The Toyota Prius - why I won’t buy one

Filed Under Finance

I know that the title of this post sounds bad - after all we should all do our bit for the environment and I do care about my own carbon footprint.

There are many environmental benefits to hybrid cars, and we published an article about some of the ways in which the Toyota Prius can reduce motoring costs on MoneyHighStreet.com today. So please don’t think that I’m aganst green cars and all that they can do for our environment. I’m not - far from it.

However even though I am looking to replace our car at the moment, I have decided against the Prius for these reasons:

The cost (monetary) of the hybrid technology creates a car that is over-priced against similar cars. As the Toyota Prius costs just over £20,000 for the top of the range model, you can get a similarly sized and specified Ford, Peugeot, Citroen or Vauxhall for around £18,000. So you are paying approximately £2000 for the hybrid technology.

I wonder about the cost (environmental) of the additional electrical motor and electronics that are needed for the hybrid technology. The overall environmental impact of the materials required must be greater for a hybrid car than one with a conventional motor.

The last point is that I think it is better to wait until the next generation of diesel engines are available. The Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion, which is currently available, has CO2 emmissions of 104 g/Km, which are the same as the Prius. Very soon we will see more manufacturers releasing cars with CO2 emissions below 100 g/Km.

So there is a price to pay for being an early adopter of the hybrid cars and it’s one that at this point in time I don’t want to pay. I will buy a diesel car for the environmental and cost benefits that brings, but even though I think the Prius is extremely impressive, and leads the way for the future.

If I lived in London and could save the £8 a day congestion charge, it would be a different matter, but for now, the Toyota Prius is not for me.