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With rising fuel prices, should you buy a Hybrid? Is it about less money at the pump or less pollution or both? With the economy in the tank and the rising cost of nearly everything, how can you justify spending a fairly large chunk of cash on a small, economy car that happens to pack 1905 technology to save cash at the pump?  Also, what is the real carbon footprint of buying a hybrid? Why not consider a used car that gets better mileage than your Ford Explorer? How high does gas have to get to justify the economics of a new hybrid?

Quality of car manufacturing underwent a massive shift in the 1980s. Increased pressure from superior quality of Japanese car manufacturers like Honda, Toyota and Nissan put increasing pressure on American and European car companies to build cars that would easily hit the 100,000 mile mark without falling apart (remember the Chevy Vega or Ford Pinto?).  It is not uncommon to see cars for sale that are well over 100,000 miles and most cars are able to run for decades efficiently and without major investments in repairs and upkeep.  In fact, the last two vehicles I owned, the first scheduled tune up wasn’t required until 100,000 miles. 

Cars have dramatically increased in reliability and life expectancy.  Still, there are advances in safety, technology and features have compelled a historically very lucrative new car buying market. People on average keep cars between three and five years, far below the life expectancy of the car.  Moreover, the increased demand in leasing new cars has created a cottage industry of certified used cars in many automotive market segments, still the automotive industry is demand based and getting people to buy new cars is how BMW and GM make money.  But, no one really thought that buying a Nissan Armada or Chevy Tahoe would end up costing $100.00 per fill up, so cars got bigger and demand motivated even European luxury lines like Porsche to product SUVs.

One trend in technical advancement that fell short was reaching new benchmarks in fuel efficiency. In 1905, the Ford Model T averaged about 25 miles per gallon  and 100 years later, most of the cars produced by ford were either at or below that standard of fuel efficiency.  But the Japanese decided to exploit two parallel trends.  They produced huge monsters like the Land Cruiser and Armada, but perfected the hyper efficient hybrids and small effiecient cars.  Smart move!

Again, Toyota and Honda saw a gap in the automotive circle and aggressively developed products to fill the gap.  The Honda Insight broke the mold and the Toyota Prius nailed the market.  But Hybrid electric/gas cars are not new the first known technology used in a car was developed in 1905.  At that time, gas engines were not powerful enough, so electric motors augmented the shortage in horse power.

While I applaud Honda and Toyota for refining this technology and their decisions definitely helped them be ready for a dramatic shift in fuel cost and consumer demand, but the savings is not that simple for the consumer and the carbon footprint is not completely offset or eliminated. According to Wired Magazine, production of 1 Toyota Prius consumes about 113 million BTUs, “the equivalent of 1,000 gallons of gas.” Moreover, the $23,000 sticker price for a comparable gas only car creates about a $6,000 dollar gap for the consumer, the price of 1500 gallons of $4.00/gallon gas.

I am not demeaning the progress made in fuel efficiency that Toyota and Honda have made and I do not think people in the market for a new car should ignore the hybrid as an option; I just think we need to be realistic.  Personally, I am exploring the used car market for a more efficient option. By not absorbing the huge initial depreciation of a new car purchase and buying a car that hits my fuel requirements, I can produce substantial savings and still have a safer more efficient car than what I have today.  Plus, my purchase doesn’t increase the carbon output for the production of a new car. 

~DK