Previously I have blogged about our hybrids and how much we like them. To recap, in 2001 we bought one of the early Priuses, and in 2005 we got the Toyota Highlander Hybrid. This weekend, we got our 3rd hybrid, although this one was not planned. I guess this is our Unplanned Prius Purchase.
Last week my wife got the dreaded red exclamation point of death error message on the computer display. Our 2002 Prius actually came out and was purchased in 2001, and we have had it for a little over 6 years. By last week we had over 103,000 miles on it, and we routinely averaged about 50 mpg in the car. It was paid for and we liked it just fine.
When we took it in to find out what the error message was, we got some bad news. First, they were able to narrow it down to one of two problems--either the battery was dying and had to be replaced, or the electric motor transmission was failing and needed to be replaced. It would cost $460 to find out which repair was needed, and either repair would cost about $4,000.
Ouch. This was not what we had in mind. We discussed it for a while and ultimately decided not to fix the car. But we needed a second car, so we looked for used Priuses in our area. We narrowed it down to two vehicles, a 2005 at the Carmax in Raleigh and a 2006 at Fred Anderson, our Toyota dealership here in Raleigh. Saturday afternoon we test drove both vehicles and did the whole haggle with the dealerships over trade in values, purchase price, etc.
We actually liked the car at Carmax better, but we went with a red 2006 at Fred Anderson. It was one year newer and had 17,000 fewer miles on it, and those factors tipped the scale. This one is a lot different than our old Prius. It feels a lot more solid, and it gets better gas mileage. It has more head and leg room, and is vastly more ergonomic. Better cup holders. It has some quirky things that take some getting used to, like the electronic key, push button start, park is a button on the dash, and the gear shift is a little joystick on the dash panel. You can't really add an after-market audio system, and I can't directly connect my iPod into the system in the car. That's a bummer. The speedometer and fuel display is in a much better location. It has a lot of power and zip, much more than our old Prius.
If you live in the Raleigh-Durham area, the local Carmax has a very nice Prius on the lot. It is a 2005 with leather interior and a high level option package, and we almost bought it this weekend. And, once our 2002 gets fixed, I'm sure it will pop up on a used car lot somewhere. We treated it really well, and I hope someone gets it for $8000-10,000, and gets a lot more use out of it. Now I just need to throw some UNC gear on this red one--don't want to give folks in Raleigh the wrong impression. Especially with basketball season a few days away. Ours will be a Wolfpack red car, but it'll bleed Carolina Blue.
3 comments:
One of the concerns I have with hybrids at this point is their total "cradle to grave" environmental impact and their cost effectiveness. I'm skeptical that the reduced fuel consumption off sets the other environmental impacts like dealing with dead batteries.
When I buy a car I plan on driving it for most of its service life. I'm looking for both high fuel mileage durability and low lifetime cost.
We bought our oldest car new in 2000 and it now has as 125,000 miles. Although it is now a second string car and doesn't get driven very much, in its prime it would get 40 mpg on the highway.
Our newest car gets between 34-38 mpg on the highway depending on whether I'm driving or my wife is driving and how we are driving. While this fuel mileage is not as good as the Prius, the car cost half as much as the Prius and should still be going strong at 150,000 miles.
Having to change out batteries at 100,000 miles would really drive up the cost of ownership and offset the environmental good of the only modestly better fuel economy.
I might be more sold on hybrids if they had better battery storage capacity such that they could be plugged in to the electric grid to be charged and had the ability to handle normal city commuting mostly on batteries. Of course one would need to be getting their energy from renewable sources like wind or solar.
Personally I look at buying hybrids as investing in the future as the technology can't progress and become truly better for the environment than their counterparts without people buying the current generation of hybrids.
What I'm really hoping for is that my next car (hopefully 4-5 years from now) will be a plug in hybrid that gets charged from solar panels on the roof of my home. Then I will know the car will be truly reducing the carbon footprint of my family's driving.
Ken
Yeah, the whole "life cylce cost" question is one that Rich and I have had to wrestle with as well. For me, I guess I look at the issue as one of wanting to support the companies that are trying to respond to the need to reduce carbon emissions and get more out of the fuel we do burn (waste less). As demand grows, the minimal bar for all cars will get higher. But at the individual car level, the 2002 Prius that came out in 2001 was an expensive car to service and maintain.
I am glad that there are people who are supporting car companies efforts to build greener cars and I am hopeful that this support will pay off down the road for all consumers. Unfortunatly, while we seriously looked at a Prius, my wife and I decided it would break our bank if e bought one, so we opted for the most fuel efficient vehicle we could that suited our needs (a 2006 Hyundai Elantra we bought new in 2006). We've been very happy with it and it can get over 36mpg on the highway with careful driving (highway as in two lane highways, not four lane freeways). On freeway driving at or above 65mph our fuel economy drops to 32-34, but we don't do much freeway driving. Between city and highway driving our fuel economy averages out to around 30-32mpg. It isn't as good as I would like, but compared to most vehicles out there, it is pretty good. Fortunately, I work from home and my wife only commutes about five miles to and from work each day. Working from home is a great way to reduce one's carbon footprint and save money on fuel.
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