You assume that price and cost effectiveness are the only driving factors behind purchasing a hybrid. Buying a car is never purely a financial choice no matter what you drive- its an emotional and personal one that is tied to what people tend to value in a car. Why do people buy a $60,000 Navigator when they can easily purchase a $25,000 Expedition? Why do people buy a $50,000 MB E-class when they could buy a $18,000 Ford Five Hundred? Why do people spend an extra $1,500 for a xenon headlight package instead of sticking to the standard halogens?

For many hybrid owners, the motivations usually consist of: consuming less fuel (for reasons beyond cost) and the technological whiz-bang factor, even if they have to pay more. Luxury car buyer motivations might be: social status, luxury, horsepower, and attention, even if they have to pay more. Its all the same and none of those motivations are tied to cost effectiveness.

By the way, the battery in my civic hybrid is warrantied to 150,000 miles in California from the factory. I highly doubt I'll even have this car when it reaches 150,000 miles. And if I somehow do have the car and it needs a battery 10 years from now, the battery costs will likely drop significantly due to aftermarket suppliers and the higher prevalence of hybrids in general.

 

Ditto Eskrimast1, tbaleno. I would by another hybrid if the gas price fell to a dollar a gallon.

Hybrids rule,
Dave

 

Military draft and carbon tax are IMO coming in the next 2 - 5 years. Periodic 'crises' in oil supply will keep petrol gas high, with jumps in prices. People will slowly see that pouring money into anti-american regimes is a bad idea.

Even the most ignorant, self-centered citizen will come to view fossil fuel waste as unpatriotic. The writing is on the wall.

 

When/if the battery needs to be replaced in 5-7 years it will cost 25-33 percent of what it would cost now.

The people are speaking/have spoken. The industry will listen and by either technology or supply the price will come down.

Compared to the F150 I was driving just over a year ago, 1500 gallons of gas have been saved. Is that worth something?

I sound like a recording. 'Cuse me.

 

70K or so miles from now, I *want* my battery to die, so that I can justify a plug-in mod that I expect will cost $3K or so, and turn my Prius into a 100 MPG car.

It is really quite remarkable that the Prius will have *improved* functionality as time goes on. I'm not sure I will actually make money on the upgrade, but I sure do not worry about having to replace the battery.

 

More electric less gas. I consider even a hybrid a gas hog! hopefully the all electrics will soon become economically fesible!

Less gas More electric,
Dave

 

When demand for hybrids (Prii especially) is far exceeding production capacity, don't you think that people are finding a hybrid "Worth the Money"?

Personally I would like to see hundreds of hybrids sitting on the lots, not due to lack of sales, but over production, like the SUVs that are currently filling the lots. Then there would be a reason to offer "sale" prices and low interest loans to get them moving off the lots. We are stuck in an over-production of wasteful and highly profitable (low-tech) vehicles because they make big bucks, and so do the oil companies.

Consumer demand (for quite a while) has been for more efficient vehicles, smaller in general and even EVs (if technology was more widely available), but countering this has been a blitz of propaganda and marketing focusing on the "safety" of bigger, stronger SUVs, as well as horsepower, acceleration ability etc... We really get affected by all this advertising a lot more than we think, especially when it's a non-stop bombardment from every auto manufacturer. I noticed Toyota finally made a TV commercial for the Prius, yeehaw! The one that's already selling more than they are producing gets an ad!

At least people are getting a clue. Gas consumption in North America is leading us to go to war for control over the last remaining oil reserves in the world, and obviously we the people do not agree with that at all, but we supposedly "force" our misleaders into doing these things by buying gasoline. Time to change.

 

Dave -
You may be right about the batteries. We don't really know yet, which is basically my point.

As for the rest of my post, I stand by it. For those who want to be activists and spend more money to stop the alleged global warming and to reduce dependence upon foreign oil, hell, go for it. Its your money. Me, i'll continue shopping at Wall-Mart for certain things because it is cheaper even though they put the moms-and-pops out of business. America votes with its wallet, and some studies are showing that hybrids, on a cash-vs-cash basis, are costing more to operate than a standard car.

Personally, I'm going to investigate more in the next year. My cars are paid off, and when you factor in a car payment against the fuel savings and higher hybrid purchase cost, it makes no sense for me to just go out and buy one.

 

It makes no sense to buy any car. Why single out hybrids?

 

I didn't have to wait very long
From the NY Times, an Op-Ed by Thomas Friedman
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/17/op...7friedman.html

[clip]Diffusing Toyota's hybrid technology is one of the keys to what I call
"geo-green." Geo-greens seek to combine into a single political movement
environmentalists who want to reduce fossil fuels that cause climate
change, evangelicals who want to protect God's green earth and all his
creations, and geo-strategists who want to reduce our dependence on crude
oil because it fuels some of the worst regimes in the world.
[/clip]