Choosing a hybrid or a diesel vehicle can often result in big fuel savings, but there's a catch: Most of these vehicles are more expensive than their gasoline-model equivalents and the price premium can take many years to earn back at the pump. Tax credits used to help defray the extra cost, but these credits expired at the start of 2011.
As such, it can be helpful to consider a green car's break-even period when evaluating choices. The break-even period is the amount of time it takes for the vehicle's fuel savings to offset its price premium.
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4 comments
By pgw1
on 03/05/11
9:04 AM PST
Whatever your gonna pay premium on a diesel you get back at resale value, cant believe they wouldn't know that..
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By pgw1
on 03/05/11
9:21 AM PST
And where's the resale figured in? Diesels always sell for more......
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By samm43
on 03/16/11
7:03 AM PST
I don't get the point of this article. In addition the good resale value comment above (below?), it does not take into account the different climates, so in the colder climates the hybrids will look considerably less impressive. And real-world is where diesels shine the best. Especially in freezing temps the hybrid will be using gas to move the car AND charge the batteries. And where is the TDI mentioned? Could it be that it would look so impressive that it might have single-handedly made this article moot? But before we push for diesel supremacy, we need to push government for less unfair intervention. At the very least, make emission minimums the same for diesel as it is for gas, not make it MORE difficult to reach even cleaner regs than gas! This unfair legislation is all very contrived to ensure they have enough gas gallonage burned to ensure they get the tax base they have been used to all these years to operate and fix roads and pad pension plans. (Has anyone's road been fixed lately?) This would be proven if hybrids were sold in greater numbers. They would then have to tax THEM in other ways to fill the $ void. And it is these very (grossly unfair) emission regs on diesels that make them so expensive to get them clean enough for this country. It adds dollars, weight, complexity and now with urea injections, (and burning MORE fuel to burn particulate deposits on the smaller displacement engines in lieu of urea) more maintenance hungry.
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By ncskibum
on 04/14/11
8:04 AM PST
Although the EPA rates the Prius as a larger vehilce than the Corolla, that is really the truer comparison. Especially since the sticker used to say Toyota Corolla Prius. In that case, the payback for the Prius versus the Corolla LE is 6.6 years.
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