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Your experience with hybrid cars
MagicToaster
JapanRegistered User regular
JapanRegistered User regular
I'm planning on purchasing a car within the next couple of months. I've done some research and I'm heavily leaning towards the Honda Fit. I have yet to decide on the hybrid engine or regular engine.
The hybrid version is $2,000 more expensive. But, under what driving conditions is the hybrid engine useful? I'm doing a lot of driving on hills, any time I'm not in the highway it seems I can't go 10 minutes without having to go up/down a long hill.
Could anyone share their experiences with hybrid engines? Was it worth it? Do you regret it?
The hybrid version is $2,000 more expensive. But, under what driving conditions is the hybrid engine useful? I'm doing a lot of driving on hills, any time I'm not in the highway it seems I can't go 10 minutes without having to go up/down a long hill.
Could anyone share their experiences with hybrid engines? Was it worth it? Do you regret it?
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1) Your gas mileage will dramatically improve, due to the improved efficiency of the vehicle.
2) You will need to maintain your vehicle more often, simply because it has more components that experience wear & tear.
Hills are not really going to impact the performance of an electric or hybrid vehicle (combustion engines are actually less efficient than battery-powered engines and, generally, provide less energy to the wheels overall. A high performance electric vehicle would absolutely smoke an equivalent gasoline powered vehicle. The big advantage that they have is range, which they lose when compared to hybrid vehicles).
For the most part, it will feel the same as driving a conventional car (but less noisy when the combustion engine isn't being used).
EDIT: I'm not sure what you mean by, "Under which conditions is the hybrid engine useful?"
The electric engine in the vehicle is going to be able to handle any conditions an equivalent gas-powered engine could.
Honestly though a nice manual diesel car can beat just about every hybrid in terms of MPG if you don't drive like a idiot.
I was under the impression that hybrid engines are useful within certain driving conditions -for example, stop and go traffic will get you good milage performance while high speed driving/up-hill slopes would force your car to use the gas engine and thus loose the benefit of the electric motor.
All of the bolded parts of this post are just flat-out incorrect. I'm sorry that your vehicle caught on fire, but batteries add a negligible amount of weight to the vehicle & are not especially dangerous, and no, an internal combustion engine is never going to provide the same MPG as a hybrid (unless you're comparing radically different car models). An equivalent hybrid will always, always beat a conventional vehicle in terms of MPG, simply because the process is just more efficient.
The hybrid engine is really useful all the time. If it is not useful, it is neutral. The ONLY negative is that it is slightly heavier (my car is really absurdly light anyway) and if you're driving uphill for fifteen minutes on a curvy road so you have to keep your speed down, you'll run out of battery.
But that is not usually a concern.
I love it. EPA rating is 51 MPG, and if it's not dead of winter I get 55-60mpg. The trick is that (on the Prius at least) you can easily gauge how much of your power is coming from gas and how much from electric, the latter being "free." You generally use the gas to get to your desired speed, and if you can, only use electricity to maintain momentum. This of course depends on traffic, hills, etc.
Going up hills, like driving in PA, is murder. Even in power mode, flooring the car, I have a hard time getting to 70mph on some inclines. The rules of physics don't magically warp because you're in a hybrid -- going downhill can be free when you're coasting, and going uphill will make your engine work harder and use more gas. The real benefit comes from the ability to maintain momentum for free, which you can do even on a modest incline.
Stop and go traffic is going to be rough on mileage, depending entirely on how quickly you want to accelerate. For example, stoplights are murder for me. If it's just traffic on the highway oscillating between 0-10mph, you'll use only electricity. This is helped by the regen brakes (again, on the Prius, not sure about the Fit), which use the momentum from your brakes to turn the generator. Even with those, a long strip of scooting on electric-only will run out the battery (requiring the combustion engine to run, thus using some gas, albeit more efficient still than a conventional car).
I'd do some digging on the Fit's particular hybrid engine; if it's like the Insight you may want to think twice. I tried to decide between the two and came to the conclusion that the Prius was worth the extra money for me, although there's plenty of variables in play and the Prius certainly doesn't win them all hands down.
Edit: Also consider climate. My Prius runs AC off battery (thus is "free") but heat off the combustion engine. If you live in warmer climates, it'll be quite a boon to your mileage...cold will work against you (assuming the Fit does the same).
If you're planning on buying new, I've heard now from a few different people that the gas savings that you get aren't going to make up for the extra money you pay for buying the new hybrid. I have done no research on this myself but if you want a new car it is probably worth looking into.
I got a used hybrid with 150k miles on it. The only bad thing in the Carfax was that it failed a smog test.
Once.
Because the gas cap fell off.
So I mean they're certainly not falling apart all over the place.
