It's a few weeks old, but news to me, and is an article definitely worth a read. The best part: a Focus Wagon has the same interior room as the Escape Hybrid, but is $10k less.
I still think it makes sense to drive one, just because Larry David does.
"Hybrids: Don't Buy the Hype"
17 comments:
one doesn't buy a hybrid to save money; one buys one to save the planet.
this is a stupid article, imho.
does the planet REALLY NEED saving?
I agree with Paula. Hybrid's are all more expensive than their traditional gas-guzzling, oil-burning, planet-killing counterparts. An Escape Hybrid, for example, is $3,000 more than a regular Escape. This is a much fairer comparison. In general, hybrids are about $3,000 more than the very same vehicle with a conbustion engine. So, if you are buying one for the sole purpose of saving a buck, you have to figure out (and, it's easy to do) how many years it would take you to save $3,000 in gas, based on the current average price of gas and how many miles you drive. For example, based on the price of gas as $3.00/gallon, if you drove an average of 15,000 miles a year, it would take you a little over 3 years to make up the $3,000 more you spent. Hybrids typically get about 15 more mpg than a combustion vehicle. So, if your regular Escape gets an average of 20 mpg and your hybrid Escape gets an average of 35 mpg, you would spend $2,250 for the regular per year and $1,285 for the hybrid, a savings of $965 per year. But, the real savings would be, if everyone purchased a hybrid, the demand for oil would go down, AND SO WOULD THE PRICE OF GAS!
L.
But....the cost of replacing the electric cell in your hybrid is said to run about $7,000...so you need to figure that into your equation. Best reason to buy one then is that they are so cool, like.
Dad, happy to see you posting, not sure I can even begin to understand why you'd post 'does the planet need saving' - but hey, glad you're posting...
to P: thanks for your thoughtful suggestion that I post stupid articles, but I think you're missing the point.
Of course you and I (and others) would justify going hybrid to save the environment first and foremost. There are many other *ones* out there concerned only with the dollar. The article does a good job (as does Laurel's very detailed reiteration of the math already in the article) of dispelling the myth that one will save money going hybrid.
hmmm...check this out
www.greasecar.com
Grease Car is one of our clients at Micron Technologies. They use our product to produce filtering systems for oil.
Once you install one of their systems, your main fuel is (for now) free and made from vegatables.
You need a diesel for conversion, however.
the cost of hybrids and all that is entailed is high because it is new, but like most innovations, the price will drop eventually.
i knew you were offended at my comment -- you had that "i just smelled something really bad" face that hesses don upon being offended as you read it at the kitchen table. i'm sorry.
i didn't say you are stupid, ding-dong [although i did just call you a ding-dong: sorry for that one, too]. i think the whole premise of the article is a retarded step backwards in promoting an earth-wise lifestyle. all the hummer-owners are waving their brontosaurus bones overhead and dancing around their gasoline bonfires feeling vindicated reading that one.
FWIW, I get Dad's point. The planet is bigger than us. We didn't create the planet, and the planet has managed to adapt to what its various life-forms have and have not done over eons.
I don't think that that gives us license to be reckless in the way that we live...but it is all relative. To badly paraphrase Bill Bennett, if we really want to save the planet we could just start killing people, aborting babies, etc.
Wacky liberal George Carlin called humans a blight on the face of the earth (on Bill Maher's show a few weeks back), or something like that, and I worry that that's the endgame of so much of the ecological hand-wringing and finger-pointing that goes on.
BTW, scientists seem to agree that the planet will eventually hurtle into the sun, or some such doomsday scenario will come to pass, so it's all much ado about nothing.
The idea that whether or not we eat a cheeseburger or drive a hybrid really matters that much to anyone but us and our immediate family strikes me as folly. If driving a hybrid or eating a soyburger floats our boat, good for us. But getting all messianic about our lifestyle-choice-du-jour is a losing equation for all of us.
In other words, in my opinion, hating the Hummer drivers is just as stupid as hating the Prius drivers. It reminds me of the whole rift between fraternity/GDI types in college. Both orthodoxies seem ridiculous. Do what you want, try not to hurt people or animals, and then be tolerant and forgiving towards other people, just as we hope they were to us before we arrived at our current state of perfection.
Ah Casey, what exactly are you trying to say? You don't like the detail? You don't like the similartiy it had to the article? It took me an hour to get those figures together.
L.
My favorite part of this whole post is the "don't call me stupid/I didn't call you stupid, I called the article stupid" back and forth between husband and wife here in the comments. I hope there's no real tension behind it, because it's great comedy. As one half of my own Bickersons duo at home, it's nice to see somebody else doin' it.
BTW, Casey, I'm glad Laurel called you on that. I was wondering what you were up to there.
i'm not bickering at all -- posting the article is brilliant because it incites discussion and healthy debate. i think the subject of the article, however, is stupid.
look at all the comments! if it were stupid to post the article, there wouldn't be 12 comments.
Wow, you guys really got serious here. I like my Saab, it gets pretty good mileage and I think it looks cute. I guess I'm pretty shallow in this department.
Obviously that last comment came from mom, I just clicked on the wrong name.
can you imagine the Saab-makers cringing when they hear their darling little car refered to as "cute"? And I still think the planet is in pretty good shape...we are lucky to be here sharing it with each other before it zooms into the sun.
I thought Laurel's giant math post was funny, only because it was basically exactly what was already in the article!
I think I've got Scott's post boiled down:
-The earth adapts to us
-Don't fuck it up too much
-We're all gonna die anyway
-Don't be a Messiah about your lifestlye
I agree with all of those to some extent, though I don't like the overtones that go along with, "it's just the earth, it'll figure it out."
Regarding the Hybrids - it's purely a money issue. If they all drove as well and cost and looked the exact same as non-hybrids, we'd all be in them. Who likes polluting, the idea of drilling in Alaska, etc.
Drilling in Alaska is fine with me. There is plenty of room for all the living things there to be fully protected and plenty of space to explore for oil. If we continue to be dependent on oil then we must look in Alaska and in Canada...we can't continue to be dependent upon the middle east.
Post a Comment