Highlander Journey's End
The Highlander Hybrid is cool, that's for sure, but does it make financial sense?Let's crunch some numbers. Toyota had not yet released pricing for conventional 2006 Highlanders at the time of writing, but compared to the 2005s the hybrids cost an additional $7,000 or so.
Sticking with the EPA city figures (31 MPG for the hybrid, 18 MPG for the conventional all-wheel-drive V6), with gas at $2.50 per gallon, that's about 8.1 cents per mile to fuel the hybrid vs. 13.8 cents for the conventional V6. You’d have to drive nearly 123,000 miles to break even -- and that's a best-case scenario (I never did hit 31 MPG in the city). At the EPA highway figures (27 for the hybrid, 24 for the V6), the difference in fuel cost drops to a little more than a penny a gallon, or well over half a million miles of driving. (Granted, Toyotas do last a long time…) Toyota is quick to point out that hybrid Highlanders get an additional $2,300 of standard equipment, but you still have to drive a lot to make up the costs.
The hybrid's biggest advantage is the drop in pollution. Sure, hybrids still consume gasoline, which is a non-renewable resource. There are superior technologies (natural gas pollutes less, and diesels can burn biodiesel, which is made from vegetable oil).
But they do consume less gasoline than other SUVs. Less gasoline burned means less pollution and cleaner air -- and you just can't put a price on that.
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