"Last time I saw the numbers run hybrid cars did not save enough $$ in gas to offset the added cost. You can purchase new non-hybrid cars that get very impressive gas mileage for much less money. An example, this site lists the fuel economy of various cars. The Honda Civic Hybrid (manual trans) gets 45mpg city/51mpg highway, ranked three cars below it on the scale is the regular civic (manual trans) at 36mpg city/44mpg highway. If you do the math, comparing the city mileage (which is where hybrids shine and what the car would largely do in your hands I'm guessing) at 15,000miles per year (national average) and $2.35/gallon (what I saw in Cambridge earlier today) the total fuel savings per year comes out at under $200 ($783 for the hybrid vs $979 for the regular). According to Edmunds.com the base price for a hybrid Civic 4-dr (maunal) is $19,900, while the base price for the regular Civic 4-dr (manual) is $13,260 to $17,510 depending on trim level. That means even if you went for the high-end EX trim level it would take about twelve years for the fuel savings to pay for the price difference.
I would strongly suggest against buying a brand new car. A brand new car loses at *least* $1000 in value the minute you drive it off the dealer's lot, and then depreciates very rapidly for the first couple years after that. I would agree with your earlier plan to look at buying a couple-year-old used car. You will get the best price buying privately. However a lot of new car dealers now offer loans and warrentees on their used cars (so many ppl buying new cars they are trying to unload the large numbers of trade-ins & off-lease cars). I know time is tight with you both, but you may want to take an afternoon or saturday off and poke around the local car dealerships. Browse the used car section and see what is out there. Talk to a salesperson and see what they want for stuff. I'd make it very clear that you're looking for a 2nd around town car to supplement your regular car. This will depend on your impression of the salesperson, but you might want to ask them flat out what is popular right now (so you know what cars are going to therefore fetch a higher premium), and possibly even ask if they have anything on the lot they've been having trouble moving (in a 'you do me a favor in the price and I'll do you a favor by getting it out of your inventory' sort of way). One big advantage of the used car lot at new car dealers is that they have a (overall) higher quality of cars. When they get trade-ins of off-lease cars, they send to auction the older ones, or higher mileage, or damaged, or problem-filled, etc. They don't want to deal with those, they only want cars that are likely to have a fast turnaround. The trade-off is that the higher quality of car will fetch a slightly higher price."
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-07-20 04:53 am (UTC)An example, this site lists the fuel economy of various cars. The Honda Civic Hybrid (manual trans) gets 45mpg city/51mpg highway, ranked three cars below it on the scale is the regular civic (manual trans) at 36mpg city/44mpg highway. If you do the math, comparing the city mileage (which is where hybrids shine and what the car would largely do in your hands I'm guessing) at 15,000miles per year (national average) and $2.35/gallon (what I saw in Cambridge earlier today) the total fuel savings per year comes out at under $200 ($783 for the hybrid vs $979 for the regular). According to Edmunds.com the base price for a hybrid Civic 4-dr (maunal) is $19,900, while the base price for the regular Civic 4-dr (manual) is $13,260 to $17,510 depending on trim level. That means even if you went for the high-end EX trim level it would take about twelve years for the fuel savings to pay for the price difference.
I would strongly suggest against buying a brand new car. A brand new car loses at *least* $1000 in value the minute you drive it off the dealer's lot, and then depreciates very rapidly for the first couple years after that.
I would agree with your earlier plan to look at buying a couple-year-old used car. You will get the best price buying privately. However a lot of new car dealers now offer loans and warrentees on their used cars (so many ppl buying new cars they are trying to unload the large numbers of trade-ins & off-lease cars).
I know time is tight with you both, but you may want to take an afternoon or saturday off and poke around the local car dealerships. Browse the used car section and see what is out there. Talk to a salesperson and see what they want for stuff. I'd make it very clear that you're looking for a 2nd around town car to supplement your regular car. This will depend on your impression of the salesperson, but you might want to ask them flat out what is popular right now (so you know what cars are going to therefore fetch a higher premium), and possibly even ask if they have anything on the lot they've been having trouble moving (in a 'you do me a favor in the price and I'll do you a favor by getting it out of your inventory' sort of way).
One big advantage of the used car lot at new car dealers is that they have a (overall) higher quality of cars. When they get trade-ins of off-lease cars, they send to auction the older ones, or higher mileage, or damaged, or problem-filled, etc. They don't want to deal with those, they only want cars that are likely to have a fast turnaround. The trade-off is that the higher quality of car will fetch a slightly higher price."
P.S. sorry for the length, was feeling verbose.