In November 2005 I said that, ignoring tax credits and battery replacement costs, gas would need to be somewhere between $2.17 and $3.53 to recoup the initial costs of buying a hybrid Civic over a traditional Civic. On Honda's website a nice tool is now available to compare competing cars, including Honda vs. Honda. The Hybrid is shown to cost $4840 and $3090 more than the LX and EX Civic sedans, respectively, when comparably equipped. Mileage is 40/45 for the hybrid and 25/36 for the LX and EX. Using the same argument as before, gas would have to cost $3.49 and $2.23 for the Hybrid to make financial sense against the LX and EX, respectively.
Since I'm paying well over $3.00 per gallon, the hybrid, as before, is not an unreasonable choice. However, it seems (according to the Honda website) the hybrid depreciates faster and has somewhat higher maintenance costs, which further hurts the financial strength of the gas-electric car.
Thus, overall not much has changed in two years. A hybrid's additional cost is small but not trivial, and the cost may be worth it to obtain the peace of mind that comes with knowing you are supporting crazed oil barons 28% less when your drive.
No comments:
Post a Comment