--- This little rant is a follow-up to an online article I posted on Examiner.com ---
Whenever the subject of hybrid cars, plug-in hybrids and electric cars comes up, people invariably make the argument that these cars are “not worth it” and cite the differential cost of the vehicle compared with projected gas savings. I contend that unless you are going to buy one of these cars strictly as a cost-savings measure, this argument is specious.
The reason I say this is that what any of us spends on a car is primarily a matter of personal taste and preference and has very little to do with the intrinsic value of the vehicle. If all car-buying decisions were to be made strictly on utilitarian/economic grounds, we’d all be driving bare-bones little imports that cost $9,000.
Instead, some of us spend $40,000 to get the feeling of safety in owning a Volvo, some of us spend $90,000 to own the fabled engineering of a BMW 7 series, some of us spend $60,000 to get 556 horsepower in a Cadillac CTS-V, some of us spend $60,000 to look really cool in a Corvette ragtop, some spend $50,000 for any number of luxury cars, and a (very) few of us cough up $450,000 for a Lamborghini Mucielago so we can go from 0 to 60 mph in 3.2 seconds (and get 9 miles per gallon doing it.) For many of us, these cars may seem like unnecessary extravagances, but for those that buy them, I’m sure they are just great.
So this fall, when some folks start forking up $40,000 for a gasoline-extended electric-drive Chevy Volt, or perhaps shell out $33,000 for an all-electric Nissan Leaf, we should get ready for an onslaught of naysayers saying that these cars are “too expensive”. What this really means is that for these people, things like energy efficiency, environmental responsibility and an aversion to buying foreign oil don’t rate much of a price tag. To each his own.
