Now I Want this Cute Little Smart Hybrid Car Coming to US in 2007

The answer to the question from a cost perspective depends on how many highway trips and short hops the owner makes. For example, if the owner makes 20 trips under 3 miles per week and only takes trips longer than 1 hour once a year, then the highway cruiser does not make economic sense - it is probably less expensive to rent a larger car for a week than to own it for a year. On the other side of the spectrum, if the owner spends most of the time on the highway and takes 2 or 3 short trips a week, then the highway cruiser makes more sense.

Besides cost, there are other things to consider when purchasing a vehicle, like comfort, safety, people and cargo capacity, poor-weather capability, and personal driving preferences.

Reply to
Ray O
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Thanks

That logic make sense

It depends on the "type" of driving.

Just to be devils advocate....what if the mix above is roughly half and half tho?

I currently own a Mazda Protege which has been a good car and gets good mileage.

But I guess in my mind I'm trying to analyze if I'm better served at buying a moped for my 3 mile trips to the coffee shop, library, etc.

Or....am I better served by only have ONE motorized vehicle and using it for ALL trips regardless of the type of trip.

Reply to
me

If the mix is half and half, then the owner needs to determine whether to choose a vehicle based more on economy or on comfort and performance. Even "economy" cars have come a long ways in comfort and performance, especially on the highway, and highway cruisers have improved greatly on fuel economy.

We have a Sequoia, and I drove 5 college kids back to school after Thanksgiving break yesterday. It was packed to the gills, including a luggage carrier on the roof. A smaller vehicle would not have fit 5 passengers, a semester's worth of laundry each, and the driver. I do not cart our 3 kids plus their friends around as much as I used to, so we really only need the Sequoia's capacity once a month or so. I also suspect that we end up as the transporter or large loads and lots of people because we have the capacity, and would not be the driver as often if we had a smaller vehicle. Perhaps a Highlander or Rav4 would make more sense for our next vehicle.

A moped or motor-driven cycle uses so little fuel and requires so little maintenance that it may make economic sense for frequent short trips, but then, a bicycle would make even more economic sense.

Reply to
Ray O

Agree

And I do plan to get a bicycle

Reply to
me

So does having ONE vehicle still make better cost effective sense than having two specialized vehicles?

Again assuming you've chosen the one vehicle for the BULK of your driving?

Reply to
me

formatting link

Again, couldnt leave that anywhere for fear of a child picking it up and chewing it. Its horrible.

Reply to
Coyoteboy

In this example,

Car "A" is a $15,000 compact car that gets 20 MPG and gas is $2.00/gallon.

1 year cost to drive 15,000 miles: Insurance: $1,000 Depreciation: $1,000 Gas 750 gallons @ 20 MPG x $2.00/gallon = $1,500 Maintenance: $100 Total to drive 15,000 miles not incl. car cost: $3,600

1 year cost to drive 30,000 miles: Innsurance: $1,000 Depreciation: $1,500 Gas 1500 gal @ 20 MPG x $2.00/gal = $3,000 Maintenance: $200 total to drive 30,000 mi. not incl. car cost: $5,700

Additional cost to drive Car A 30,000 miles instead of 15,000 miles = $2,100.

************************************* Car "B" is a $10,000 sub-cocmpact car that gets 40 MPG and gas is $2.00/gallon 1 year cost to drive 15,000 miles Insurance: $1,000 Depreciation: $1,000 Gas 375 gal @ 40 MPG x $2.00/gal = $750 Maintenance: $100 Total to drive 15,000 miles not incl. car cost: $2,850 **************************************

In this example, the cost to drive Car A 15k miles = $3,600 and to drive the same car 30k miles costs $2,100 more, or $5,700

If you do not put those miles on Car A and buy Car B the cost of driving each car 15,000 miles combined costs = $3,600 + $2,850 = $6,450, and that doesn't take into account the additional money invested to acquire the second car.

The break-even point to acquire a second econobox is probably around 50,000 or 60,000 miles on the second car.

Reply to
Ray O

Going off topic here--Volvo also made a "Kaiser" (51-55 variety) Find a picture of a Volvo "Philip"

Jim Bartley >

Reply to
George Mills

Well, if they are gasoline powered ones, they aren't that stunning. The Diesel Smarts sold in Canada are getting 75-80 mpg (sometimes higher) on the highway; (convert that to US gallons) and when you consider that diesels do better on the highway than around town, while G-E hybrids are mostly better around town, because sometimes they are running on the batteries.

