Why You Should Wait Until 2010 To Buy A New Car
 

Nice read from ecogeek:

The problem with that is there is always something worth waiting for in a few years. If I based my computer purchasing decisions (were this wait for something better theory actually returns better returns) I would never have owned a computer.

Great topic, SVOboy. In addition, Clark Howard generally recommends that people not trade in their present automobiles for more efficient new ones, because the cost of gas alone will not justify the decision. He recommends the cost calculator below:

http://politicalcalculations.blogspo...s-guzzler.html

Your point adds another layer to the decision-making process, which is very important. The 2010-2012 timespan will introduce a wide variety of options for car buyers. Hold out if you can, imho, because the alternatives coming out offer radical changes, not minor ones.

Duffman, I think what arminius points to is the important distinction. It's not about always waiting a bit longer (eventually your car will just die though, right?), but in this case it's about waiting for a predicted windfall of green transportation options, :)

We were suppose to be getting a diesel F150 on the market around 5 years ago, where is it? Chrysler was going to bring over Mercedes diesels en mass and now they are not the same company anymore. Not everything that is promised for the future always materialises.

True that. Wisdom combined with patience will pay off this time, I think. I would hate to see someone pass up the opportunity to buy a car that saved them $2,000 - $3,000 a year in gas just because they were ticked about the F150! :eek:

They forget that one can replace an inefficient used car with an efficient used car. A mid 90s Metro or something of the sort to replace a mid 90s Audi A4 would give a vast increase in efficiency and make the person money. Just stating the obvious, of course this is great advice if the choice is between a new car or keeping the current car.

Yeah, depreciation is one of the biggest factors. A good calculator needs to take that into account. I personally calculate that I will own a car at least 10 years, barring an accident that makes the car unusable.

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008...ntro.html#more


http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008...tudy.html#more


http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/05...pted-and-othe/

"Green" has become about as meaningless as "organic," "low fat," and "healthy."

Wait three years to buy some "healthy" cigarettes...fully filtered.

They should market those cars primarily for its economical advantages, not for its environmental benefits. People are going to start to get the idea that driving their Prii around is good for the environment. Maybe I'm taking a glass half empty perspective here, but it irks me when the media latches on to key words that lose all meaning.

If they do market it for its economical advantages, it shouldn't take a genius to realize a used civic is going to be a hell of a lot cheaper then anything new.

New technology means nothing alongside the same old mode of thought...but the technology is cool, though. :)

- LostCause

a good reason to wait for 2010.... they will have worked out all the bugs in the new camaro so that i can happily put one in my driveway and by driving style alone get 30+ mpg.. think i am kidding? i drove (sometimes) like an ass, always on the gas pedal and rarely slower than 90 in my t/a and was averaging 24 mpg...

sorry for being a bit of a smart ass, ive just been waiting for the camaro for a while...

Thanks for that calculator, Arminius. It's a real time saver. I found out that to justify dumping my paid-for Cavalier for a new Corolla, I'd have to drive 245,000 miles per year! I suppose the calculator is geared towards immediate monthly cost as it doesn't take loan term length into consideration.

Looking at only the next 5 years...

I'd have to drive 70Kmi/year to justify buying a used Corolla at $7K.

I'd have to drive 125Kmi/year to justify buying a new Prius.

Going "green" can come at a steep price, which is why I'm not overly concerned about "greenness". I wonder how many idiots dug themselves a deeper hole financially by buying a new "green" car because of the relatively minor costs of fuel.

The business model is likely tied to that mode of thought.... Funding comes from sales (not necessarily directly). Why develop new tech when people aren't buying the transitional tech?

Just throwing that out there - the model isn't optimal from our perspective, but that doesn't change the model they appear to be following.

Add to that the fact that EVERYDAY I see those idiots passing me on the hwy doing 85mph, where is the savings there? I now cringe everytime I see a prius fly by me doing at least 20mph over the speed limit ..

Hey, if Al Gore were my dad, I'd be doing worse things than that.

Let the rich people who want to impress their pseudo-green friends and the people who are bad at math buy those cars. Then they will saturate the used car market with them and it will then make sense to buy one.

What if you don't have any friends. What does it matter if some one wants to buy a car, any car. It they have the cash let em. The market will dictate what they are worth when and if they try to sell them.

my dad did this calculation when looking at new cars a 12k yaris vs a 24k hybrid.. Yaris won even with its 10mopg less fuel rating.. and he calculated 15 year ownership.. however he cant predict the price of gas in there accurately, so he went with a even $4 a gallon..

The one huge draw back of hybrids are the batteries , if these go bad out of warrantee your in for a big expense.. however hopefully in that warranted time they will decrease in cost and increase in capacity making old hybrids more of a plug in hybrid.. only time will tell.. However if batteries get better we may see these hybrids getting more plug in conversions in the future or better MPG ratings with new batteries and computer reprograms.

Time will tell, do what you can now..

I'm not sure what you're getting at. I'm all for anyone buying anything they want. However, I'm also one who encourages running the numbers to make sure what makes the most economic sense. In addition, I think it hurts the environment more to make a new hybrid car from scratch than to buy an existing efficient car.

