Comparison of Hybrid Cars
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There are a lot of hybrid cars in the market. The only two companies that are able to make their vehicles go more than 40 miles per gallon have to be Toyota and Honda so let’s make a comparison of the hybrid cars they are selling.
The first car that Toyota introduced was the Prius. It made its debut in 1997 and was available in the US in 1999. Since then, Toyota has made hybrid versions of there other cars which include the Camry and the Highlander.
There are no gasoline versions of the Prius so if you are looking for one, don’t bother. There are three variants available namely the standard, base and Touring.
Honda on the other hand introduced 3 hybrid cars. Through the years, while the FCX is being leased to the state of California for $500 a month, the Insight and the Civic are the cars that they offer to the public.
Let’s try and compare the three. The Prius has dominated the market since 1999. In 2006, a total of 183,000 units were sold. As of the first four months of 2008, over 66,100 were sold and analysts expect that it could go above 200,000 before the year’s end. Unfortunately, the current recession isn’t helping so this might not be possible. But just this year, Toyota has sold more than 1 million Prius’ worldwide.
You get 51 miles per gallon in city driving and 60 miles per gallon for highway driving if you choose to get a Prius. The Honda City which is the best seller of the company can only take you 40 miles per gallon on city driving and 45 miles per gallon on highway driving.
The 2008 Toyota Prius also has more trunk space than the Honda Civic Hybrid because just behind the seats is the battery electric motor.
The Prius is powered by a 1.5 liter gasoline engine that produces 76 horse power and 82 pound feet per torque. Its electric motor produces an equivalent of 67 horse power and 295 pound per feet or torque. With that, this vehicle can hit 60 miles per hour in under 11 seconds.
The Honda’s engine on the other hand is powered by a 110-hp4, 8-valve, SOHC, i-VTEC 4-cylinder engine that can achieve 60 miles per hour at a much faster time.
You don’t need your key anymore to start the car with the Prius when all you have to do is push a button. The Civic hybrid does not have that one yet so you still have to put the key into the ignition to start the vehicle.
There is no doubt that both hybrid models are safe. In terms of pricing, the cheapest Prius costs $22,000 while the high end version costs about $24,000. The Honda Civic Hybrid costs from $23,550 to $26,750.
In terms of accessories, you can add a few things like Bluetooth, satellite radio, global positioning satellite or GPS in both cars. It will cost you a few extra dollars to add that to make your car different than the standard models being sold at the dealer.
But what do people really look at when they choose a car regardless if this is a hybrid or not? Many will say how much they can afford, how many people will be able to fit in the car, the car look both inside and out, what are the accessories that come with it and so forth.
But the two things that really matter is how far you can go for every gallon and how much is the car. Naturally two things, namely the mileage you get for every gallon and the price. Looking at the two, the Prius wins hands down so if you are in the market for a hybrid car, you will probably choose this Japanese brand over the other.
There are other hybrid cars when you can compare aside from these two and although General Motors is still number one in the American, this is closely followed by Toyota. Other American car makers and those in Europe still have a long way to go to catch up with what the Japanese have perfected in the past 10 years so until they can make these improvements, a comparison of hybrid cars is still leaning in favor of the Japanese.
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