I made the painful decision to part with my 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid and traded it in this weekend. It was a wonderful relationship that benefited me personally and, believe it or not, financially. I thoroughly enjoyed the 51,000 miles of reduced emissions and fewer stops at the gas station, but it is too small for my growing family.
In breaking down the cost of ownership, I received $7,000 less at trade-in than I paid for my hybrid. I know I could have gotten more had I put it on eBay or placed an ad, but I was in a hurry and happy to get the low end of the Blue Book range.
Based on my actual MPG of 42 for 51,000 miles driven, and assuming an average price of $2.39 per gallon over the past 3 years, I spent about $2900 on gasoline. I had the oil changed 10 times, and spent exactly $0 on repairs. The oil changes were about $10 more than a standard, which an added expense of $100 .
So all together my car cost around $10,000 to operate, not including financing and insurance. And I received a state tax credit of $2,500, which lowered my taxes by a few hundred more, but I won't count that to offset the finance charges.
Had I not purchased the Civic Hybrid I would have probably have bought a Mazda6 since my previous two cars were Mazda 626's, and they were great as comparable 4-cylinder sedans.
While the Mazda6 would have cost about $2,800 less than what I paid for my car, the current trade-in value (per the Kelley Blue Book) is around $7,800 less than what the it was actually selling for new. The Mazda6 gets around 23 mpg , so it would have cost me $5,300 in gas during the same time, bringing the bill to $13,100.
Soooo, since I traded in the Civic Hybrid before anyone would questions its batteries, I spent around $3,000 less than my other second choice, the Mazda6.
I wouldn't dare extrapolate this to make a generalization about hybrids because of the differences in options, driving styles, etc. But for me, a Civic Hybrid turned out to be both a green and pragmatic purchase.
