oakleaf_mirror pointed me over here. We've met a few times. I have a 6 month old '05 Prius and I am quite happy with it overall. That said I essentially agree with goldsquare's economic argument. The payback time is too long at current gas prices to justify the price premium for the hybrids, purely in cost of ownership terms. I knew that when I decided to buy it.
I still chose to buy it because right now I'm in the fortunate position that I could afford the price premium to make a statement, about my own view on wh. The price premium was not so high that I feel I would be getting burned to bad by it and Toyota put their reputation on the line here. I expect the car will be nearly as reliable as their standard models, but we'll see. The Japanese companies are much more risk adverse, in terms of product reliability, then American companies. In part I'm relying on them to keep faith with their reputation here.
Of the available hybrids on the market I find Toyota's the better choice. Honda's "soft" hybrid does not increase the fuel economy nearly as much as Toyota's 2nd gen hybrid system, making the payback time even longer. The newer Prius's, '04 and '05 models, are also a bit bigger then a Civic or a Corolla but a bit smaller then an Accord or Camry. If cost of ownership is very important it difficult to make an apples to apples comparison with an equivalent non-hybrid.
Overall though, if cost is a major factor, you really are better off financially picking up a slightly used standard car.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-07-20 06:31 pm (UTC)I still chose to buy it because right now I'm in the fortunate position that I could afford the price premium to make a statement, about my own view on wh. The price premium was not so high that I feel I would be getting burned to bad by it and Toyota put their reputation on the line here. I expect the car will be nearly as reliable as their standard models, but we'll see. The Japanese companies are much more risk adverse, in terms of product reliability, then American companies. In part I'm relying on them to keep faith with their reputation here.
Of the available hybrids on the market I find Toyota's the better choice. Honda's "soft" hybrid does not increase the fuel economy nearly as much as Toyota's 2nd gen hybrid system, making the payback time even longer. The newer Prius's, '04 and '05 models, are also a bit bigger then a Civic or a Corolla but a bit smaller then an Accord or Camry. If cost of ownership is very important it difficult to make an apples to apples comparison with an equivalent non-hybrid.
Overall though, if cost is a major factor, you really are better off financially picking up a slightly used standard car.