Would you buy a hybrid?

[supton]

Well, since I own one, “yes”. Although the last car I bought wasn’t, kinda wish it was a hybrid though, but as it gets around 40mpg for me, I can live with the drop from 50ish mpg. [A year ago it seemed hard to find any car that wasn’t stupid money, and I still kinda regret getting this Corolla, still paid too much.]

I like hybrid, my electric cost in NH is not low, gas prices aren’t super low either—and we drive a lot. It’s possible we’ll do 100k over the next year with 4 drivers. Unclear what the future holds after that.

But I doubt I’ll buy another one for a while. Car prices too high. I’m willing to trade running costs for upfront purchase cost, as I can more easily spread that out (without paying interest). I do have concerns about buying a used hybrid and having to deal with repairs; that bit of FUD is always in the back of my mind (even though a battery could be reasonably compared to an automatic transmission).

But I do like our hybrid, for not being a luxury car it’s reasonably smooth, quiet and simply does its thing. When you drive the same boring roads day in and day out, there is not much fun to be had, short of doing things that may increase one’s insurance rates while helping someone meet a quota.

 

[SEBZX79]

Bmw 530e
Bmw x5 40e
Jeep Wrangler 4xe
Only issues is fuel door not Open and throwing a check engine light on the Wrangler.
The rest has been great with over 250k miles on all of them together

 

[SaberOne]

Nope! Not interested in an overly complex propulsion system. Heck, if I could fit a tall-deck LS 454 in my engine bay, I would.

 

[Cujet]

I guess that gas remains fairly close to historical prices when accurately adjusted for inflation. 1972 gas prices of 45 cents in NY is $3.44 today.

A hybrid benefits the owner when gas goes to California $7.50 per gallon or more. As it allows normal ops at more normal costs.

 

[Wingo]

Probably not Ford, I'd have to research a bit first. My company bought a handful of Ford Explorer hybrids as fleet vehicles. They have been absolute trash from the beginning. Always at the dealer, and at the dealer for long periods of time waiting for parts.

 

[Torrid]

I guess that gas remains fairly close to historical prices when accurately adjusted for inflation. 1972 gas prices of 45 cents in NY is $3.44 today.

A hybrid benefits the owner when gas goes to California $7.50 per gallon or more. As it allows normal ops at more normal costs.

I don’t think a hybrid saves me enough to matter either, especially since that’s not the most important metric to me with a car.

If my goal was cost per mile, nothing beats an EV with home charging where I’m at. We’re talking 3-4 times more expensive per mile to drive ICE depending on fuel economy. A Prius would be more than twice as much per mile.

 

[Astro_Guy]

A Prius would be more than twice as much per mile.

At present fuel prices our 2017 Prius V would cost $0.078/mile on 87 Octane E10. We run it on 89-91 E0 which costs more, but that's not relevant to the comparison you were making. My 2017 Ford C-Max Energi was costing about $0.0525/mile with our fully costed $0.18/KWh electricity. Now that we have gone solar the cost has gone down to $0.02/mile. That's a long winded way of saying that your estimate is stated rather conservatively.

Just before Covid my son and I rented a fourth generation Prius in Seattle and drove it across Washington and Idaho into Montana, then back to Portland. I think we put 1500 miles on that car at an average of 60 MPG. That was a week in late summer that cannot be realistically extrapolated into long term fuel economy. Were one to [foolishly] do so your observation would still be valid.

 

[factorytuned2012]

I’m not there yet.

Toyota hybrids are proven to be exceptional, and I suspect the new Camry will be as well.

Guess I’m just too old to adapt to new technologies.

Ford maverick I’d give a go

 

[joekingcorvette]

My wife and I love our almost new Toyota Rav 4 hybrid AWD which averaged 38.5 since new and the mileage has been increasing this summer. We had a Jeep Grand Cherokee limited and it burned twice as much gas and drove about the same as the hybid. I would definitely buy another hybrid instead of an ICE for a daily driver. We have 7,500 miles on it now and will have to see how it works out after we accumulate more miles. My guess is we will trade it in or sell it before it has 100,000 miles which is nothing for those.

 

[Torrid]

At present fuel prices our 2017 Prius V would cost $0.078/mile on 87 Octane E10. We run it on 89-91 E0 which costs more, but that's not relevant to the comparison you were making. My 2017 Ford C-Max Energi was costing about $0.0525/mile with our fully costed $0.18/KWh electricity. Now that we have gone solar the cost has gone down to $0.02/mile. That's a long winded way of saying that your estimate is stated rather conservatively.

