Available, Affordable Gas/Electric Hybrid Vehicles?

An Anonymous Coward asks: "For those of us with aging vehicles, what hybrid gas/electric car models are out for 2002 and what will come out for 2003?" I have to admit, looking for vehicles such as these will be a lot easier to find than those that run on vegetable oil, but it would be nice to see more vehicles relying less on unleaded petrol or diesel.

Comments

As an owner

[DeadSea]

I bought a Honday Insight when they first came out. I've had the car for over a year and a half now. I'd have to say that Honday went well out of their way to make the car affordable. Honda sold me the car for about $20,000 even though it cost them double that to make. From my understanding, much of that cost will come down with mass production. They only made a couple thousand of the vehicles.

As far as maintenance goes, I have found that I can get great deals on routince stuff. My dealership offered me a the same card as for other cars with 10 oil changes for $100. Because the car uses special oil and it is extra work to take off the wind screens under the car to change the oil, the changes can cost up to $50.

The other big expense will be replacing the batteries when they wear out. They are designed to last about half the life of the car and need to be replaced at about 80,000 miles. That should run about $5000.

In the end you are paying a bit of a premium for a hybrid, but you may find, as I did, that it is worth it. I can go 700 miles on a 10 gallon tank of gas. I also love explaining the tech features of my car. Everybody that sees it asks about it.

I call my car "The FJM". When I first got it, I went out to lunch at the local sandwich shop. There was construction on the street outside and it was hard to get around and into the parking lot. As a result, the parking lot was mostly empty. The sandwich shop hand unusually few customers. I parked my hybrid in the middle of the lot (no other cars around it at all) and went in to pick up lunch. The only other people in the shop we a couple of painters. Total redneck hicks. Beards, crooked teeth, the works. They got their sandwiches just before I did and I walked out the door just behind them. The first thing they saw when you walked out was a profile view of my car with little antenna an the roof and the wheel covers over the back tires. (Very sleek looking I think. ;-) As soon as they saw it, they stopped so abrubtly I just about ran into them. They stared for a couple seconds and then one of them put his hands on his hips and then crowed, "What the FUCK is that? A fuckin' Jetson mobile?". I showed them around the car, I don't think they were so keen on it, but I really liked the name they gave it.

Re:Toyota Prius

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

The Society of Automotive Engineers voted the Prius "best engineered car of 2001". It has a continuously variable transmission you could fit in your pocket, computer-controlled variable valve timing, and such sophisticated charge control that Toyota claims the battery is still in great shape after 150,000 miles of simulated testing in the lab. Still too early to be sure, but with some owners at 30,000 miles it looks like the Prius will have the reliability and durability you'd expect from a Toyota.

The drawbacks are that you can't really tow anything with it, the specialty low rolling resistance tires are hard to find, there are scattered reports of premature paint chipping, and if you break down in the boonies Joe's Garage doesn't have a chance of fixing it. And you have to wait at least four months to get one.

There's a ton of good real world information on http://groups.yahoo.com/toyotaprius, free registration required.

2002 should see a hybrid Honda Civic. 2003 may be the lanuch of the hybrid Dodge Ram, with the nifty feature of AC outlets so you can use your truck as a construction-site generator.