Super helpful, thanks for sharing that thread

Yeah, got it. I’m just trying to understand where to look for used cars! Am not able to find a starting place! Any ideas on that?

Thanks Kaizen. And by extension, I guess that applies to Lexus as well?
What age and mileage would you consider a sweet spot then? There’s folks (in this thread as well other folks) that say hybrid high mileage isn’t good news. In your experience then how would you go about it? If buying used car, would you consider hybrid or just stick to good old gas?

Yes, I would say it applies to Lexus. It is basically the same technology under the hood.

The way I think about hybrid cars and regular cars, is not necessarily total mileage, but mileage per year. Freeway miles are usually better for an engine than city mileage. And more mileage per year is usually indicative of freeway mileage. (Not always the case, could be an Uber driver in the city.) by the same token hybrids run more efficiently in the city, so that is a plus.

My Prius averaged 17K per year, with its younger days at 20K per year. The car you are looking at seems to be around 10K-12K per year, which means the car is moving.

5K per year is too low for a hybrid, imho. Just from reading the forums, it seems like this average needs a battery change before 200K miles.

In terms of buying hybrid or gas, I would do the math on the price difference and the expected gas costs for the number of miles I expect to drive the car. I actually like the hybrid experience, so if it is about even, I’d go hybrid. If the numbers show Hybrid, definitely hybrid. But if the numbers show gas to be more cost effective, I’d go gas.

Here is an example spreadsheet I made for the RAV4 Hybrid vs RAV4.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-bVho8e_wwS-9oU_et-SPaqGYyqXH0ZTX7-euJiKRCk/edit

Gotcha! This is such a cool spreadsheet, thanks for sharing! A cpl ques:

What is breakeven mileage? I first thought it’s the miles at which the car becomes free, but looks like it’s more intricate than that. And on 100% highway, I imagined cost per mile should decrease, but it increases. Do you mind helping me unpack it a bit, Bec it looks like a great calculator to use for new abs used cars alike!

I love spreadsheets

Totally. The break even mileage is the the amount of mileage you would need to drive the cars order to have spent the same amount on the sale price of car + gas driving the car.

For example, in the spreadsheet, look under 50% city / 50% freeway.

At the MSRP sale price of the car, you would need to drive the hybrid car at least 99,151 miles to make buying the hybrid worth the extra expense of a hybrid. Otherwise it is cheaper to get the non hybrid.

Several assumptions are made, like the price of gas. If the price of gas goes up, the breakeven mileage will go down. If the price of gas goes down, the break even mileage will go up.

As for the 100% city…100% highway. Since we get different MPG driving in the city than driving in the highway, I made 5 different scenarios to give me a good idea of where the break even mileage would be, with the given MPG. The 100% freeway cost per mile increases because hybrids actually get better gas mileage in the city. The freeway mpg is almost the same for hybrid and non hybrid RAV4, with a slight edge to the hybrid.

If it is confusing, just focus on the 5-0/50 scenario, as it is a general average. The 100% freeway and 100% city is more of a mental exercise, as no one really drives 100% either. It’s usually a mix.