What is it with Santa Monica

I now live and work in Santa Monica, Ca. I see at least 3-4 Toyota Prius each and every day. What is it about those cars that makes me want to go out and buy a HumVee. Not the dainty civilian Hummer or H2, but a full on, .50 caliber machine gun on the roof, .5 mpg, HumVee.

Civic vs. Civic Hybrid

With the Civic costing $5,940 less then its hybrid brother, and the hybrid gas savings of $697.39 over 10 years. Owning a hybrid as opposed to a standard Civic will save you a whopping -$524.26 per year.

Verdict: If you want to save money buy a Civic, if you want to pay extra to jump on the "eco chic(TM)" bandwagon get the hybrid.

A whopping $366 dollars a year.

Here is a little utility that Honda has on their website that you can use to find you comparative savings on fuel over a 5 or 10 year period. Remember that they are using EPA Highway Mileage numbers, so you would be well advised to do the same. I gave their utility a test driving using my 4.8L 1500 Silverado. According to my window sticker my truck gets 21 MPG Highway mileage and the current cost of gas is $2.45 a gallon and I average about 25 miles a day. This will net me a savings of $3,131.13 over the next five years. My out the door price on the pickup was $19,500 and a quick build on Hondas website gives me a price of $20,800 for the hybrid. Take the gas savings of $3,131.13 and subtract the cost difference of $1300 you are left with a saving of $1831.13. A whopping $366 dollars a year.

For Speeders, Hybrids Suck Gas

A Wired article by John Gartner had this to say:

Toyota engineer Dave Hermance said that weather, driving conditions and driver habits can cut fuel-efficiency by up to 30 percent. Hermance said drivers who slowly roll through intersections using "California stops" are decreasing their mileage. "If you don't stop, you don't get the free energy of regenerative braking."

Hybrid Cars, Just a marketing ploy?

I have had this feeling for a while that the whole concept of a hybrid vehicle is simply a marketing trick. How else could you convince people to spend their hard earned money on this?

How to GM could have Saved the Pontiac Aztec

Make it a Hybrid.

I guess people are ok with eating shit and smiling if it is "eco chic(TM)."

Perhaps the first car that runs on guilt

I found this article over on Car and Drvers Website:

Here is an excerpt:

The question I asked myself when driving the Prius was "How does this car work as a real car -- independent of its novelty?" The answer is: not terribly well. Brake response is awful, as regenerative braking cycles on and off. The Prius jerks and lunges to a stop. At a steady cruise it feels nervous and indecisive. It alternately lurches and bucks down the road, its engine noise swelling and subsiding for no apparent reason. The Honda Insight manages its equally complex powertrain with almost absolute transparency. And with a real-world 35 mpg, this is a car that neither enthusiasts nor greenies can fully embrace.

Hybrid Hype?

Fact and Fiction Surrounding the New Technology

Here is a link to a Toyota Press Release containing some information about their Priums Hybrid. Take everything with a grain of salt as this the information on this page was produced by Toyota.

Here is an excerpt:

Does driving a Prius really lower your cholesterol? No, but wouldn't it be wonderful? However, it could help lower your blood pressure each time you fill it up.

Just the sort of trite that I would expect from an advertiser trying to sell me on buying a car to make myself feel good.

San Francisco Chronicle Article

I found this article by Robert Collier Chronicle Staff Writer. I have long held the belief considering the additional cost of a hybrid vehicle it would take a considerable amount of time to see any sort of savings as compared to a conventional vehicle. Even at $2.40 a gallon gas is cheap compared to other costs of operating and owning a car.

Here is an excerpt:

Hybrids are not a panacea for fuel economy," said Dave Szczupak, Ford's vice president for power-train operations. Hybrids cost between $3,000 and $5, 000 more than their conventional counterparts, he says, and an average driver would have to keep the car for seven years to make it cost-effective, even with savings at the gas pump.