Quote:
Originally Posted by cowmeat
Now take that a step further and compare the used market.
I paid 4,500 bucks for my Insight, it has 111,000 miles on it and a new battery. Say you can get a used (name your brand here) that comes within twenty miles a gallon of what my Insight gets with that mileage (good luck) and re-do the math for let's say a five year period of ownership.
I'd like to see that spreadsheet, cause that's my plan.
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Used to used would be all over the map based good deals that come along. To be fair you should compare NADA values to eliminate the special deals that come along. That said yours is not a crazy good deal, but solid. The spreadsheet posted has a lot of guessing involved. Future resale can change a lot if something turns out to not be so reliable after all. Repairs are a crap shoot sometimes, I've had cars that are supposed to be the biggest pieces of junk solider on and on year after year with zero problems while the big red circle consumer reports job is just one thing after another. So let's just stick to MPG based on average 15,000 miles per year.
How about a 1996-1999 Neon 5-speed, a common under $2000 car, some as low as $500 with a bit of crust. But say a nice 111,000 mile one for $2000. To be fair I'll use the updated EPA combined ratings for the Insight and Neon. Yes you can get more with the Insight, but I bet a hypermiler would get an even bigger gain (compared to EPA) with the Neon as you yourself have proven with your Ford. So over 75,000 miles the Insight uses 1415 gallons and the Neon uses 2586 gallons, 1171 more. At $3/gal a savings of $3500. So with only a $2100 higher price you save $1400 over 5 years with the Insight. So it works. I would bet that is the only hybrid that does and you are talking about living with a 2 seater.
Plug in a used 2001 Prius with less MPG and you get 1829 gallons used, a 757 gallon savings. Pretty much even with a $2100 less price of a Neon.
A 1998 Civic compares pretty well also using 2206 gallons or 377 gallons more then a Prius and 791 more then a Insight and but is more like a $3000 car so the $4100 Insight still wins by $1273.