Just before Covid my son and I rented a fourth generation Prius in Seattle and drove it across Washington and Idaho into Montana, then back to Portland. I think we put 1500 miles on that car at an average of 60 MPG. That was a week in late summer that cannot be realistically extrapolated into long term fuel economy. Were one to [foolishly] do so your observation would still be valid.

For sure. I was only using my fuel costs and power costs as an example. There's many ways to skew it in either direction, but it's a lot easier to get cheap electricity than it is to make a hybrid efficient enough to make fuel costs come down. That all goes out the window on a longer trip when you're at the mercy of public charging costs when it comes to EVs.

Interesting you mention using 91 octane. I do in the GTI because I tuned it and that was the lowest option available for the tune I used. I have consistently gotten 36mpg over every tank since the weather has been nice and even at that I'm getting $0.118 per mile. All electricity taxes in I'm getting $0.03 per mile with the Model 3 just using the grid/no solar.

 

[Oldwolf]

Oh, hell yes. I've had a Toyota hybrids for the last 15 years.

 

[Hermann]

Here's a nice, economical hybrid:
View attachment 229331

That has Jeff Keryk written all over it.

 

[Torrid]

That has Jeff Keryk written all over it.

I love the E-Ray. I'm amazed that it made it to production.

 

[Sedin26]

It is really how the manufacturer design and build them that make or break them.

Nissan failed in both EV (Leaf) and gas car (CVT), and I would trust a proven Prius any day despite "in theory" hybrid have more things to break than both EV and gas car.

I’m not going to argue the Leaf doesn’t have issues - it obviously does. However, we’re loving our new to us 2011 Leaf and it’s great for our around town driving and also shorter highway trips. Most of our driving is now in the Leaf. It’s at 68% State of Health but still a great vehicle for our needs.
I love the 2005 CRV and put new tires on it today but the gas savings are too extreme to ignore, plus we enjoy driving it.

 

[PandaBear]

I’m not going to argue the Leaf doesn’t have issues - it obviously does. However, we’re loving our new to us 2011 Leaf and it’s great for our around town driving and also shorter highway trips. Most of our driving is now in the Leaf. It’s at 68% State of Health but still a great vehicle for our needs.
I love the 2005 CRV and put new tires on it today but the gas savings are too extreme to ignore, plus we enjoy driving it.

If I intentionally buy it for local driving like you do, I won't have problem either. My beef with Leaf is, for a very similar manufacturing cost as a Bolt of the same range if designed, it degrades too fast, just because they cut corner on the battery pack cooling system.

Let's say it cost $700-1000 for the cooling system. Is it worth saving $700-1000 to make the battery last only half as long? They may fool people once back in 2011, but they won't fool people today anymore.

 

[Sedin26]

If I intentionally buy it for local driving like you do, I won't have problem either. My beef with Leaf is, for a very similar manufacturing cost as a Bolt of the same range if designed, it degrades too fast, just because they cut corner on the battery pack cooling system.

Let's say it cost $700-1000 for the cooling system. Is it worth saving $700-1000 to make the battery last only half as long? They may fool people once back in 2011, but they won't fool people today anymore.

Yes this is true and I live in a favourable climate where the lack of carbon ok’ing isn’t a problem.

There are various EVs with much larger and actively cooled batteries that should become cheap as they get to 10 years old or more yet provide good range.

I could see myself getting an older Bolt in a few years or even a Tesla.

 

[fdcg27]

I remain very happy with my hybrid.
Cheap to buy, cheap to run and actually capable of very imprudent cornering speeds as well as surprisingly quick acceleration into the reckless op speed level, although I haven't taken it to the ton since a couple of 70-100 pulls when it was fairly new.
A hybrid is an inexpensive and cheap to own car that anyone can buy and use right now and there is no denying the convenience of being able to refill with gasoline pretty much anywhere at any time.
Operating cost per mile for me is almost always under .06/mile, so cost of driving is never an issue whatever place one might want to drive to.

 

[Brett776]

I’d buy a hybrid in a heartbeat if I was in the market. I used to only drive “brodozers”. Ahh but now I have two young kids and live in suburban south Florida. I have no need for a big truck now but I’d get plenty of use from a hybrid. We just got the wife a 24 Palaside and I’d of gone hybrid highlander but the value was in the Hyundai. I still have a 21 civic with less than 28k miles so upgrading to any hybrid would be cost prohibitive for a long time. If the option is available at a reasonable price next vehicle upgrade, I’m all about it. Suburban stop and go driving is a perfect use case.

 

[MParr]

I would consider a hybrid car. I will say that VW 4 cylinder TSI engines are very fuel efficient.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Get's pretty darn good mileage!