Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Hybrids from Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Ford are fine. However, if you don't have one already it's probably not that cost-effective, unless you plan to drive a lot or keep it for more than 5 years.
Using these parameters - 12,000/miles year, 60/40 mix City/Highway miles, $4.40 Gas/Gallon - you get the following payback:
Lincoln MKZ - 0 years
Lexus ES300h - 3.3 years
Ford Fusion SE - 2.9 years
Acura ILX - 3.1 years
Hyundai Sonata - 2.6 years
Toyota Camry - 3.2 years
Drive more, payback is faster - drive less, well you know the drill.
Location: Southernmost tip of the southernmost island in the southernmost state
982 posts, read 1,165,076 times
Reputation: 1652
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jonah K
As long as you avoid unpaved roads and keep your vehicles properly washed, waxed, and garaged they won't get "beaten all to hell" on the Big Island.
Jonah K, it isn't the island itself that I am worried about beating up my car, more that I plan to use it for plenty of outdoor activities (sand) and anywhere you tend to have a lot of vacationers in rental cars, well my experience is that your door dings and frequency of mysteriously-appearing-parking-lot-damage seem to go up exponentially.
Thanks for the great info whtviper1. I may have to look at depreciation rates for these models-conventional vs. hybrid. I generally try to buy 1-3 years used to let someone else take the initial hit. It would be interesting to see if the used values are more even for conventional Vs. hybrid or if the payback rate duration is reduced at that point. Looks like I have some homework to do.
Location: Southernmost tip of the southernmost island in the southernmost state
982 posts, read 1,165,076 times
Reputation: 1652
Quote:
Originally Posted by Due
Jonah is correct: there are some fine looking luxury, sport, and exotic vehicles here.
There are Volts and Teslas too.
I see more "beaters" on the mainland.
Due, perhaps "Island car" would have been a better term? You know, the sort of car or truck with boards strapped to the top, plastered in surfing stickers, rusting out and probably not washed in quite a few years...
I was in no way inferring that there isn't a large fleet of well maintained, high-end automobiles owned by the residents.
Actually, I see only a few "Island" cars (but I don't hangout at the beach often). The most popular vehicles seem to be compact Asian-manufactured vehicles.
I have a 05 Prius that gets 50-55 mpg in summer and around 40 in winter due to the fact that on my drive to work the car engine doesn't warm up until I get to work so the gas engine runs most of the time. I think the mileage is a little better than average to the 6700' elevation in the mountains.
I will sell it before my move to Hawaii and purchase either a 4x4 pickup or a jeep and a trailer. I will be looking to purchase a fixer-upper to live in and will need someway to transport construction materials.
I used a beater '70's Dodge Dart and a construction "truck" and it worked pretty well. But, that was back when cars were made of metal and you could walk on them without denting them. "Soccer mom" vans make pretty good construction trucks, too, since you can keep stuff dry in them. Add a set of roof racks and you can haul all sorts of stuff on them. Then, after construction is done, you'll have a place for surf boards and kayaks, too.
After you've been here awhile, Grassyknoll, you no longer really care about things like door dings. Not sure why. Maybe it's rum drinks with little umbrellas or something that does it to folks.
Location: not sure, but there's a hell of a lot of water around here!
2,682 posts, read 7,574,655 times
Reputation: 3882
Quote:
Originally Posted by hotzcatz
After you've been here awhile, Grassyknoll, you no longer really care about things like door dings. Not sure why. Maybe it's rum drinks with little umbrellas or something that does it to folks.
Yes, it's those friggin umbrellas, and NOT the rum!! Ever have one of those seemingly innocent little umbrellas POKE you in the eyeball, mid-mai tai?? IT'S A BUMMER!!! And then your vision gets all blurry, you can't see for squat, next thing you know,,,, ANOTHER LITTLE DING ON THE RENTAL CAR!!!!
Actually, I see only a few "Island" cars (but I don't hangout at the beach often). The most popular vehicles seem to be compact Asian-manufactured vehicles.
No offense taken :-)
I was just offering info.
Aloha
While visiting the Big Island and Maui, I drove on almost every mile of every main paved roads while exploring the islands. It was a lot of driving. There's a lot of sedans, but there's a huge number of pickup trucks. Usually a mix of the smaller and full sized pickup trucks. However, there were many huge jacked up pickup trucks, especially in the more rural areas.
The first thing I would think about the people who drove those huge jacked up pickup trucks was, how could they afford to operate a vehicle that only gets about 10 to 13 mpg? Especially when the gasoline costs about 50 cents a gallon more than the mainland if you fill up at Costco and closer to a dollar a gallon more at other gas stations. I assume that most people who drive huge jacked up pickup trucks aren't affluent. They are probably struggling to get by, living close to the edge. But the huge jacked up pickup truck seems to be an island status symbol for some people, which some people really want to own. It must be painful to them whenever their gas gauges are close to empty and they have to visit the gas stations again and fill up again. Or, maybe the can only afford to fill it up to half full.
The parking lot door dings can happen anywhere. There's a lot of people who don't care about other people's property. There's also a lot of dumb kids that aren't careful. Sometimes I park much farther away in larger parking lots and take a longer hike. Sometimes, I'm too lazy or in a hurry to park farther away. I've regretted being too lazy to take a longer hike when I return to my vehicle and see a new door ding.
Last edited by davephan; 05-30-2014 at 03:57 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
