Quote:
Originally Posted by bennelson
I would also say that hybrid cars don't make a lot of economic sense for the average person.
They are expensive! Most of them are new, hard to find a used one anywhere at a decent price.
|
By the same logic, new cars don't make economic sense for the average anyone
Because how much fuel do you need to buy to recover the depreciation? The answer is naught. You're still buying fuel, you're still putting dollars into it.
The Prius takes a long long time to recover it's cost in terms of fuel savings. Longer than reasonable (depending on the car - to recover about $7500, it takes 150-130K miles of Prius driving). I forget what car we were comparing, but I wrote up a whole spreadsheet for my mom that wanted to know.
It didn't take depreciation into consideration, but methinks that will make the "savings" come unto the realm of reasonable. But if one plans to drive it into the ground anyway - then it is 100% reasonable, it will pay for itself over it's life
But that said, do people really buy cars for their economic savings? (keep in mind that SUV's STILL make up about half of the new car market share and almost all cost more than a Prius).
Despite their inability to pay for themselves, they have an increase in sales despite their sector having a decrease. Sure, there's a market out there that won't buy unless it pays for itself - but thus far, that seems not to be a major factor for a car that makes up a tiny tiny tiny percentage of all car sales (there's still plenty of people that will buy).