No X-Plan for the Escape Hybrid...?

A manufacture has no obligation to offer a discount to any one person or any group. That right certainly apples to any particular model as well. For that matter the dealership can sell any vehicle over MSRP if he chooses. Ford dealers are getting well over MSRP for GT Mustangs and Toyota dealers are marking the Prius up by $2,500. The dealership is not obligated to accept an 'X' or 'A' sale, and the lower profit they provide, nor can they offer 'X' or 'A' except as provide by the manufacture. Buy the standard V6 Escape, WBMA. You will save far more money on the difference in purchase price than you can ever save on the difference in fuel costs with the hybrid in ten years and the V6 has more power when needed.

mike hunt

J>

snipped-for-privacy@mailcity.com wrote in part:

If fuel prices go down, you'll be right. If they go up, you certainly won't be.

What do you think is more likely: That prices will double to $4/gal or be cut in half to $1 within the coming ten years?

Besides, hybrids are low emission vehicles. The fuel savings is a side effect of that.

-- Jim Chinnis Warrenton, Virginia, USA

Google offers its employees $5000 to buy a hybrid automobile. No, wait, not all hybrids. Just the sensible ones, in their estimation. Honda Insight, Honda Civic, not Honda Accord. Toyota Prius, not Toyota Highlander. Not Ford Escape. They can offer whatever they want to offer.

Some Ford dealers were selling the Escape Hybrid between $3-5,000 over MSRP, and had waiting lists at that. My wife and I decided we didn't want one that badly, and found a dealer with no markup, but also no allocation left for 2005, and we pre-ordered a 2006. Someone else dropped out, and we got a 2005 in November.

Maybe. Maybe not.

2005 V-6 4wd 18/22, HEV 4wd 33/29. I drove 30000 miles last year. Gas is $2.39 here. City: 1666 gallons v-6, 909 HEV = $1800/year. Highway: 1363 gallons v-6, 1034 HEV = $800/year.

I'm 40% ahead of mileage a friend is getting with a V-6, and double what some people have posted to this NG and Edmunds for the V-6 Escape. I'm disappointed in the V-6 mileage of the Escape, which I had considered buying when I couldn't get early delivery of the Escape Hybrid. We are averaging 27 mpg, our friend averages 19mpg, that's $1115 per year.

I haven't timed 0-60 runs, but it has ample power, once you get over the odd CVT program that causes the engine speed to jump to 4,000 RPM as soon as you step on the gas. The power is there. It just sounds like it is giving its all at half throttle.

I like my Escape Hybrid. I'm glad I bought it.

snipped-for-privacy@XReXXNoXX-.usenet.us.com wrote in part:

I'm averaging just under 30 mpg. I bought from a dealer at MSRP, and figure I paid about $3,000 extra for the hybrid over what the V-6 4wd would have cost.

I should make that up quickly, even if the sharply rising demand for oil for some inexplicable reason doesn't cause prices to rise.

Good description.

Same here.

-- Jim Chinnis Warrenton, Virginia, USA

Better think that though through a bet longer. Take a look at the EPA figures for both. Then get a drive home price for both. The $6,000 or more it will cost to drive home the hybrid v the V6 will buy ALL of the gas you will used in the V6 for the first five years based on the difference let alone make up the difference between the two. For the average new car buyer the hybrids are a big looser when one considers the average new car buyer replaces their car with another new car every three to four years in the US. Even if you do keep the hybrid longer the $4,000 battery replacement cost will run the V6 for another four years. Now if it is one that can afford the extra fuel cost to run a hybrid to save the world, be my guest. Personally I hope more buyers chose hybrids, that will leave more gas for those of us are happy driving our high powered RWD V8 cars that only get

25 MPG ;)

mike hunt

Jim Ch>

Your $800 fuel saving example proves the case that it will take years to simply recover the price difference BEFORE you save any money on fuel. Don't forget to factor in the inevitable $4,000 battery replacement cost, a few years down the line, into that equation as well. Another point to consider is the techs trained to work on hybrids earn another $10 an hour when they work on your vehicle

The only way to get and vehicle with a CVT to the lowest ratio and the highest point on the torque curve, to pull out or climb a steep grade, is to get to the top of the RPM band.

mike hunt

snipped-for-privacy@XReXXNoXX-.usenet.us.com wrote:

I think everyone except me should drive hybrid cars. The smaller the better. Also everyone else needs to use public transportation as much as possible.

