Chevy Hybrid Cost Analysis

So, Chevy allowed my family to drive a Chevy Tahoe Hybrid across the country, from Dallas to Salt Lake City, on our way to BlogHer08. You can’t imagine my gratitude (My 1995 van broke down right before we left and we just found out it will cost $900 to fix the air conditioner.)

I was very interested in the hybrid function of this shiny status symbol SUV. Would this type of car save us money in gas?

The answer is not really. It’s an SUV that gets regular milage. Which, is an improvement only in terms of SUV gas milage.

I don’t regularly drive an SUV, I drive a mini-van, so my gas milage was the same. If you drive a small economy vehicle your gas milage would still be worse in the Tahoe.

I also came across a cost analysis on Dave Ramsey. Don’t do it unless you like losing money, is Dave’s current advice.

To get your money back at current gas prices, just going from 15 miles per gallon to 25 miles per and driving 100 miles a week, that would save you $10 a week. To get back your $15,000, it would take you almost 29 years!

My husband surprised me on the way home saying, it sure was nice to have the nicest vehicle in the parking lot instead of the worst.

Really? I hadn’t spent one second thinking about it.

However, when I first started driving it I felt an urge to go around my neighborhood explaining that it was just a loaner. Which points to my own money issues.

The bottom line, it doesn’t suck to drive a Chevy Hybrid Tahoe across the country. But, it’s really a status symbol that won’t save you money and costs $52,000.

This isn’t a very practical choice, economically or ecologically, for the middle class. Yet.

That said, can anyone remember what an iPhone cost last year? It was around $450. This year, people stood in line to pay $200 for one that was twice as fast. (I’m hoping the iPhone is in my economic stratosphere next year).

That’s how new technology works. It becomes more affordable to the middle class masses pretty quickly.

Chevy, and other car companies, will eventually lower the price of vehicles with Hybrid technology and make them even more efficient over the next few years.

If you are buying a new car Chevy makes 8 models that get 30 mpg or more (just not the Tahoe Hybrid).

They are also investing a great deal of money and talent into the Concept Chevy Volt, an electric car which plugs into a common household plug and uses no gasoline and produces no emissions for 40 miles per day.

Chevy has over 2 million E85 FlexFuel vehicles on the road today. These are vehicles that can run on ethanol or gasoline.

They are also road-testing thier Equinox Fuel Cell vehicle, a vehicle that produces zero emissions and uses zero gasoline, right now. Green Car Journal has given the Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell its Green Car Vision Award.

How cool is that?

Thanks again for your generosity Chevy! And thanks for taking gas prices seriously enough to invest in new eco-friendly, budget-friendly technology.

If you need someone to test drive your hydrogen-powered Equinox Fuel Cell SUV in the southern humidity, you’ve got my number.

Image Sources: Tahoe Hybrid, Empowering Girls: So Sioux Me; Volt by Chase Agnello-Dean, Cars.com; Equinox, Hydrogencarsnow.com
; E85 Suburban, roadfly.com.