Cost per Mileage

Out of curiosity, I decided to see who was paying the least (or most) in initial cost for the sake of fuel economy. Although the results ar...

Out of curiosity, I decided to see who was paying the least (or most) in initial cost for the sake of fuel economy. Although the results aren't surprising, it becomes easy to see why some cars are so popular with hybrid car buyers.

To start with, I needed the likely cost to buy each hybrid car, followed by it's mileage. I got the purchase price and mileage (city/highway mpg) at Edmunds.com. Then I calculated the mixed fuel economy (60% highway, 40% city). Then I divided the purchase price by the mixed mileage to get a buyers initial cost per mileage.

Hybrid Vehicle* Car/SUV City Hwy Mixed Purchase Price Cost per Mileage
Honda Insight Car 57 56 56.4 $ 21,530.00 $ 381.74
Toyota Prius Car 60 51 54.6 $ 23,070.00 $ 422.53
Honda Civic Car 49 51 50.2 $ 24,590.00 $ 489.84
Toyota Camry Car 40 38 38.8 $ 26,200.00 $ 675.26
Saturn VUE SUV 27 32 30 $ 23,710.00 $ 790.33
Ford Escape SUV 36 31 33 $ 27,260.00 $ 826.06
Mercury Mariner SUV 33 29 30.6 $ 27,950.00 $ 913.40
Honda Accord Car 28 35 32.2 $ 33,090.00 $ 1,027.64
Toyota Highlander SUV 32 27 29 $ 36,550.00 $ 1,260.34
Lexus RX 400h SUV 33 28 30 $ 42,580.00 $ 1,419.33
Lexus GS 450h Car 25 28 26.8 $ 54,900.00 $ 2,048.51
* All hybrid vehicles are 2007 except for the Insight (which is out of production).

Not surprisingly, better mileage gives you better return. But it also becomes obvious why the Accord has suffered so in sales. When you start looking at how much you're paying for the hybrid, but without the benefit of the fuel economy.

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