Hybrid car competition heats up!

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Today, hybrid car competition has heated up with the announcement that Honda is planning to introduce two new hybrid models.

One of them, the company hopes, will be priced at under $20,000 for a five-seat, four-door hatchback model. That’s at least $4,000 less than Toyota’s Prius and is likely to make price incentives a possibility for car buyers — they haven’t been happening because Toyota’s had the groovy-hybrid market all to itself. (Honda makes a hybrid Civic and that’s it, for now.)

This is excellent news for those of us looking to improve our footprint next year. It will be even better news in about four years when those vehicles really start hitting the resale market.

See the full story here.

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Post Tags: auto, cars, gas, Honda, hybrid, mileage, prius, toyota

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Comments ( 14 )

[...] 29, 2008 by cheaplikeme Last week, I wrote about a forthcoming hybrid vehicle from Honda. Some of the comments concerned the fact that today’s hybrids scarcely get better mileage [...]

How about 235 mpg? « Cheap Like Me added these pithy words on May 29 08 at 11:13 am

That’s great news! We test drove the Civic and loved it, but it’s unfortunately a little too small for us. We were disappointed when they ceased production on the Accord hybrid and really, really don’t want a Toyota.

Sherrie added these pithy words on May 22 08 at 3:39 pm

Oh, but sadly for you, I think it’s a little *smaller* than the Civic.

cheaplikeme added these pithy words on May 22 08 at 3:50 pm

we have the honda civic hybrid and love it. i tried to get my mom to buy the accord hybrid but she just bought the regular model and now she is regretting it!

erin added these pithy words on May 22 08 at 4:27 pm

My wife would hear nothing of the Prius, wanting instead an SUV. Fortunately, she liked the Ford Escape and we bought it. It is a wonderful car. Peppy, nice features and best of all, great gas milage in comparison to most cars.

ahighervision added these pithy words on May 23 08 at 7:27 am

How exciting! I’ll need to replace my elderly car soon. I want to get a hybrid but until now the variety in models is very limited.

Condo Blues added these pithy words on May 23 08 at 4:16 pm

Does anyone else find it funny that the mileage of most hybrids is below the original 1977 Honda??? Civic by the way comes from the letters CVCC Compound Vortex Combustion Chamber that the car’s engine was equipped with. To bad no one had ideas that innovative anymore.

truthwalker added these pithy words on May 23 08 at 5:13 pm

@ truthwalker, I know nothing about engines but I do know about mileage. We always think the mileage on our Subaru Forester sucks (21 city/25 highway). Then it turns out that by current standards, it’s kind of a “good mileage” car. But we remember our ’94 Civic Hatchback that got 36 city, 45 highway!!

Even my husband’s ’95 Camry (with 233,000 miles on it) typically gets at least 28 mpg in the city – comparable to many new hybrids (the hybrid Camry got 32 mpg in “usual” driving in this test: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/Comparos/articleId=121755)

cheaplikeme added these pithy words on May 23 08 at 5:21 pm

Wow, super exciting!

Lucy added these pithy words on May 25 08 at 8:10 pm

I wonder about the improvement in “footprint”

Surely NOT buying a new car would be a far better way of doing that?

Luxury Automobile added these pithy words on May 26 08 at 7:04 am

I agree – that’s why we recently fixed up our old car rather than buy a new one. In my opinion, this will benefit my household in a couple years when we need to replace one of our cars … and perhaps can find a USED hybrid on the market!

cheaplikeme added these pithy words on May 26 08 at 7:33 am

We went with a new hybrid and part of the idea was it is an investment because we can be one those people selling our hybrid in four years. In the meantime I feel good about my gas mileage and emissions.

My Escape Hybrid doesn’t get the same mileage as a hatchback I have much more control over how I drive and what engine I use. By awareness and hypermiling techniques I can get over 40 mpg in a four dour SUV which I think is pretty darn good.