Forget Gas-Electrics...The REAL fuel mizers will be the Diesel-electrics. VW has a Eco.Tech Golf which get 118 mpg highway. PSA Peugeot-Citroen has a Sprinter-like vehicle (Berlingo) which gets 90 mpg highway. But, one of the new technology HDI (high pressure direct injection) diesels running on the since-this-fall-available-in-North America ULSD burn clean, aren't all that expensive because they skip the turbo (ie TDI) and rival the gas-electrics in mileage at a fraction of the price. So, if Ford or Toyota or Chev brought their existing clean diesels to North America...

Plus, as Henry Ford is supposed to have said "horsepower sells cars, torque wins races" My "90 horsepower" Peugeot 505 diesel wagon passes, tows, and hauls quite differently and better than another 90 hp nearly 2 ton gas powered car, even with an automatic, because of the torque.

Jim Bartley on PEI

Reply to
George Mills

LOL! This is true...or that Pontiac thing...the Aztec?

I saw 5 of them in a line going to a Pontiac dealer and had a migraine for the rest of the day! (I'm *NOT* kidding!)

Reply to
Hachiroku

Depends on what you need to do and what you have the $$$ for.

If you see another of my posts in this thread, you'll see I have a Van for hauling music equipment (and as a Winter beater...it's AWD) and a Scion tC for my 'main' car (although it gets driven less).

I also have a Supra "SportRoof"...just because! ;)

Reply to
Hachiroku

Once again, I could have eliminated 2 vehicles by either buying a newer mini-van or a Subaru AWD Wagon.

But, I like 'sports' cars. So for me, it really doesn't make sense to have more than one car, but it does. I use the van for a lot of stuff (and for hauling the occasional load that even a Suby Wagon couldn't accomodate...those are pretty far between, but I *have* the capability when I need it..). I didn't want a wagon or a van for a primary car.

As far as the Supra...it's not going anywhere for quite a while... ;)

Reply to
Hachiroku

Hachiroku, you DID stumble into the Studebaker newsgroup, we have some VERY cool cars here!

Jeff DeWitt

Reply to
Jeffrey DeWitt

George I absolutely believe you. If GM is really smart one of these days they are going to introduce an Escalade with a diesel hybrid drivetrain (which of course will also go in trucks), that will get some insanely high fuel mileage.

Jeff DeWitt

George Mills wrote:

Reply to
Jeffrey DeWitt

No response necessary on this (and thus top posted on purpose), but I just gotta tell you Ray that you provide some patient, thorough and wonderful responses to this NG. Thanks for being around. Tomes

Reply to
Tomes

Yeah, man, I saw! Too bad the company didn't make it. They had some 'interesting' stuff!

Reply to
Hachiroku

Yeah... But the Element is functional and dependable and like most Hondas, holds its value far better than anything that comes out of Detroit..

JT

George Mills wrote:

Reply to
Grumpy AuContraire

But you also have a different economic and environmental situation than most - Two cars makes sense there. You don't want to drive the "good car" in the winter when they salt the roads if you don't have to

- that way it has a fighting chance to wear out before it rusts out. The Good Car is the one you have full insurance for, put the good stereo in, and keep everything working like it's supposed to.

You have a "beater car" for winter duty, and it's the older one that now only gets basic maintenance and vital items fixed - the air conditioner is long gone, the springs are starting to poke through the cushions, and the radio is a basic AM from "Pick-A-Part". And it only has liability and UM insurance, or you put the Comp deductible really high.

You drive the Good Car to business appointments, it's the one you want to drive if you'll be seen in it. You drive the Beater to leave it in the airport long-term lot for two weeks when you take a trip. If the beater gets broken into, all that's left that is valuable is the battery.

You loan your mother the Good Car when hers goes in the shop - you loan your kid brother the Beater. (Unless your Beater used to be Mom's Good Car, and she wants to drive it for old time's sake.)

And if The Beater gets T-Boned and totaled from some dummy who can't figure out how to slow way down when there's Black Ice all over, or breaks it's backbone from the chassis rusting through, you won't be nearly as heartbroken as if something happened to the Good Car.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

I'm going to play devils advocate here ok?

If the above happens....we can buy cars with VERY high mileage.

What happens when the population doubles? We are right back to using same overall amt of petroleum for transportation. yes?

Reply to
me

Id own an Element

I could haul my bicycles in back of it and many other things.

Reply to
me

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