Official: Toyota sells six of 10 of hybrids in California

It's not the cost of a gallon of gas that makes it cost effective to go hybrid or not. It's the _difference_ in the cost per mile of going hybrid vs. staying with gas-only, then dividing that difference into the cost of the hybrid package.

If gas costs $4.00 per gallon or $3.per gallon or $5.00 per gallon, your cost per mile is the cost of gas divided by the mileage you get. If you get

The savings is the difference in $4 divided by 30 or $4 divided by 35, or whatever the mileage is. As the price of gas goes up, the savings in the cost per mile also goes up, so in this respect the price of a gallon is important.

At $4 per gallon and 30mpg, the cost per mile is 0.133 (13.3 cents), but at

That's MILES.

One must (in this example) drive the car more than 263,000 miles JUST TO BREAK EVEN. I'll be the first to admit that my numbers are not an accurate depiction of what the costs truly are, but the math is right even if the numbers used are not. Make the adjustments as needed, but at the end of the day the cost per mile is the price of a gallon divided by the mileage it gives. One must make an assumtion as to the cost per mile of the non-hybrid, then subtract one cost per mile from the other to find the difference. Then one must divide the cost of the hybrid package by the difference in the cost per mile to get the miles needed to break even on the hybrid package.

I am sure the numbers I pulled out of my ass are not accurate because I do not think it takes anywhere near 263,000+ miles to repay the cost of going hybrid, but I stand by the math used. I agree with sms, the miles to drive should be much closer to 175,000, and not very much lower than 150,000.

There's a break-even calculator at .

The bottom line is that unless you're driving 25-30K miles per year, you're not going to break even on fuel costs unless the price of gasoline goes very high.

Almost no one buys a hybrid based on the economics. Now something like a Chevy Volt is a different story. With the federal tax credit, the Volt will be selling for $27,495, about $5000 more than a base model Prius. Depending on where you recharge it, and if you usually are able to drive solely on electric power, you could break even at a lot lower mileage even with the higher initial cost, but it still isn't a great deal at current fuel prices.

You have to start with the stupidity of buying a new car before you can even begin to investigate any sub-issues, like "hybrid or not?".

Once you've started down the path of "I'm throwing gobs of money away," any discussion of "should I also throw this nickel away too?" is ridiculous.

Buying a new Toyota is NOT throwing money away, as long as one keeps it for a LONG time. I buy my vehicles new--current Toyota is

Not at all. Buying a new Toyota is usually smarter than buying a used Toyota when you consider the cost per year, the warranty, the resale value, and the depreciation. One thing that _sometimes_ makes sense is a Toyota Certified Used Car which has a 7 year/100K mile warranty included, provided the deal you get is a good one. If you buy a used car from a private party you can't get this warranty though you can still buy a Toyota extended warranty.

Hybrid versus non-hybrid is totally a separate issue. Hybrids are mostly purchased on emotion since only a tiny percentage of purchasers will ever make up the extra initial cost and the higher maintenance costs with savings on fuel.

Right!! I bought my new 2004 Sienna in Sept 03 and still have it. It will be 10 years old next month and I have no plan to sell or trade it. It still runs and rides like it came off the showroom floor ten years ago.