Hybrid Over Troubled Waters

OK, that headline is a reach...

Every couple of years, I get the urge to buy a new car, an urge which thus far I have been able to stave off. However, as my current car will turn 10 years old in February (and the idea of acceleration is becoming a distant memory), it's looking more and more like this is a bullet I'll be biting before long.

The latest issue of Consumer Reports has their evaluation of the new Toyota Camrys, and both the hybrid and non-hybrid version were top picks (along with the new Honda Accord). My mother has had Camrys for at least the past 20 years or so (not the same one) and I've driven them on occasion and liked how they drive (to the extent that I like to drive, which isn't much*). (Is it my imagination, or do all manufacturers' cars look the same these days? I honestly can't tell a Toyota from a Honda from a Ford. I don't recall that always being the case.)

I like the idea of a hybrid, but I wanted to "run some numbers" and see what the economics of it actually were.

The sticker price of the hybrid version of the Camry is $5,400 more than that of the non-hybrid. The gas mileage of the hybrid is 34 miles per gallon (mpg), while that of the non-hybrid is 24 mpg. I figure I drive on average about 300 miles a month (excluding trips to Syracuse, Corning, Boston, etc.) and, based on gas costing $3.00 a gallon, my average spending on gas with the hybrid would be $26.47, vs. $37.50 for the non-hybrid. This would be a savings of $11.03 each month and, at that rate, would take 490 months--41 years--for the hybrid to pay for itself. Now, I know I hold on to cars for a while, but that's long even for me. If I were to double the average number of miles I drive per month (one round trip to Syracuse is 300 miles) it would still take 20 years for the gas savings to equal the price difference of the two cars. If I wanted the hybrid to pay for itself in under three years, gas would have to climb to $50 a gallon or I would have to drive on average 5,000 miles a month--but then I'd be spending more than $400 per month on gas--and probably close to every waking moment driving!

Of course, there are reasons other than pure economics to prefer a hybrid. So the jury is still out. Or maybe I'll wait a few more years until my Saturn more closely resembles that car from The Blues Brothers.


*Actually, I do like to drive, but only when there is no traffic, like out in Arizona, central California, or at certain points on the trek down to the Outer Banks (or on the Thruway at 2 a.m.). Driving is actually a lot of fun when there aren't other people around tailgating, ignoring lane divisions, yakking on a cellphone and being a menace to navigation, etc. But increase the population density to more than, like, three cars every 10 miles, and few things are more miserable. I don't expect I am alone in this.