I drive a 2008 TCH. At the time I bought it, I paid ~$2500 extra for the hybrid option. I recall people calculating how much profit they'd earn on the gas savings (to which I laughed)
Well, after 8 years of pleasurable driving (84,000 miles) I checked KBB.com and lo and behold, the hybrid is worth ~2000 less than the gas version.

Savings???
The only fair comparison is to use sticker MPG, since almost all of the techniques one uses to boost the hybrid's mileage can similarly be employed with the gas version
Hybrid average MPG (using stats from the sticker) 34 MPG, gas average MPG 26 MPG.
Back of the envelope...for 84,000 miles my hybrid fuel used ~2470 gallons, a similar gas Camry would have used 3230 gallons...a saving 760 gallons @2.50/gallon is ~$2,000

Bottom line, if anyone is thinking of a hybrid from a financial perspective, the 8-10 MPG boost you're going to get will save you money...it wont,
I'd still buy the car, but no one should delude themselves into thinking it will be a money saver.
Of course, if I drove significantly more miles, the calculations would skew differently, but at the end of the day...it's just a car

 

I'm a little more than double your mileage and have found that my maintenance costs were less than the gas Camry. Still, I think I am slightly ahead of the game. I am still on the original brakes and have had very few issues.... Would buy another.

 

Hybrids aren't about economy. They are about efficiency.

When one couples the hybrid premium with the battery replacement costs in the range of 100K miles, one rarely comes out ahead.

 

agreed!

 

We are talking about Toyota hybrids, not Hondas.......


Do a search on here and see how many Toyotas have had to have a battery replaced. That is one of the main reasons I bought a Toyota.

 

I have an '03 Prius with 162K in my driveway. It's battery pack is in my office. It is the deadest pack I have ever seen. I have never seen a Honda pack so thoroughly rung out. TWO modules are nearly at spec. 36 modules are for the recycle bin as they have leaked and will not recover in any way.

I recently looked at an '06 with 182K miles. It had a dead pack too.

The Toyota design is superior. Its battery management is superior. It uses less of the battery capacity. The battery module design is superior. The Toyota batteries are made by the same supplier as the Honda batteries.

It still fails.

When you remove the 2009-2011 HCH numbers from replacement rates figures (these years had massive problems), the replacement rates for 2000-2006 hondas vs. Toyotas are in the low single digits.

There are reliable Honda aftermarket options that are superior to what Honda produces with warranties available that beat both Honda and Toyota.

So, it's a mixed bag overall.

IIRC depending on gas prices, 200K miles is about the break even where the gas savings offsets the hybrid premium AND a battery replacement.

 

Wow, didn't expect such pessimism from you, haroldo.

Anyhow. I LOVE how HSD operates so much that not only do I keep my Camry, I also sold my Ridgeline and bought 12 Highlander Hybrid. I get a kick, a rush, driving those systems.
Plus, 41 mog average on TCH and 32.5 on HiHY are still very tough to match by conventional vehicles.
But mpg or not, I get visceral pleasure in operating those cars.

 

OTOH, we could be in the VW diesel forum now saying "So much for the "TDI Premium"...

 

Pessimism?
Nah
Just realism...I've always maintained that these cars should not be thought of in terms of cost

 

Well, duh, just wait till gas prices swing back to five.