Hello Scotty and community,
I am currently doing my research into buying my first new car. I plan to save up my money until I graduate college (not until 2024) to buy a new hybrid car. obviously I know that cars can change a lot in 3 years but I wanted some opinions. I was stuck between the following three: Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Limited, Toyota RAV4 Hybrid XSE or Toyota Venza Hybrid Limited. Also, would it be better to finance or lease it since hybrid batteries don't last as long as the engines. I am still uncertain how long I will keep the car for which is why I don't know yet if I will lease. Thank you!
Keep in mind hybrids cost more to keep on the roads as they age beyong 10 years/150k miles. If you plan to keep it for that length of time or more, I would drop the idea of a hybrid altogether.
If you had to buy one, forget about the Hyundai, and pick between the RAV4 and Venza whichever one you like more.
The only hybrid that I believe is worth the money is a prius....the up front cost of the other and then battery longevity can't come close to a prius....check out all the prius...taxi cabs in new york city....prius gets such good mileage and base cost is under 26k...the traction battery is good for over 250k in majority of them.
Toyota has the best hybrid system. Hyundais have had a lot of problems in recent years so it is probably best to avoid that.
Although Toyota hybrids are very reliable all hybrids are expensive to keep going when they get old (like 10+ years).
I would only buy a Toyota hybrid system. They are the best by a mile. I ran the numbers myself from a strictly monetary point of view when I bought my new car this year and for an SUV like a RAV4 the pay off is a long way off from gas saving. Also I did a deep dive and found my insurance would also go up by a nice bit and increase the pay off time. It would take 10 years with my driving habits and 3.50 per gallon to pay off the difference with my new RAV4. If anything big breaks on the hybrid it would never make sense. I stuck with the standard Gas and they have decent mpg as is.
