Quote:
Originally Posted by haroldo
Coming up with a cost differential and comparing models is an inexact science, at best.
Here is what I did.
I called my dealer and told him I wasn't going to buy a car today (joking around) but wanted to know what it would cost him (as an employee, thus stripping out much of the extras that a dealer could pack into the cost) to buy a gas and hybrid version of a similarly equipped car. With nothing to gain by giving me false information, he said "a similarly equipped car" with a gas engine is $3000 less.
CarMax, KBB and all the other web sites don't have precise information (although the world assumes that they do). They do informal surveys, since KBB doesn't actually buy the cars, they can't possibly know what the true cost is.
I love the TCH, but don't delude yourslef into thinking that you will have a one year payback...unless gas doubles (triples?) and you drive your car around the clock.
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I will say that many on-line sites do have information that is pretty darn close when trying to figure out the invoice pricing.
While researching the purchase of my TCH, my gf's RAV4, and my mother's RAV4, all of the invoice numbers I came up with based on internet information were within 100 - 200 of the real invoice quoted by the dealer. (These purchases were spread over 1.5 years.)
If someone goes out and gets the invoice number for a i4 XLE with the same options as a TCH, does the math, they should have a reasonable number to base the difference off of. I think the bigger issue is the rated MPG and the actual MPG.
But with current numbers...
Lets assume the i4 XLE is $3,000 less than the TCH with the same options, gas is $3.75 /gallon, and we drive 12,000 miles a year (this is another important number and the it obviously changes the outcome greatly).
From Toyota, the MPG of the i4 XLE is 21/31 (we'll say 26) and the TCH is 33/34 (we'll say 33.5).
12000 miles/year / 26 = 461.54 gallons/year x 3.75 = $1730.77 / year
12000 miles/year / 33.5 = 358.21 gallons/year x 3.75 = $1343.28 / year
1730.77 - 1343.28 = $387.49 (fuel savings in a year)
3000 / 387.49 = 7.74 years to payback -- a little too long to be worth it.
But the problem is, I do not believe the difference in price is $3,000. The difference between the MSRP and the invoice is usually around $3,000 so I wonder if there was confusion.
Who knows....I am just happy with my purchase and would rather pay a little more for the technology because if all of use based this off of numbers alone, the technology would go nowhere.