Originally Posted by Will Shunk:
They used the "summer switch over" for the reason for the hike in March to get us used to $3.80 a gallon. Today, the reason is refinery shutdown with reduced supply and the high demand for summer travel. Most haven't even been out of school for a few day so I doubt the high demand is here yet. Buy a hybrid - 44 mpg makes it a little better.
I don't like the "buy a hybrid" line. There is a lot of us with vehicles that don't get great gas mileage, but what makes our vehicles great is that they are paid off. If I got a hybrid, then I would have a 200 dollar plus car payment. Insurance would triple, plates would be more. So my Jeep gets 15 mpg. If I got a car that got 44mpg, I would save about 2,000 or so a year in gas roughly (15,000 miles a year). If the payment was only 200 a month and insurance ran me an extra 60 a month, then this new fuel efficient car would cost me 3,400 extra in car payments in insurance. So new hybrid with insurance, gas (at $4 a gallon), payments and plates would run me around $5,600 a year. My Jeep is paid off so no payments, insurance runs me $110 a month for full coverage and 4,000 in fuel at $4 and 15k a year would run me about 5,600 a year in costs.
Now don't forget that hybrids will need to have the batteries changed out in 10-15 years and that may or may not be under warranty at that time, so that might be another 3-5k or more. I would much rather have a diesel car then a hybrid.