Oh I agree about the Hybrids. The price will go down on them. I think you are correct about the tax break. Also in California if you have a hybrid you are able to ride in the carpool lane without the minimum of 2 people. It might be worth it just to be able to ride in the carpool lane...LOL
My family is a "buy American" family. And I agree with that to an extent. If American car companies would offer the service, quality and overall value that some of the foreign manufacturers did, then I would stick with American. But I have a Ford Ranger now that I have dumped a ton of money into. Anyway, I lost my keys to the truck. Couldn't find them anywhere. Called Ford, They said I had to tow my truck in so they could make a new key. A locksmith couldn't do it because the key had a chip in it. Well, the same thing happened to my husband last year. He called Honda, they came to the house with a machine and made the key in the driveway. The charge was $50. I asked did Ford have this service? No, we can't take our key machines out of the garage. I paid $70 for the new key and $120 in towing. I will never buy a Ford again. That experience taught me what company values its customers.
we don't have carpool lanes around here. Are they really that much of a convenience?
medako wrote:we don't have carpool lanes around here. Are they really that much of a convenience?
When you're sitting on the 12 lane freeway and only one is moving, yes, it's nice to have 2 people in your car. Be happy you don't have them as that means your not sitting in traffic.
The Hybrid decision depends on how much you drive. We drive a long way to work each day and it was costing a lot in fuel. Now we can drive about 600 miles on 11 gallons of gas (about 50 MPG average). I don't think the hybrids cost too much more comparabily to other cars -- they may be a little smaller but are loaded with features. With the price of gasoline in this flux for the last few years, we feel more comfortable that should the price continue to rise, we'd be okay paying more. Certainly the future price of gas is uncertain, and the comparisions don't account for the increases we've seen lately.