What driving a Hybrid shows is that some people are bad at math.
I looked at buying a hybrid 6 years ago, when I knew I was going to be commuting a long distance. When I sat down and actually did the math, the total cost of owning a Hyundai Accent was cheaper than a Prius or an Insight over the likely length of ownership.
I figured it was going to take at least 9 years (by which time the car would have over 250,000 miles) for the gas savings on the hybrid to make up for the lower cost of the econobox.
I bought the econobox.
One caveat, though: My driving is 90% highway, and hybrid’s only get about 5 or 10 MPG better than my car (I get a measured 39 MPG). An urban commuter would probably see a quicker payoff.
That brings up another issue, though: while my car has a slightly larger carbon footprint related to use, it has a much smaller manufacturing footprint. Where they balance out, I have no idea, but again I bet it is longer than the expected life of the car.
