Hybrid Cars For Today's Drivers

In today’s society fuel economy seems more important than ever between the continually rising gas prices and the drastic increase in persons with automobiles. It seems as if every household has one car for each person of driving age living in that household. And then to count up all the mileage that household uses between them? It’s astounding how many miles even one person can rack up in just one week. For these reasons and many more, the Hybrid models have been one of the hottest selling styles in the car industry as of late. Of course when purchasing a Hybrid car one would think that there are extra cost factors.

Most Hybrid cars come with a 3 year or 36,000 mile warranty, or the option of extended warranties of up to 8 years or 100,000 miles, which is true of many regular vehicles. So far these vehicles have had few differences in maintenance problems or expenses from the standard auto. Hybrids are powered primarily with electricity in city environments and at lower accelerations, which means the batteries constantly need to be recharged. You would think that the biggest issue would be battery life. The price to replace a Hybrid’s battery is approximately $2000, versus a standard battery vehicle which usually ranges from $40 – $100. However these cars use NiMH batteries that last something like 150,000 to 200,000 miles, so they rarely need to be replaced. The Toyota Prius for example has yet to replace even one of their NiMH batteries since the models release in Y2K. On top of all the above features, there is another big incentive to buying one of these high fuel economy vehicles. The Government is offering a tax break of up to $3400 for select models of Hybrid purchased after December 31st, 2005.

Now as to which Hybrid to purchase, that is something no one can answer but you. Most of them have similar features and close to the same mileage depending on what price range you are looking at. Also something to consider is how much money you will actually save with the “fuel efficient” hybrid over the “gas guzzler”. For example, the Honda Civic has just over 6 years before you break even from gas savings to make up for the additional money required for the hybrid model’s price tag over their standard version. Whereas the Toyota Camry Hybrid has over 9 years before you would break even versus buying and operating a Camry LE.

(you can find a chart for some of the more popular models at this website. http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/hybrid-vs-gasoline-vehicle-comparison-are-hybrids-worth-it.htm ) Overall personal preference has a huge influence over which Hybrid model you choose to purchase.