On 8/1/2013 5:17 PM, Jeff Nowakowski wrote:
On 08/01/2013 02:56 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/eco-nomics/2012/08/09/is-the-toyota-prius-the-latest-status-symbol-of-the-wealthy/
I think this
meme has an expiration date, and is already starting to taste sour.
The article is a year old, not that ancient. It's far from the only one on the
topic. Google "prius status symbol". Even South Park famously did an episode on it.
"But Toyota also says that the study uses an unrealistically low estimated
lifetime for hybrids, and that there's no data to support its assumptions in
this. For instance, according to the study the average Prius is expected to go
109,000 miles over its lifetime, while a Hummer H1 would go 379,000 miles. CNW
says about hybrids: “…these are generally secondary vehicles in a household OR
they are driven in restricted or short range environments such as college
campuses or retirement neighborhoods.”"
So the prius is more cost effective because you drive it less?
So even assuming CNW is correct about the buyer and usage, if that same buyer
had bought a Hummer instead it would have been driven the same miles as the
Prius. There are a lot of other disputes pointed out in the article. The CNW
study looks like a hit piece.
The Hummer is the poster boy for polluting Americans, and the Prius the poster
boy for enlightened environmental consciousness. The truth is a lot harder to
get at than that.
What does work is, of course, orienting your life so you drive less. Like living
closer to work, combining errands into one trip, carpooling, biking, using
Amazon instead of going to the mall, etc.
