Car Finance / Do Hybrids Make Financial Sense Yet
There are many good reasons to buy a hybrid. Saving money still isn't one of them.With rising gas prices and attractive tax credits, many consumers feel they are making a frugal choice when they buy a hybrid car or SUV. Right? Well, not exactly.
Sure, there are a lot of good reasons to buy a hybrid, such as reduced emissions and the conservation of limited oil reserves. However, from a strictly financial point of view it will take years before a hybrid will save a consumer enough money to pay for the added expense of buying one.
Edmunds has crunched the numbers, and has determined just how long it would take for buyers of new hybrids to break even (save enough money on gas to offset the additional expense of buying a hybrid). The results are surprising: Of vehicles that have an equivalent hybrid version, the Chrysler Aspen Hybrid has the earliest break-even point. However, it still takes 5.5 years to save an Aspen Hybrid's owner enough money to break even when compared to the cost of a standard Aspen Limited. Other highlights show the Toyota Camry Hybrid takes 6.5 years to break even compared to the loaded four-cylinder Camry XLE. The Lexus LS 600h takes a whopping 143.5 years to break even with the Lexus LS 460 L.
Calculations were based on Edmunds' True Market Value for each vehicle, 15,000 miles per year combined city and highway driving, the average national price of gas ($2.91 per gallon on October 23), rebates and 2008-2009 federal tax credits. We sought the most equivalent model from within the carmakers' lineups. Where necessary, we added options, such as the touring package on the Lexus LS 460 L, in order to make the hybrid-to-gas model comparison as close as possible.
What about the Toyota Prius? This category creator doesn't have an equivalent gas-only version, so we compared it to both the Toyota Corolla LE and the gas-only Camry LE. This comparison skews the numbers dramatically: It takes the Prius a shocking 16.2 years to catch up with the Corolla. Comparing the Prius to the Camry LE, though, makes it a scene-stealer: only 4.2 years to break even, the shortest of any of our comparisons.
Commuters who put an average 25,000 miles on their vehicle will find their break-even times dramatically shortened (see chart below); those who drive significantly less than 15,000 miles per year will find it takes even longer to reach the break-even point.
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Automotive sound systems are more complex now that portable media players, hard-disk drives and smartphones are along for the ride. But the basic radio/speaker setup hasn't drastically changed, even though more speakers and more amplifier power have been added over the years.
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