The most interesting paragraph from the article in the Detroit Free Press:


"The magazine’s analysis of reliability over several years found the average three-year-old Ford or Chrysler has as many problems as an eight-year-old Toyota."

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...NEWS11/60301011

This is such hogwash! :angry: Quick back-of-the-envelope calculation of the gas costs for a Prius vs. a comparable car after 150,000 miles:

Prius: 150,000 miles / 45MPG (conservative estimate) = 3333 gallons of gasoline
CC: 150,000 miles / 30MPG = 5000 gallons of gasoline

Cost of 1667 extra gallons of gasoline at $3/gallon: $5000

Does CR believe the price premium of a Prius is more than $5000? (Or $8000 if you factor in the current giant tax rebate?) :blink:

And this from a magazine that's supposed to help me make more informed purchasing decisions.

I say just consider the source!: :lol: :lol: :lol:

All depends upon your assumptions... at an "average" 15,000 miles per year (above which, Kelly Blue Book tends to treat your vehicle as "high mileage"), you're talking about a 10 year payback. With a payback that long, you need to consider the net present value (NPV) of the savings. $1 today is worth a lot more than $1 ten years in the future. (Just how much more will depend upon your assumptions on a reasonable rate of return on your investment of the price difference). You're also assuming immunity from AMT and gasoline priced high enough to impact reelection chances :-(

I tend to agree with Consumer Reports. The gas savings alone are not sufficient to justify buying a hybrid. Note that that does not mean that the savings are insignificant, just that if all other factors were equal, the gas savings would not make enough difference. In my case, there were enough other reasons to make the Prius my first choice for this purchase.

Vince

That just shows you the slipery slop of the "premium". It totally depends on the cost of gasoline. Looks like they've estimated the cost of gas to be $2.61/gal. That's not bad, but will it be the average cost of gasoline over the 5 years? Maybe, maybe not. Their biggest mistake is comparing it to a corrolla. I think their second area of concern is the depreciation. I think you could make the argument that the prius' depreciation will be better is the cost of gasoline continues to rise. They also assume that the car is being financed. That's reasonable, but may not apply. I would think that the 5 year maintenance costs would be the other way. Fewer oil changes, brakes changes. Also, how do they know what the maintenance costs for a gen 2 are? Are they extrapolating? They did a poor job of explaining their methods. They should also be stating why they chose to select the corrolla as the comparison vehicle.