Out of curiosity, I decided to see who was paying the least (or most) in initial cost for the sake of fuel economy. Although the results aren't surprising, it becomes easy to see why some cars are so popular with hybrid car buyers.
To start with, I needed the likely cost to buy each hybrid car, followed by it's mileage. I got the purchase price and mileage (city/highway mpg) at Edmunds.com. Then I calculated the mixed fuel economy (60% highway, 40% city). Then I divided the purchase price by the mixed mileage to get a buyers initial cost per mileage.
| Hybrid Vehicle* | Car/SUV | City | Hwy | Mixed | Purchase Price | Cost per Mileage |
| Honda Insight | Car | 57 | 56 | 56.4 | $ 21,530.00 | $ 381.74 |
| Toyota Prius | Car | 60 | 51 | 54.6 | $ 23,070.00 | $ 422.53 |
| Honda Civic | Car | 49 | 51 | 50.2 | $ 24,590.00 | $ 489.84 |
| Toyota Camry | Car | 40 | 38 | 38.8 | $ 26,200.00 | $ 675.26 |
| Saturn VUE | SUV | 27 | 32 | 30 | $ 23,710.00 | $ 790.33 |
| Ford Escape | SUV | 36 | 31 | 33 | $ 27,260.00 | $ 826.06 |
| Mercury Mariner | SUV | 33 | 29 | 30.6 | $ 27,950.00 | $ 913.40 |
| Honda Accord | Car | 28 | 35 | 32.2 | $ 33,090.00 | $ 1,027.64 |
| Toyota Highlander | SUV | 32 | 27 | 29 | $ 36,550.00 | $ 1,260.34 |
| Lexus RX 400h | SUV | 33 | 28 | 30 | $ 42,580.00 | $ 1,419.33 |
| Lexus GS 450h | Car | 25 | 28 | 26.8 | $ 54,900.00 | $ 2,048.51 |
Not surprisingly, better mileage gives you better return. But it also becomes obvious why the Accord has suffered so in sales. When you start looking at how much you're paying for the hybrid, but without the benefit of the fuel economy.
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