Is Everyone For the Earth, or Not?

Here is a post that a person who will remain nameless posted on another board for hybrid cars. It has some information that can be found to be against hybrid cars, but they do have a point, looks can be decieveing; or this person really just doesn't care about the earth.

"Hybrids are not what they would seem to be at first glance, hence, everyone should be encouraged to be very serious when analyzing why they want a hybrid car.


If it's to save money on gas. You would have to drive it at large amounts since the cost difference between a hybrid and a similar aspirated car are so extreme, and would take years to get your money back.

If it's to conserve energy, you should know that, for example, the Prius requires almost 70% more energy to produce than the Echo, as do most hybrids versus their aspirated cousins. In the cradle to cradle method of speaking, the true cost is not the perceived cost, environmentally speaking. Besides that, the Prius gets less than 10% better gas mileage than the Echo (it's closest same-brand cousin), for more than $7k more dollars. Same with the civic, although if I had to buy a hybrid, it would be a civic.

If it's to save the earth, then you should know that the duty cycle on those batteries is expected to be about 6 years, at which point you're looking at a replacement which at that time will be > than the value of the car, as well as now having a couple-hundred-pound series of heavy-metal-and-acid-containing environmental disasters to dispose of.

If you want to be green, you want diesel. More Nox, less Sox, but more importantly *carbon neutral* if you run bio. You'll also see >50Mpg from a non-electric car, a 250k minimum lifetime on the motor, and <$.50 a gallon gas if you make it yourself.

Ethanol or the blended alcohols are your next best bet because again, they are carbon neutral.

Big Business has done a great job tricking the american public into believing that hybrids are a great big special deal...they're not. Really, REALLY look into them before you buy one. Caveat emptor and whatnot. And don't even get me started on tax credits... :)"

One important point of this is the person was right, in the matter of always look into what you are buying in-depth. If you do not then you can be scammed on many things and not just in ways to keep the earth green.

As Always, Keep it Green.