Reality check: Hybrid hype and HOV cutoff in 07
Green Gap? Ha!!
Here's the best excerpt --
If you drive that hybrid 15,000 miles a year and pay $2.93 a gallon, it
will take you* 8.8 years* to see that payoff at the pump, [for the
Highlander hybrid vs regular Highlander] according to Edmunds. The wait
is even longer for the $31,540 Accord hybrid:* 12.6 years*. ...The
Accord's electric motor is geared to both boost power and save on gas.
The result: the four-door sedan gets an unspectacular 29.5mpg--just a
half mile per gallon better than a regular four-cylinder Accord. In
fact, if you compare the Accord hybrid to the regular four-cylinder
model, the payback takes* 296.2 years*, according to Edmunds. I'm sure
your great-great-great granddaughter will appreciate the savings.
Hybrids might be hip, but are they saving consumers enough at the pump
to compensate for their high sticker price?
_http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12958916/site/newsweek/from/ET/_
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