toyota Camry hybrid, which gets 34 mpg overall in CR’s tests, saves the most money, about $4,250 over five years compared with a similarly equipped four-cylinder Toyota Camry XLE, which gets 24 mpg.
The Saturn Vue Greenline Hybrid can save about $3,000, while the Toyota Prius and Chevrolet Tahoe save $2,000 and $1,500 respectively, when compared to nonhybrid counterparts. With tax credits, the Vue and Tahoe come out ahead by about $4,500 and $3,700. Federal tax incentives are no longer available for Toyota and Lexus hybrids.
It would take many years for most hybrids to pay back their premium (their increased price over a non-hybrid) just on fuel savings alone. But fuel costs are a relatively small part — 25 percent — of the overall owner costs in the first five years. Other factors include depreciation, insurance, interest on financing, maintenance and repairs, and sales tax — all of which went into the Consumer Reports calculation.
Related
Hybrids that are cheaper to own* than similar conventional vehicles:
Toyota Prius
Chevy Malibu
Chevy Tahoe
Ford Escape
Saturn Vue Green Line
Toyota Camry
Honda Civic
Nissan Altima
Saturn Aura
Those that aren’t:
Lexus GS 450h
Lexus RX 400h
Toyota Highlander
* Over five years
Source: Consumer Reports
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2 responses so far ↓
1 alice // Sep 19, 2008 at 7:55 am
I now have a hybrid - so far its bad news -
instead of 40 how about 24 mpg ; this particular hybrid while being driven in my neighborhood under the conditions in which I live will apparently never get 40 mpg in a small city in stop and go traffic . I would
not recommend buying a hybrid in a small town
where there is stop and go traffic. Getting 40 mpg in a Honda Civic hybrid is just a lot of hot air and a gimmick to sell new more expensive cars - it would have nice it it were
actually possible to achieve that impossible
goal. at
2 Admin // Sep 20, 2008 at 6:08 am
Alice, we did some research and found a 2006 article from car and driver that says
” In a hybrid, the trick is to drive like a grandmother. You have to accelerate away from a stop slowly enough to minimize the role of the gasoline engine and maximize the role of the electric motor. Very simply, hybrids use an electric motor as a supporting source of power that doesn’t require gasoline, and that’s the whole point. Indeed, a Toyota Prius can pull away from a stop using only its electric motor, although the Civic hybrid shown here cannot.” Please see http://greendrivingtips.com/?p=199
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