When people talk about hybrid cars there is a mix feeling about the reliability and economy. The main feature of a hybrid car is electric ride with the advantage of fuel economy. These car does give you greater saving at the gas pump but their sticker price are usually higher and may not benefit the usual driver.
Now most 4 cylinder economy car with only gas engine goes up to 39 mile per gallon on highway and 30 in city which is great. At 12,000.00 miles per year you can have a gas bill of $115.5 and $87.5 per month for city and highway driver. About if that same $12,000 miles, you could only pay $70.00 and $77 for city and highway respectively.
That sound like a great saving, well most hybrid are almost up to 10,000 more than the standard counterparts. The economics does not add up major saving unless you look at models that are native hybrid. For example the Honda Insight carry starting price as low as the civic base.
Table below give you a forecast of different mileage scenario driven per year attached with cost.
| Vehicles Miles per gallon | Gas Price per gallon | ||
| City | Highway | $ 3.50 | |
| 20 | 30 | ||
| 30 | 39 | ||
| 50 | 45 | ||
| Mileage | Gas Prices | Gas Saving | ||||||||
| Month | Day | Year | Month | 5 years | Month | 5 years | ||||
| City | highway | City | highway | City | highway | City | highway | |||
| 1000 | 45 | 12000 | $ 175.00 | $ 116.67 | $ 10,500.00 | $ 7,000.00 | $ - | $ 58.33 | $ - | $ 3,500.00 |
| $ 116.67 | $ 89.74 | $ 7,000.00 | $ 5,384.62 | $ 58.33 | $ 85.26 | $ 3,500.00 | $ 5,115.38 | |||
| $ 70.00 | $ 77.78 | $ 4,200.00 | $ 4,666.67 | $ 105.00 | $ 97.22 | $ 6,300.00 | $ 5,833.33 | |||
| 1600 | 60 | 19200 | $ 280.00 | $ 186.67 | $ 16,800.00 | $ 11,200.00 | $ - | $ 93.33 | $ - | $ 5,600.00 |
| $ 186.67 | $ 143.59 | $ 11,200.00 | $ 8,615.38 | $ 93.33 | $ 136.41 | $ 5,600.00 | $ 8,184.62 | |||
| $ 112.00 | $ 124.44 | $ 6,720.00 | $ 7,466.67 | $ 168.00 | $ 155.56 | $ 10,080.00 | $ 9,333.33 | |||
| 2000 | 100 | 24000 | $ 350.00 | $ 233.33 | $ 21,000.00 | $ 14,000.00 | $ - | $ 116.67 | $ - | $ 7,000.00 |
| $ 233.33 | $ 179.49 | $ 14,000.00 | $ 10,769.23 | $ 116.67 | $ 170.51 | $ 7,000.00 | $ 10,230.77 | |||
| $ 140.00 | $ 155.56 | $ 8,400.00 | $ 9,333.33 | $ 210.00 | $ 194.44 | $ 12,600.00 | $ 11,666.67 | |||
Now the table above may is pretty busy to follow but might be pretty helpful if you use the first table as guide to forecast cost over a month and five years. The savings are pretty huge when you look at five year spam.
The battery pack fear
Normal batteries usually last up to five years. Some batteries even go longer than 5 years even 10 years.
Most manufacturers of hybrid cars now include 8 years or 100,000 miles warranty and may vary by state. Which means that the battery pack can last even longer than 8 years or the miles they cover. Eight years is long time to keep a car and even if the battery fails the gas engine will take you around.
So if you know that you do 60 to 100 miles per day, a hybrid car is right for you.
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