Rodney

Not everyone, just 80% of the population. but the first that should take public transportation would be anyone driving a Toyota Corolla. (Don't know what it is but I've seen some frikken insane maneuvers and general stupid driving in that crowd).

Pick the lowest of the three price spreads I posted, to try and keep your point. For someone running exclusively on highway, the proper vehicle would be the four cylinder Escape. For my mileage, use the $1111 figure.

Aftermarket costs for the batteries are currently closer to $1200. Since the battery is under warranty for 10 years/150,000 miles, I won't worry about it for a little while longer.

That seems a little odd, since they don't charge any higher rate when working on it.

OK. I rethought it and it came out the same.

Even at current gas prices, I save. And we aren't going to stay at current prices.

The car has a (optional) 100,000 mile/ 10-year bumper-to-bumper warranty. What will the now-less-than-$2K battery cost in ten years if my car is still running and there is still gasoline to be had? Who knows, but probably a lot less than what it costs now, given that it is new and is in such short supply now.

I suspect I may junk it because it's efficiency won't justify keeping it any longer with gasoline prices at $10 a gallon.

I agree that I am doing a tiny bit to "save the world," and that's okay. I didn't get the Prius, because I take jaunts through Alaska and around Big Bend when I feel like it. I still want to do that but just didn't want to pollute any more than I had to. The hybrid SUV irritates absolutely everyone, which is another reason to own one...

Take a look at the Alaskan wilderness some time, from close up. Then picture it with a big oil industry. Better see it quick.

Jim

snipped-for-privacy@mailcity.com wrote in part:

-- Jim Chinnis Warrenton, Virginia, USA

No X-Plan pricing on the Escape Hybrid. I looked into this in February and was also dissapointed. The dealer was willing to knock of about a thousand off sticker, claiming that $30,500 was only 500 above invoice. I didn't buy it.

I went through the standard "which warranty would you like to buy" routine with the finance manager, but I told him to look up the standard warranty on an AT-PZEV EPA ranked vehicle. The extended warranty doesn't sound like a good deal.

(California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, or Vermont.)

snipped-for-privacy@XReXXNoXX-.usenet.us.com wrote in part:

Being in a backward state, I have the SULEV version. As far as I know, this differs from yours only in having more evaporative emissions...and a shorter standard warranty.

-- Jim Chinnis Warrenton, Virginia, USA

Can we assume you mean in those few areas of the US that actually have public transportation available? ;)

mike hunt

rodney wrote:

Even at $1,100 it will still take you six years just to make op the difference in the drive home price before you can begin to save any money on the difference in fuel cost. If you use the AC or the heater the difference will drop.

Can we assume you have never been to the north slope? By if you lived in Alaska you could get a state check from the oil revenue, that should more than cover you fuel cost. ;)

mike hunt

Jim Ch>

Subtract the shipping cost from the MSRP, multiply that by .87, add the shipping back. That should give you the net invoice price. No dealer is going to discount a vehicle, like the hybrid Escape, when the manufacture has nearly 30K order bank for a production run of only 20K, however.

mike hunt

snipped-for-privacy@>

why on earth would you buy a first year production car??

give your head a SHAKE

you are nothing more than a lab rat dumb enough to PAY for the troubles we have yet to know

hurc ast

Talk about old wives tales, that's a beauty LOL

mike hunt

3, dog, snipped-for-privacy@swatch.com wrote: