U.S. Hybrids Get More Miles Per Congress – New York Times

EVER since the first Prius rolled off the assembly line almost a decade ago at the Takaoka plant not far from Toyota City, hybrid cars have basically been a luxury item. If you owned one, you could feel good about using less gasoline and being a trendsetter, but you couldn’t expect the fuel savings to make up for the thousands of extra dollars that the hybrid cost. There was no financial reward for environmental virtue.

But in the last few months, something important has changed. Gas prices have settled in at close to $3 a gallon, which is enough to make a few hybrids almost worth it, if not quite. And since the start of the year, the federal government has been giving generous tax credits to hybrid buyers, pushing the Prius and a couple of other hybrids into bargain territory.

When I ran the numbers at the end of last summer, I needed gas to stabilize at about $3.15 a gallon in order to make it cheaper for me to buy a [tag]Ford Escape[/tag] Hybrid and trade in my Jeep Grand Cherokee. It wasn’t worth it. With the $2000 money back from the feds this year, it’s a little closer, but you still wouldn’t get that money for almost a full year at this point — next tax season.

But the [tag]Prius[/tag] would work out, economically. I just prefer to have a four wheel drive vehicle for the winters. Oh, well.