Six (Lame) Excuses Not to Buy a Hybrid

1. “They’re too expensive”

Few realize that there was a first generation Prius that was based on Toyota’s Echo subcompact. The price of that early hybrid: $19,995. While the next generations of Prii have increased in price, the current Prius is available for just $24,000, and is far from the cheapest hybrid out there.

The Honda Insight costs just $18,500 and the Toyota Prius c costs just $18,950, which both represent about $3,000 to $4,000 over the non-hybrid Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris.

This price increase is on par across the range of other segments too. The Hybrid Camry gets 43/39 mpg city/highway and costs $3,000 more than the non-hybrid which gets 25/35 mpg city/highway. It also makes more horsepower. The question always is how long will it take to pay back the add cost of the hybrid over the non-hybrid model just by saving gas?

According to fueleconomy.gov the Camry Hybrid will take five and a half years to pay back that price increase. Other hybrids, like the Civic Hybrid, Prius c, Insight and Sonata and Optima Hybrids, all take at about four or five years to pay back the difference, which is about half of the normal lifetime of a vehicle.