Stick it, Hybrids!

[SmilesAustin]

Took this picture two hours into our trip home today. We drove from Des Moines, Iowa back home to Cedar Rapids, Iowa (2.5 hours, all interstate 70mph) and averaged a little over 45mpg.

Interestingly, on the way up there yesterday, we only got about 36mpg but it was storming and we were going against the wind pretty bad. Today was a nice day with low wind speed.

2012 Honda Civics start at about $17,000 where the Toyota Prius starts at $23,000. I think I'll take my Civic!

 

[clevrname]

I work for Toyota, and honestly hate the prius with a passion. I agree with what you say here, plenty of compacts get damn good gas mileage.

As far as the prius, I see owners come in with GRAPHS of how their gas mileage is, I've seen some do as well at 65-70mpg. It's pretty ridiculous. Only way i'd ever own one, is if it were given to me and I could keep my si. Something about 50mpg in the city in a car is kinda bomb, but i still

 

[webby]

that is great to see you getting real world milage like this!

 

[KennyGS]

That's great highway mileage!

I wonder how the Prius would compare in city driving.

 

[clevrname]

That's great highway mileage!

I wonder how the Prius would compare in city driving.

City is where the Prius shines. EPA average is 51/48, I've seen owners, as stated above, say driving very conservatively they can get 65 or so. Highway the gas motor is doing a little more work but from what I've gathered 48 is on the low side. Normally around 53-55.

Then again Prius' are in crazy demand. We have them marked up about 7-10k over invoice right now and they're selling like hotcakes, can't keep them on the lot. None on our lot right now and the 4 we have coming in are already sold. The mark up on them alone makes a civic worth it.

 

[SmilesAustin]

Yeah I've heard a wide range for the Prius - for some reason I thought I saw a model of Prius on a news article the other day that got 40mpg highway but they might have had their facts wrong.

When you do the math, it becomes harder to justify the extra expense of a Prius over a car like the Civic. Here's my math:

Base model Civic - MSRP: $17,000 (approximately)
Base model Prius - MSRP: $23,000 (approximately, and looks like clevrname is saying they're selling for even more than that)

Let's say you get an average overall of 34mpg in the Civic, which is what I'm currently getting. We'll call the average Prius fuel economy 50mpg.

$3.50 / 34 = 0.1029 (it costs 10.29 cents to drive one mile in a Civic)
$3.50 / 50 = 0.07 (it costs 7 cents to drive one mile in a Prius)

That's a difference of 3.29 cents per mile, and you've got to make up $6,000 ($23k minus $17k) before you're going to benefit financially for buying a Prius over a Civic. So, $6,000 divided by 3.29 cents = 182,370. That is how many miles you would have to drive in your Prius before you've broken even with the Civic, financially speaking. If you drive the average 12,000 miles per year, it will take you 15 years of driving a Prius before you're financially ahead of buying a Civic. Being as the average new car owner only keeps the car for about 5 years, it is extremely unlikely that 90% of Prius owners wouldn't have been better off just buying a Civic or a Chevy Cruze or Ford Focus (etc).

Of course, that's just financially speaking. I'm sure some Prius owners truly just want to leave a smaller carbon footprint (I do know a couple Prius owners who are in this camp), and in that case it is a small price to pay. It's also worth noting that right now, I hear a used Prius sells for almost as much as a brand new one, so the depreciation on these cars is almost nill for the moment. When you factor that in, it complicates things and really makes the Prius come off looking better, but the Prius will eventually depreciate quicker than it does today (once there are more affordable hybrids on the road and available) so you can't really count on that always being the case.

Sorry for the long boring post. Truth be told I was going to go look at a Prius before I decided to buy my Civic, but I totally think I made the right choice. In the end, I think the Civic comes out on top.

 

[clevrname]

Honestly, driving a Prius is like driving a soapbox on wheels. Most of the people I have seen buy them are buying them because they have this superior attitude that they are doing so much for the planet. A lot of people don't take in the account of battery life and how long it takes them to break down. I'd buy a civic over a Prius ANY day of the week.

Now when the new FT-86 comes out, that may be a different story lol

 

[KennyGS]

Of course the offset becomes less as the price of fuel goes up, but I also chuckle at how people kneejerk their decision to buy a Prius. In some cases, even if they currently own a big gas guzzling SUV, the math won't justify the expenditure to switch to a Prius.

 

[Marky Mark]

Prius' are for snobby treehuggers. lol sorry if anybody gets offended at that. I never understood the hybrids. They envirnmentalists think they are doing the earth a favor. except they dont realize those giant batteries dont last forever and guess what they are made out of lead and acid. I'm sure they are not cheap either to replace. I'm not hybrid expert but it just doesnt seem like your saving money or the planet and you look like a total fag when driving one.

They all drive so damn slow too.

 

[webby]

 

[spcdan]