The hypocrisy comes into play when celebrities (or anyone, for that matter) buys a brand new hybrid car to show how "green" they are. Obviously that's better than buying a gas hog, or pouring gas on the ground. However, it's not better than walking, biking, public transportation (in most cases), or even buying any one of variety of efficient used cars. Every time a celebrity buys a Prius, it's on the news, but not when they buy a bike or a used Focus, Cobalt, Civic or Corolla. If someone wants to buy a Prius or Hummer, I'll let them.

I remember years ago (1989?) when the founder of a big computer company (Cray) was riding around in an old subcompact (I believe it was a Tercel), and he had a wrist watch taped to the dash because the car didn't come with a clock. That guy is a celebrity to me - and not just because he founded a big company.

That's a great story.

I've recently heard one about an old lady near my community that drives a spartan 1980's Ford Escort. Her daily job is to drive by the hundreds of properties shes been accumulating since the 1950's to collect rent. Where was that option on those career surveys I used to take in high school? :p

I've also heard numerous times that the most common car of the average millionaire is a Ford Taurus. Wealth is measured by capital, investments, and money in the bank...not toys.

Personally, I cringe more at the sight of a full minivan rolling down the street than a celebrity in a Prius.

- LostCause

JohnnyGrey -

I'm having fun with the calculator too. If I switched from my old 35/45 MPG Saturn to a (used) 60/51 Honda Insight that I Hypermile "up" to 70/56 with $250/month payments, gas would have to reach $15 for it to pay for itself.

I'm gonna use this calculator when I talk to friends about this stuff.

CarloSW2

Why? If the minivan is full, it's performing its intended duty and getting way more MPG per person than a single celebrity in a Prius.

Heh, that story is a bit close to home for me. My 1992 Corolla doesn't have a clock so there is an analog watch hanging from the mirror using a hippie bead necklace :P

Meh - you're missing the point... Mr. Prius is likely still getting more mpg 20+ over than it's counterpart at the speed limit. Which, is the point - no compromise (or very little).

You're going to have one hell of a time changing people's minds... It's a lot easier to change the product :thumbup:

If some ass is going to do 20 over - I'd rather it happen in a Prius than in my car or just about any other car... My car just doesn't perform as well at that speed - I can't compete with that aero. Sure, they should slow down - if they were, you wouldn't have this gripe :p

A loaded minivan doesn't promote others to keep high occupancy in their minivans the way a celebrity promotes anything. I rarely see minivans or Prii with high occupancy anyway :/ It's a big If with respect to occupancy. In any case, Apples to apples, a fully loaded Prius (5) has a greater mpg per capita than a fully loaded minivan (7 - even 8).

I totally believe you.. to be honest - and this has been my observation, drivers generally drive like asses weather or not they have a car that has the potential for higher mpg numbers :thumbup: Drivers just generally equal asses - I've had my moments just as everyone else has, I just have them very infrequently :p

The way I read it, it seemed like you'd rather see a celebrity (one person) in a Prius than a full (7-8 people in a) minivan. I thought we were talking about actual efficiency rather than using star power to get a point across. How many people bought a Prius because Larry David drives one?

You can read it however you want ;) It's not really changing anything.... Here's the key points to take away from it:

What it should have seemed like is... I'd rather see the one person (even two) driving a Prius than one (or two) in a minivan... Because that's the reality of what's going on :thumbup: Hell, I even had a directly applicable corollary a few lines above

And it's not one celebrity person - it's the celebrity. In a consumer whorish world - 10 seconds of time on whatever TV broadcast is freaking awesome from a promotional standpoint. I'm willing to bet more people have heard about a Prius than a Ford GT...

A full minivan is worse because the baby-maker sitting in the driver's seat has polluted the world orders of magnitude worse than the single celebrity speeding in the Prius. If you think one new car is bad for the environment, 5 kids is absolute hell.

Pollution = f(population)

I'm just being an ass...:)

- LostCause

I lost track of what the OP was in this thread. I guess it to bash Prius and the people who by them. Good or bad Toyota went way out on a limb to make and sell the Prius when every one said it would not work. Well it did and they raised the bar as far as FE goes. The technology and battery advancement we are seeing now is due in great part because of the popularity of these cars.

For what ever reason people buy these cars it's probably a much better choice then what they were driving for both emissions and MPG and yes the Prius driver doing 85 would still be doing 85 but in something that got a lot less mileage.

so out of curiosity, how much does the increased speed affect the mpg in a prius, in my transam (decent aero) i used to drive 90+mph and got around 24 mpg which is about the same as what i got at 65 (1 or 2 mpg less but to me thats not a big difference for the speed difference) but in comparison either of my boxes (jeeps) suffers greatly above certain speeds (55 for jeep 1 and 65 for jeep 2)

you can get great used cars for under 2k...Dump the escalade,suv whatever and jump in a mid 90s honda or toyota.People are so vain about having a new car.Rice burners arent much greater fashion statements when they are new than when old.

Since this product isn't out yet, I'll post this over here. This also has potential to be an ecomod: http://www.gizmag.com/electric-super...er-boost/9364/

just a note: that is far from the first electric supercharger, they have been around for a while

If you read the fine print I think it says it works for 10 revolutions of the engine... On start up this is said to be significant? Maybe it is good for EOCing and restarting? I doubt it though.

Here's an article on one that definitely doesn't work but they go over the numbers on why electric superchargers aren't really practical.
http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&A=0237
Ian

thanks for posting that ian, i wanted to post that they werent practical but i didnt have time to look for something on it..