It'd probably depend drastically on the MPG between models. I would bet you'd still end up with more money because when you choose to sell it, it will probably have more value. But someone who's banking on that or has more investment should really do the number crunching.
Hybrids do not universally beat conventional vehicles. In the same class as the prius the Renault megane 1.5 diesel, Volvo C30 and S/V40 1.6 diesel, Kia c'eed, hyundai i30, a couple of Citroens, Seats, Peugeots and some others all deliver better mpg than the prius and other hybrids. (it does beg the question of when someone will do the obvious and make a diesel hybrid)
If you look at smaller cars, twin and three cylinder small capacity standard petrols do the best.
Though I am aware that small cars and modern diesels are a rarity in the us.
Edit: just as an example, nextgreencar says the hybrid Honda Fit (called the Jazz here) gets 63mpg, and the standard petrol 53mpg, relative to the Ford Fiesta TDCi's 86mpg.
(that's combined mpg, using UK gallons)
As to driving on hills, I had the car for a year in the Metro Detroit area where I purchased it, and I was routinely getting over 40 MPGs, and with a light foot and some learning I could break 50 MPGs with it. That was where things were nearly always flat or some very light hills. I've been driving it in Seattle since Nov 2006 and I will say that the hills here have killed much of my MPGs. I can get high 30's if I really feather the pedal and nurse it to max the mileage. But I live in Ballard and nearly anywhere I want to go involves some long steep hills.
Part of this can be due to the IMA hybrid system that Honda was using in 2006, I'm not sure if they've since moved away from that (iirc they were talking about it). The tech that Toyota and Ford were using at the time was superior but I preferred the Civic's styling and it had more acceleration than the Prius at the time which was a selling point for me.
All in all, definitely give the hybrid engine a test drive. I highly recommend them. Although I do miss my gas guzzling Ford Expedition from time to time, I don't miss the 7 MPG that I would get with it when I drove aggressively.
That's all good points, but I'm under the impression that OP is in the US and most/all the cars you mentioned aren't available here.
The VW Toureg Diesel also gets better gas mileage then the Hybrid, though the hybrid is much quicker in acceleration apparently. It's also unique in that it can and will often kick onto electric at highway speeds by design.
How many miles do you put on a year? I was thinking of getting a hybrid when I need to next replace the vehicle, but I put on 8K miles per year and I don't keep cars more than 10 years. Running the numbers the reduction in gas expenditure didn't offset the increased up front expense unless gas averaged $5/gal over my use of the car. The price of gas, and the types of vehicles available in Japan are different than in the US, so you may want to run the analysis yourself.
Yeah, I realise that, I was mostly just pointing out that it isn't automatically true that a hybrid is more efficient than an equivalent conventional car. It's best to just compare mpg directly.
First it wasn't my vehicle, it was one I was riding in and I don't want to take this off base but indeed compact diesels can get better mileage with a standard (manual) transmission. This is nothing new to Europe but to the US the concept is crazy talk. Take a look at mileage of a Volkswagon Golf TDI with manual transmission sometime, it falls around 42 whereas the Prius is something like 48. If you do a bit more research you will find that the 42 is quite low for a conservative driver.
The batteries in a hybrid add around a hundred pounds, which is a fraction of the weight of the vehicle but still substantial. While only a fraction of vehicles may suffer from a battery malfunction it still was enough to sour my view on hybrids for some time to come.
This could not be more false.
You're right, he underestimated the percent of automatics by about 4%
Since I don't think anyone explicity linked this yet, you could play with one of those gas mileage savings calculators to get a better sense of whether it'll be cost effective or not
Well, to be fair it is relevant in gas mileage.
But not in class comparisons between hybrids and other cars, because hybrid manuals exist.
That figure does not include semi's as well as other construction vehicles.
How many miles do you put on a year? I was thinking of getting a hybrid when I need to next replace the vehicle, but I put on 8K miles per year and I don't keep cars more than 10 years. Running the numbers the reduction in gas expenditure didn't offset the increased up front expense unless gas averaged $5/gal over my use of the car. The price of gas, and the types of vehicles available in Japan are different than in the US, so you may want to run the analysis yourself.[/quote]
Gas in Japan is horribly expensive, but you make good poits. Ill run the numbers over the estimated time of ownership and see if its worth it
Indeed, however those vehicles make up for a large percentage of manual transmissions that were not included in that figure. Doesn't matter one way or the other and frankly even if you don't know how to drive a manual it isn't exactly hard to learn.
Gas in Japan is horribly expensive, but you make good poits. Ill run the numbers over the estimated time of ownership and see if its worth it[/quote]
Don't forget to look at possible increased maintainence and especially increased resale value.