How can I calculate if a hybrid car is worth buying?

Question

I've seen plenty of calculators that only calculate the cost of gas savings for hybrid cars vs. both other hybrids and non-hybrids. But are there any calculators for figuring in initial purchase price, expected maintenance, and environmental factors? Even better, any that show a graph showing the "break even" point for that combined cost (e.g. the additional initial cost for a hybrid will even out in x years and y months due to gas and other savings)?

Answer 1

Edmunds.com has a "True Cost of Ownership" calculator.

http://www.edmunds.com/apps/cto/intro.do

But like any other calculator, they can only estimate. Real world figures will vary.

Answer 2

1. Figure out how many miles per gallon you current car gets.
2. Determine how many miles you drive it each week or month on average.
3. Then come up with the total cost of fuel for a year.

4. Find out the total price of the hybrid you would want
5. Average the advertised highway/city miles per gallon into one middle range number. Compare that to the miles per gallon you are getting from your current car.
6. Figure the difference in miles per gallon between the two cars.
8. Then ask yourself: how much less would I spend for fuel in one year if I bought the hybrid?
9. Then you can compare that savings to the amount of money you spend to buy the hybrid, and from there you can calculate how many years it would take to break even. Usually, it is more than 6 to 8 years before that happens.

BTW, that is just the fuel savings. Other costs-per-mile that should be compared are the difference in car insurance, non-warranty maintenance costs for the vehicle, and the finance charges between both cars. If your current car is paid off, you won't really save money at all until you reach that break-even point.

Consider leasing as an alternative.

Answer 3

Hybrid cars feed energy to the engine when you brake and use it when you accelerate up to around 15 MPH I believe. So, the only time it's worth the extra money is when you live in a dense city where you do a lot of braking and accelerating.

Japanese citizens get a lot more use out of Hybrids due to the fact that the cities are a lot more dense and they stop and start quite often. :-)

So the real question is, how often do you brake and accelerate?

Hope that helps.

Answer 4

Drive a hybrid car if you're wealthy enough to pay for it soley based on it being better for the environment.

If you don't have the money for that, you're better off going with a regular Honda Civic/Toyota Corolla/Nissan Sentra for good mpg, reliability, and initial price.

Answer 5

calculate the cost of the car, cost of gas for a determined amount of miles and the redemption value of the car at years end. the compare for each car.

Answer 6

whilst technologies transitions from an older to a greater moderen technologies, oftentimes cases it takes some years for the hot technologies to be tried and real. for my section, i could stick to the time-honored severe performance gasoline and diesel engines now because of the fact they are adapting properly to the better gasoline expenses. additionally, it ought to be properly well worth the value to purchase a three,000 pound regular automobile as stable crash protection. What do you fee, your money or your existence?

Answer 7

if you are planning to buy a hybrid, consider this, after warranty period is up, what is it going to cost for repairs?? batteries are very expensive to buy, then there is the installation. these vehicles won't be cheap to fix.

Answer 8

there's no calculating.... it's worth it.
Plus you get a tax refund for owning a Hybrid.

Answer 9

its NOT!

Get a VW diesel and get 50mpg with NO batteries!!