I’ve always thought that buying a Prius was stupid. The technology is too early, too expensive, and then too over priced to economically justify itself.
So if you are driving a Prius to save money, you are stupid. I’ve had Prius owners brag about their gas savings, but when we do the math, it never works.
And if you are driving a Prius to save the environment, you are stupid (it doesn’t need saving).
And guess what… you just got stupider. Turns out fixing your Prius is 8.6% more expensive than a normal car:
When it does come time to get work done on the Prius, owners can expect a bill that is, on average, about 8.4 percent higher than one for a non-hybrid vehicle.
The reason for the surcharge isn’t so much that the hybrid componentry of the Prius is expensive; it’s due more to the fact that there aren’t very many spare parts to be had at modest prices, meaning that replacements must be ordered directly from Toyota.
Admit it… you drive a Prius so somebody else thinks you are cool. And even though in some states you get money from other people to drive it, it isn’t economical and it isn’t saving the environment.
Sounds pretty stupid to me.
I’m all in favor of electric cars, or hybrids, or anything not using gas to move us around. But it has to be cheaper than gas.
February 17th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
A rather vague swipe at Prius economics. One clear efficiency addition with Prius is converting kinetic energy to electrical energy when braking or decelerating, whereas a normal braking converts the kinetic energy to useless heat and wear on the brakes.. Although all the energy come from gasoline, that braking conversion surely raises the MPG. Whether it raises it enough to counteract other disadvantages, like more expensive repair, can only be answered with economics data. If you have such data, please share it with us.
February 17th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
I’ll not be a slave to your requests for data… (-:
Besides, it is prima facie. After dealer markup the car costs 10K or so more than cars of comparable size/utility. The cost to repair is more expensive. And a several thousand dollar battery replacement awaits those still on the road just a few years down the road.
The technology is interesting, clever, but not economic. Most people that I’ve talked to about it started their math at the price they paid for the car, less tax rebate. They should have factored in the cost ABOVE a comparable machine. And they never thought about repairs or battery replacement down the road.
Like I said, stupid is as stupid does. The car is about a message more than an actual result.
December 21st, 2011 at 10:46 am
I have been searching for information on this topic for awhile now. So, really appreciate you taking the time to write about it. Truly was difficult to find, so I wanted to post my first comment out of gratitude
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