Hybrids won't save drivers money, Consumer Reports (April 2006)

Fuel prices can have a big bearing on it too. Sales of small hatchbacks etc increased about when fuel was at it's most expensive. Then it fairly suddenly dropped almost 1/3, and sales of SUVs and twin-cab Hiluxes et al increased dramatically, small cars became cheaper both new and even more-so near-new examples as people who bought to save fuel now decided fuel wasn't so big a deal.

If fuel increases exponentially again, we'll see the same - a glut of used SUVs & HiLuxes in used car yards - dropping in price.

Fuel did increase by 20-30% over the last few months, but I sort-of expected it to have risen further and quicker.

 

About the same time it takes to get from Cornwall to London by train. When the Olympic games were in London it was realised that is quicker to fly from East Mediterranean countries to the games than it took by train from the SW Peninsula of UK... and that included clearing customs and immigration at the airport! The M5 Motorway (like an interstate) end at Exeter leaving only two main roads through Devonshire to Cornwall, the A30 over the North of Dartmoor and the A38 to the south, which joins the A30 at Bodmin.

 

That's likely to be nothing like as bad as the next Commonwealth Games - being held at the Gold Coast here, but with some events in nearby Brisbane - 1½ hour drive on a good day. I live ½ way between. But the trains to Gold Coast are abysmal and go nowhere near most venues, and the main highway is the proverbial carpark most days with "normal" peak hour traffic. I've decided to hibernate that week and keep off the roads.

 

Sorry - I know i mentioned it MONTHS ago - how antiquated the OP's Consumer Report article is . . . . but . . . . am i the only one that noticed that the OP's original link is so horribly outdated, that the article isn't even accessible any more? much less, that CR actually admitted it was a lame / & a jump to conclusions? . . . and that many hybrid / PHEV buyers don't buy with the idea of saving money? No?
Carry on . . . it doesn't seem to even make a difference.

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True - but it's created 7+ more pages of PriusChat comments.

So far.

 

Considering the major fuel price run-up that struck shortly after the CR article was published, causing Prii to fly off the dealer lots as fast as Toyota could build and ship them (and with major over-MSRP markups), I would say that this article didn't cut sales one iota.

If anything, it just reduced the dealer price gouging a bit as fewer would-be buyers participated in the bidding wars for the available inventory.

 

Ask the hybrid owners who lived through the lack of working gas stations after Sandy, if they were concerned about not saving money.

 

In the U.K., I bought unleaded petrol on Sunday evening, at £1.19 a litre. The price in the U.K. has been steadily climbing for the past few months too, adding approximately over £3.00 to the cost of a 45 litre tankful of fuel.

Spare a thought for the owners of 70 or 90 litre tank size vehicles. You can almost see them weeping inconsolably at the fuel pumps, each time they're filling up


iPhone ?

 

Bit of a price wargoing on in Bodmin. Two rival supermarkets (Asda, owned by Walmart and Morrison's) in town holding unleaded at £1.159/litre for some time now. One of them's bound to blink soon, but my tank is kept nearly full.

 

Bob Wilson

 

Don't you need a lawnmower, gas can filled too?

Bob Wilson

 

I have gas cans to fill my chainsaw, log splitter, tractor, and my lawn mower. I have 6 acres though.

 

Yes. I'm always very grateful to these people. I don't know why they do it, but I'm glad they do.

Yes, that Cambridge-to-London route in particular has always been not quite as horrifically expensive as the rest of the rail network.

When did you live there? I lived there briefly, in the early 90s.

 

same here! 1991. While going to Cambridge, I enjoyed 5 things most of all:
riding my rented bike everywhere, (my favorite pub) The Anchor - established in the 1700's - 'punting' with the ladies, Pimms, at one of the professor's homes (an alcoholic fruit punch) & hosepipe restrictions - ie; what they called drought conditions, because it only was raining about once a week or less.

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Ahha! We may well have been in The Anchor at the same time: I was there from 1990 to 1991.

There is indeed a lot to be said for all of those things. I remember those terrible droughts when it only rained once a week. How did we survive?

Punting is an excellent activity, and it can be combined quite easily with Pimm's. And Cambridge is an excellent place to cycle around.

It was a lovely place to be. If only my university course had been a bit better.... But I had a brilliant year there, and I'm still in close touch with quite a few friends from there. My wife was there around the same time too - and lived around the corner from me - but we didn't meet until nine years and 6,000 miles later.