Hybrid Cars

[CUPID]

I am taking the next step in helping save the environment and thinking of getting rid of my Toyota Matrix.

I am starting to look at hybrid cars and wondering about the different types there are available. Anyone have experience with them? Is the savings in gas worth the hefty price? Do you feel like a good tree hugger driving these cars?

 

[C Dick]

Hybrid cars are just gasoline cars that have mechanical complexity in order to get better gas mileage. But all the power still comes from gasoline, it is not like a solar car or hydrogen car or anything that actually uses a new fuel source. My wife was thinking of a hybrid, our car dealer who sells them said that they were only for idiots. He claimed that you can not get towed by a regular tow truck, that nobody can fix them, etc. Just buy a little crappy car if you are concerned, and don't go anywhere.

 

[Serpent]

I am taking the next step in helping save the environment and thinking of getting rid of my Toyota Matrix.

I am starting to look at hybrid cars and wondering about the different types there are available. Anyone have experience with them? Is the savings in gas worth the hefty price? Do you feel like a good tree hugger driving these cars?

1. Not helpful if you do highway drive most of the time. Hybrids are best utilized in stop and go traffic.
2. Expensive in terms of initial cost and overall long term for battery costs and disposal - do you get tax breaks for buying them in Canada?
3. Gas would have to get real expensive for the hybrid to pay itself off. Do the math - it's easy: take how many miles you drive/yr. and then do the calculation with the car you drive now and a hybrid and add the higher cost differential to compare.

 

[ig-88]

Owners of hybrid cars have been complaining that the gas mileage is not as advertised.

http://www.wired.com/cars/energy/news/2004/05/63413

However, there are online owner forums for Toyota Prius owners, for example, who claim they get the advertised mileage ... if you want to be a car-geek and follow all the suggestions that normal people just won't do.

So, it seems, the hefty price tag is not worth it.

I think the Toyota Yaris looks pretty interesting with a more reasonable MSRP.

 

[l69norm]

I am taking the next step in helping save the environment and thinking of getting rid of my Toyota Matrix...

It's said that even if you currently owned Hummer, you can do more for the environment by keeping it, taking care of it and driving smart than you would by trading it for hybrid.

While you can't believe everything you see on the Internet, this is interesting:
http://www.reason.org/commentaries/dalmia_20060719.shtml

Well it makes more sense as:
You bought something that's not as energy efficient as you would like. You shouldn't compond the problem by getting yet another vehicle because the energy required to build it is more than you would save. Keep the first one for it's full lifetime instead

 

[Meister]

It's said that even if you currently owned Hummer, you can do more for the environment by keeping it, taking care of it and driving smart than you would by trading it for hybrid.

While you can't believe everything you see on the Internet, this is interesting:
http://www.reason.org/commentaries/dalmia_20060719.shtml

Well it makes more sense as:
You bought something that's not as energy efficient as you would like. You shouldn't compond the problem by getting yet another vehicle because the energy required to build it is more than you would save. Keep the first one for it's full lifetime instead

Not quite true because you could sell the Hummer and buy a small car. There is the chance that the person who was in the market for a new Hummer is now considering a used Hummer and thereby saving the build of a new Hummer.

 

[jawpad]

If you can afford it, buy it!

It's a first big step toward alternative energy cars. The technology exists but the oil companies have crushed it for their own well beeing.

Maybe dollar per dollar you won't be a lot better off with a hybrid, but definitely you'll feel better going 20 mph, break and gas, daily on the highway traffic.

 

[great bear]

Jill, when you drive one everyone is so friendly towards you. As you drive by most of them will say "Hy-Brid!

 

[osanowo]

I agree with the fact that compact diesels are the most efficient mileage wise but the quality of the diesel you have in North America forbids you to have the same results and longevity than European cars, where these cars are designed from.

As mentioned, the Toyota Yaris is a good opportunity to reach great mileage with a non hybrid car. I used to have the Yaris 1st version that you guys call the Echo, and the mileage was just amazing (somewhere around 40 mpg at 90 km/h). The Yaris is a bit bigger but has new technology engines so it looks like a good choice.

As for the Prius, for trying it, the only downside I can find is the noise. When it's full electric of course it's really sweet; but when you floor it, your little engine will just run at 5000 rpm steady due to the continuous transmission, and the noise is pretty pathetic... Other than that it is a great car for the city and is large enough to handle highway transit with convenience.
Apparently you can also change the batteries for better ones to get a much higher mileage in the city (use more electric mode than set by Toyota) and reach 150 to 200 mpg... but that's a tweak.

 

[l69norm]

Anyone remember Smokey's adibatic engine?

http://www.schou.dk/hvce/?mode=2
78 Ci, 150 HP 2 stroke, 51 mpg, 0-60 in 5.9 secs in a Pontiac Fiero