CNN iReport

There has been lots of talk on the Hybrid movement due to gass proces at the pump. Many people seem to be flocking to the dealerships in hope of getting relief at the pump by getting a new Hybrid vehicle with thier promise of better gas mileage. What most Green people will not tell you is that you are going to pay a premium at the dealership for the Hybrid. "But I will save at the pump in the long run" is what most americans are saying. Well, I pose this question to you... How long do you have to wait?

I was interested in getting some relief myself so I started doing some research. I am a big Toyota fan, so I thought I would head on down to the local Toyota dealership and just find out how much I would save by getting a Prius. Turns out that the proce tag on the Prius was a little higher then I expected. MSRP is $21,000. Wow! My first thought was "Am I buying a sports car?" I looked around the lot and found a Toyota Corrola for an MSRP of $15,250. Much cheaper then the prius, but also not a hybrid. I started looking into the specs of each car and here is what I found.

The Prius gets 48 MPG in the city and 45 MPG on the highway. The Corrola gets 27 MPG in the city and 35 MPG on the highway. City driving definatly shows the Prius to be a better gas miser, but wait, what about the proce diference. If I get the Prius (with the extra cash I have to spend) I would not start saving money on gas until I have driven the Prius for 7.71 years (thats when I would break even in the cost of car and fuel). Hmmm... If I did any highway driving with the Prius, my break even point takes even longer. Now we know that americans on an average, keep thier cars for 5 years before getting a new one, so I will still not have saved any money getting a Prius, before I move on to a better Hybrid (as we know all manufactures want turn around on customer product).

So to sum up my research, here are a few numbers to think about:

There is a $6000 dollar diference between the "Better" car (Prius) and the smaller car (Corolla). At gas being $5.00 a gallon, it would take 1200 gallons of gas just for you to break even on the cost difference between the 2 cars. Now in your Pruis that gets (on the bad side) 45 MPG, thats 54,000 miles you have to drive to break even on the cost difference. I dont know about you, but I dont drive across america that often in a year. Insurance likes to use the 12,000 mile rule per year when quoting you car insurance, so that means 4.5 years of driving just to cover your costs of buying the Hybrid.

Now of course, if your true intention is not the gas prices and saving money, but truely want to cut down on the green house gasses, then perhaps the Hybrid is for you.