Hybrids worse than Tahoe

[Prelector]

Originally Posted by mkaresh

Just think about those numbers posted earlier in the thread. Do you really think owners of everyday cars are spending $3 per mile to operate them? That's about $36,000 per year.

Clearly, the researchers engaged in some wild and crazy assumptions. Personally, seeing results like these would have sent me back to the drawing board.

My blog post on the study:

http://www.truedelta.com/blog/?p=48

First, quoting and referencing yourself to prove your own point is "wild and crazy"... Try referencing a valid source of some kind to back up your assertions, otherwise it's all just hot air...

Second, your rebuttal completely misses the mark as to what the report is showing: The report calculates a TOTAL COST per driven mile of a vehicle. That is, the total cost to manufacture, operate, and dispose of the vehicle, amortized over the total life miles of the vehicle as reported by the manufacturer; they are not saying the vehicle costs $.492 per mile to OPERATE (the numbers you're reporting).

When you figure in the costs to manufacture the vehicle, and the costs to destroy the vehicle at the end of it's life, the number they came up with is $.492. As such, the miles driven per year is completely irrelevant, and you can't come up with a yearly cost of the vehicle, since that would be forcing the numbers into something they don't fit.

They are saying that if you built this vehicle yourself, from scratch (but using the manufacturers facilites and costs), drove this vehicle for it's entire lifetime miles, then had to destroy the vehicle yourself (back to scratch?). The cost to you would figure out to $.492 per mile.

Now, I'm not saying their figures are correct, I'm explaining what their figures show.