Old Subaru video: hybrids are not worth the investment, buy a Subaru Legacy instead
Filed under: Hybrid, Honda, Subaru, Toyota
In Subaru’s probably several-year-old video above (I’m basing the age on changes in car availability, fuel and mileage), the Subaru Legacy is compared to its “very direct competitors” the Toyota Camry hybrid and Honda Accord hybrid when it comes to the price of the car, fuel use costs and time of payback for the price hybrid price premium. Subaru presents the price and mileage as showing a “pretty big advantage to the Camry and Accord. Right? But wait, lets look at what these numbers really mean.” After some number crunching, we find it will take 10.8 years (”that’s a long time”) and 32.4 years (”that’s certainly no bargain”) to make up for the “cost penalty” of buying these hybrids and not the Subaru Legacy.
The video also points out hybrids can go “at very low speeds” on electric power alone but “it is no easy task to coordinate the efforts of the electric motor and the gasoline engine.” Batteries, the video notes, are “heavy and expensive” and hybrids require “complex systems” to shut off at stop lights. Subaru says they “are not trying to make light of the fuel economy achievements of the these hybrids vehicles. But we are also not convinced that they are worth the price premium as these numbers illustrate.”
Has this video convinced you the Subaru Legacy is better than the Toyota Camry hybrid and Honda Accord hybrid? How will today’s arguments for and against hybrids look in five years?
Related:
- Diesel Subies to beat hybrids to market
- Geneva Motor Show: Subaru will bring Justy back, is considering all-electric small car
- Subaru announces diesel engine for 2008
- Subaru aims for diesel cars by end of 2007
- Subaru sells 100,000 PZEVs and sends nothing to the dump for three years
[Source: YouTube]
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