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Saving money with hybrids

Paul Westbrook | 02 October, 2005 12:55

I have been wondering if hybrids really save any money.  The last time that I filled my tank, I calculated that I got 25 mile/gallon on my 93 Nissan Sentra, and that in city driving, with me driving aggressively with the flow of traffic.  I am sure that I could easily get 30 miles a gallon in city driving.

A bureau cheif for the Wall Street Journal did the calculations, and determined that you will not be able to recover the extra cost of the hybrid in gas savings or in government subsidies. 

I would claim if you want to save money and save gas, you should buy a older 4 cylinder engine.  If you did that, you could uses some of the money that you saved, and add the extra features that you would get factory installed in the newer cars.

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More to it that money... [Reply]

Hey Paul,
Of course, I have a vested interest in this topic. We bought our Prius knowing we'd pay a premium for the car itself (heck, we could have had nicely appointed Camry for the same dough), and for me the point was not to save $ or make the car pay for itself. For me, a main motivator was to reduce our consumption. We're averaging 44MPG, and yes, I do smile every time I fill 'er up. 8 gallons every two weeks ain't too shabby.

There is a still a LONG way to go to true fuel economy and alternatively-fueled vehicles. Buying a hybrid was one of the best things I could do to help put my ideals into action, and encourage automakers to take consumer interest in alternatives seriously. I won't be hacking our car any time soon to make it get 100+MPG. Oh, and for admittedly very selfish reasons, driving solo in the HOV lane is pretty slick, too. ;)

Tonya | 09/10/2005, 18:47

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