dagblog - Comments for "Payoff for Efficient Cars Takes Years"

I was wondering if you had

Donal — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 14:17:51 +0000

I was wondering if you had found True Car's formulas somewhere - I couldn't.

Which, that they're

Verified Atheist — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 14:01:33 +0000

Which, that they're neglecting trade-in value, or that the trade-in value is enough to offset the cost in a few years? The latter implies the former (given that they're asserting otherwise), so I'll assume it's the latter you're referring to.

I can't say I've done the math for all of the hybrids out there, so I won't assert that it's necessarily true for all of them, but I suspect it's true for most of them, when compared to their non-hybrid counterparts, where available. That doesn't mean that non-hybrid but more fuel efficient options might not still be better yet. I've done the analysis for both the Civic Hybrid versus the Civic and the Prius versus some other Toyota (I can't remember which one, but it's one that's often used for comparison by others, possibly the Corolla).

How do you know that?

Donal — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 13:53:38 +0000

In reply to As always, they're neglecting

How do you know that?

As always, they're neglecting

Verified Atheist — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 13:12:00 +0000

In reply to Payoff for Efficient Cars Takes Years

As always, they're neglecting trade-in value. I know that if you keep your car (as I tend to do), the trade-in value isn't as relevant, but then that also means you're likely to get that full pay-off, and then some. However, the point is that one can re-sell a hybrid after only a few years and still be better off, at least with my driving patterns (which aren't as frugal as yours, but are well below the average mileage).