Quote:
Originally Posted by Logan176
I'm no hypermiler by any means, but lately I have slowed down a lot and I'm getting 36-38 mpg with a best of 42.3. The price difference between the LX and the HCH is about $6,700... that's a lot of money to make up.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but according to my calculations, it would take almost 175,000 miles to break even when taking in the account of the price difference between the LX and the HCH. Here's what I did...
According to CarsDirect.com, an LX is $16,517 and a HCH is $23,235. That's a price difference of $6,718.
LX at 32mpg with gas at $4.25/gal will cost $132.80 per 1,000 miles
HCH at 45mpg with gas at $4.25/gal will cost $94.40 per 1,000 miles
HCH fuel savings per 1,000 miles is $38.40
Original cost difference of $6,718 divided by savings of $38.40 per 1,000 miles is 174.947. Now multiply that by 1,000 and you get... 174,947 miles!
I know that there are government rebates available and that as the price of gas goes up, so does the mpg savings return with the HCH. But I also know that batteries don't last forever, so the batteries in the HCH will need to be replaced eventually and they will be expensive. On the other hand, that $6,718 could make a small return in a high yield, online savings account or mutual fund.
Now, if going "green" for the environment's sake is your goal, I salute you. If my math is wrong please correct me, but if saving money is your main goal, based on these numbers the HCH doesn't seem like a good way to save.
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And actually, in a fair comparison, hybrids save even less. A civic hybrid is a significantly less powerful car than is a convential gas-powered civic. What happens if you engineer the convential car to the power and speed levels the hybrid achieves? Gas mileage goes up, eroding or perhaps even eliminating the hybrid 'advantage'.
There is a historical precedent for this. The great oil embargo of 1973 produced a number of diesel-powered vehicles available for sale in the late 70's and early 80s. They produced better mileage, but had 50-60% the power of their gasoline-fired bretheren. Had the gas-powered version been engineered in a context where it needed only match the performance achieved by the diesel, the mileage would have essentially equalized.
The overall point here is that until this era of $4/gallon gas few of us were willing to settle for the diminished performance envelope produced by hybrids. That's why an R18 is what it its--we don't really want to settle for less than its 140hp output, even in a relatively small car like a civic. But design priorities are bound to change and mpg may finally hit the front burner priority-wise. We will see just how good today's gas-engine technology is in regard to efficiency, and perhaps that regenerative braking is a hybrid's only real advantage.
Another point to be noted here--a 'relatively small' car like a LX is pushing 3000lbs. these days. Weight savings technolgies are a big part of the current hybrid compact-car approach. This adds cost to a vehicle, cost that would be directly borne by the consumer in a car lacking any government production subsidy. Design a gas civic to the same performance level as the hybrid and apply the same sort of weight-reduction techniques, and hybrids start looking like a gimick, in my estimation.