Do hybrid cars have a higher resale value?
Results so far:
| Yes | 45% | 47 votes | Total: 105 votes | |
| No | 55% | 58 votes |
Yes
by Peter Lampros
Created on: September 15, 2009 Last Updated: September 16, 2009
Hybrid vehicles, on the whole, demand a higher resale value than their similarly equipped counterparts. This is due to the ever-increasing demand for the most fuel efficient vehicles possible. It should be noted, however, that not all hybrids are cut from the same cloth; some are "mild" hybrids or electric assisted gas engines, while Toyota continues to produce a full hybrid system in their Prius, Camry, and Highlander models.
The resale value of hybrid vehicles are, as every type of commodity, directly proportional to demand and inversely proportional to the supply. In our post "Cash for Clunkers" market there is a heightened awareness toward "green" vehicles. There were many hybrids sold during the Cash for Clunkers campaign, which reduced supplies, while the demand continues to be high.
Hybrid vehicles are technologically advanced, which, in and of itself, trends toward more value and therefore, a higher price. The ever fluctuating price of gasoline keeps the market continuously stimulated. At this point, even a reduction in the price of gasoline is almost a harbinger of higher future prices, as was the case in 2007 and 2008. The apprehension associated with the perception of painful prices at the pump fuel the demand for hybrid vehicles.
Additionally, hybrid vehicles have only been available in the United States for the past ten years. Thus, the available pool of vehicles to meet the demand is smaller than that of conventional vehicles.
Hybrid vehicles, when sold new are seldom, if ever, discounted and never have rebates or incentives applied to them. The lack of incentives on new vehicles all but guarantees a higher resale value.
As we begin to recover from the latest recession, hybrid vehicles will continue to be a high demand item. Those who are enjoying their hybrids now, barring potential and actual problems with American brand hybrid vehicles, will also enjoy a higher resale value. Those manufacturers whose quality has suffered through the years, bankrupting their companies, will have a tougher time with their resale values, but overall they only account for a small percent of hybrid vehicles available.
The leaders in hybrid technology continue to be Toyota and Honda. Their hybrid vehicles have proven themselves, like their other high quality vehicles, over the years since being introduced in the United States. Their conventional vehicles demand a higher resale value than their competitors and the hybrids are higher still. The magazine Consumer Reports has included the Toyota Prius in its top ten vehicles for the bettter part of the past ten years. It also lists the Prius, the other Toyota hybrids, and the Honda hybrids, on its list of best buy used vehicles.
Supply and demand, influenced by real and artificial stimulus virtually assure that hybrid vehicles will continue to have higher resale values in the future.
Learn more about this author, Peter Lampros.
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No
by Bhadase Maharaj
Created on: November 30, 2009
Hybrid vehicles are never going to fetch high resale prices! The price of a new Hybrid is very costly and it is expected that the so called savings on owning one of these vehicles is not going to be a short term reality. One needs to own the vehicle for a few years before any savings can even begin to be noticed. Consumers who have purchased them are only now beginning to realize this. The advanced technology that is used to promote the marketing of the product is not appealing to the consumer and the "go green" factor only attracts the attention of a handful of environmentalists.
Yes, the argument that gas prices are going to be forever increasing is a reality and the consumer is always going to be looking at ways and means to save money on gas or to seek alternative measures in keeping the cost of locomotion low. However, only the misguided would spend out their money on a vehicle that requires high cost maintenance and especially on a battery that costs more than a used car itself. Imagine the scare that owners of Hybrids got in 2008 when the automotive manufacturing giants were on the verge of disappearing. It's not that one can go to a corner store and purchase spare parts for a Hybrid. The parts are only available from the dealership unlike other vehicles where the parts can even be brought from a scrap yard during hard times.
Some years back there was a big drive in Canada to use natural gas as an alternative fuel. That was the Hybrid solution of the day. Unless you owned a taxi doing huge runs each day, nobody ever bothered to invest in this money trap. The conversion kit was very costly and still is and no common consumer who just needs to get to and from work ever invested in it. The gossip was that if you kept a car for an average of five years, it was not going to cost you that much money in gas as it would to purchase the conversion kit. This has proven to be a smart move by the consumer because they did not allow themselves to be sucked into someone's cash trap.
Today's Hybrid is consumer unfriendly. It is too costly and it is yet to prove itself. Therefore, the product cannot sell itself. It does not matter how much an owner tries to convince a prospective buyer, the chances of skepticism is higher to the buyer of a Hybrid than any other vehicle he might want to purchase. How about trading it back with the dealer for something else? Well, here is where the dealer shows you quite rudely that it is not worth the price you paid for it. By the time they are finished with their inspection and their value assessment, you would have to fork out another pile of money to pay down on another vehicle.
Let's face a little bit of reality, it is most unlikely that gasoline as a fuel is going to be replaced in the foreseeable future. It is probably not going to happen for at least another generation. Another reality is that the "green initiative" is not going to save the planet from making its own changes. So where does that leave us, the simple common human who just want to live our short stay on this ever changing planet? The human race is left to make the only choice available to them, the smart choice obviously.
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