I will be starting a new job in a month or 2 which will require me to commute approximately 35 miles each day. This commute is primarily on the highway. I am considering purchasing a hybrid car, but when I shared this with a friend in the auto sales business he told me that a hybrid didn't make sense for the type of driving I would be doing. According to this friend, a hybrid only makes sense when driving below 20 mph because that's when the battery kicks in. Any advise would be helpful.

What your friend should have said is that hybrids get the most improvement over conventional cars when there is lots of stop and go traffic. Depending on what your freeway experience is, that may or may not apply.

If you're trying to evaluate it on a pure economic basis, you need to ask yourself many more questions.

How long do you intend to own this car?
How many miles do you drive a year? What is the split between stop and go and cruising?
Are you already set on a particular model and simply choosing hybrid vs. conventional or are you open to other vehicles?

Your "friend" is very, very mis-informed. However, he is right in one regard - you should take the time to match your driving profile against the performance differences of a hybrid, and of the specific hybrid that you propose to buy.

My own communte is 32 miles one way or 64 miles daily with an elevation change of 1200 feet. The average speed for the trip varies from approximately 50 miles per hour to 65 miles per hour. It is on mostly two or four lane state or county highways and not on freeways - and it is almost perfect for a hybrid. I get 8-10 MPG over a 'normal' Camry, and 26 MPG over my former ride, a 2001 Tundra. (It doesn't take long to reach payback at 26 MPG difference.)

Some general things to consider:

• Hybrids do not perform well for numerous short, "choppy" trips.
• Hybrids reward "smooth" drivers. If you "stomp and chop" (accelerator,brake,accelerator,brake...fast and often) you will not get the extra FE Fuel economy) from a hybrid.
• Hybrids reward constant or near constant speeds and driving further ahead of the car (anticipating stops, bottlenecks, turns, hills and grade changes.) This is of particular importance for freeway driving.

IMO those are the "Big 3". There are lots of other tips throughout greenhybrid.com and I will not repeat them here. Browse the forums and decide first, if a hybrid fits your driving style and profile and second, which hybrid is best sutied to it. The technology, creature comforts and syle are yours to decide, but are secondary to the fit of the hybrid to your driving requirements - the right tool for the job.

It is the ignorant among us that will eventually destroy us all.

Your commute could lead to pretty high fuel economy in a hybrid.

A Prius or Civic Hybrid could get you 45-55mpg and heavier Altima or Camry hybrids could get you 35-45mpg in my opinion.

There are other non hybrid small cars that can also get you 35+ mpg.

If you are driving 15k miles or more per year, your fuel savings could add up quickly and make a hybrid worth it.

Do your own research and test driving though.

Good luck.

The most important question is how fast you want to drive. If you anticipate driving ~85mph, a hybrid will beat a traditional car but you will not hit the EPA estimates for highway driving in either car. The Civic hybrid is probably the best hybrid for highway driving because of it's small engine and tall gearing, but the Prius is quite capable too. Larger cars like the Camry, Altima and Escape will handily beat their gas cousins, but since they weigh more and have larger engines, you won't be pulling 50+mpg.

I drove our Civic to Boulder last weekend with my wife and parents, plus some luggage and Easter goodies so it was a full car. I drove ~60mph the whole way and was able to get a 53mpg average for the trip. If I had gone 65mph, I probably could have gotten in the high 40s for mileage and high 30s at 80mph (a guess--I quit driving that fast when I bought the hybrid).

Commuter car, grocery getter, and summer road tripper--average 10k miles per year.


Winter road trips and ski trips, bad weather commuter and my wife's "daily" driver--expected average 4k miles per year.

Unlike just a few years go, you also have the option for a used hybrid, often an economical way to go. Toyota has no more 'tax credits' for buying a new hybrid. But if you check Ebay and Kelly Blue Book value, you can get some pretty good deals on a used hybrid. This keeps your initial investment low if you don't want to commit to a new car.

One thing I would recommend is to rent a hybrid. Several of the car rental companies now offer hybrids and for a couple of hundred dollars, you can try one for a couple of days or better still, a week. This will give you a taste without having to go 'whole hog.'

Most of the hybrids are still offered with a lot of items as standard that are optional on other cars. As a suggestion, ask your friend to do the following:

1) workup a base quote on a Prius
2) workup a quote on what he thinks is an equivalent car matching options to every Prius standard feature

Then you can compare Apples-to-Apples. This is what I did when I bought my 2003 Prius.

http://home.hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/buying.html
http://home.hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/payback.html

GOOD LUCK!
Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

your friend does not understand the two basic types of hybrids. very simplified, toyotas and their derivitives are best for city driving, and hondas work best on the highway. my commute is about 60 miles, round trip. about a 100 foot drop going to work, and 100 feet back up going home (duh). i have been averaging 75 mpg tanks for the last year (21 fillups per year). 70.3 since i have owned the car. last tank was 79.1 (best ever!) no problem getting my money's worth out of it! in fact, the gas savings alone have paid for it! now, thats compared to my jeep grand wagoneer at 12 mpg. YMMV, and i hope its better than that!

2000 Honda Insight. Kenwood MP3 head unit, Blaupunkt door speakers, dual Cobalt amps, 3 MTX stealth subs, 4th very-high-mounted brake light, Sumitomo tires, yellow-top, hot induction air mod, tinted, SG2, MIMA, center armrest.


best tank 82 mpg

Totally agree with HafNHaf. I had the same misconception (well oversimplification) that hybrids only improve city mileage. The Honda system does quite well on the highway - thank you very much. Now - old EPA put the hybrid at 48 and the regular at 40 mpg. I don't know if that 20% is worth it. Really depends on your mileage numbers. Obviously - you will have to do some "city" driving and you will likely see better than a 20% improvement in mileage over a gas Civic. But even at 20% - it can be worth it.

I probably paid an extra $1000 for the hybrid model. It has some extra features and I remember thinking it was an extra $800 (after tax credit) when I put a specific value on the features - climate control particularly. So ... going with the EPA ... 70 * 200 work days/year = 14,000. Lets assume 6,000 leisure/errands = 20,000 miles per year.

500 gallons with gas Civic; 416 with HCH

At $3.50 (reasonable, very conservative) gas price going forward. $290 savings a year. Pay off - for me was <3 years. Now - I think I do more like 30% better than a gas civic, I tihnk over the car's lifetime gas will average more like $4.50 a gallon. But you will also probably not have the full tax credit. If you go with $3000 as a price difference, it means holding the car for a bit longer to hit the pay$$$.

But - resale here is a factor. Honda (wrongly I believe) thinks the hybrid's resale value will be hit harder than a gas model. When it comes to dollars on a used car - a higher percentage of the total cost is gas - so in my mind FE becomes more important. Now if you believe that oil will likely be $200 a barrel in 5-7 years - it really becomes a nobrainer. People will be screaming for a used hybrid...

Now let's just say you're buying a small SUV to deal with your growing family and all the junk transport that entails (like moi). To do that same mileage with an Escape (2WD, I-4 model) you're looking at 20/26 vs. 34/30 for the hybrid.

848 gallons with a gas Escape; 643 with a FEH

At $3.50 a year, you're saving $684 per year. With an after tax-credit difference of $2000 you still need 3 years to break even, but every additional year you gain a significant amount.

Why is that??