Buying a Used Car Better than Buying a New Hybrid

A recent Wired blog “Go Green — Buy a Used Car. It’s Better Than a Hybrid” pointed out something interesting — that buying a fuel efficient used car reduces the carbon footprint more so than buying a new hybrid. The article indicates that making a new Toyota Prius takes an amount of energy that is equivalent to 1000 gallons of gasoline — which means the Toyota Prius has to be driven 46,000 miles to make up for the energy used in producing it. Some of the fuel efficient used cars the blog mentions worth a look include:

1998 Toyota Tercel gets about 27 mpg city / 35 mpg highway miles

1994 Geo Metro XFi, matches the Prius’ 46 mpg

Ford Festiva can deliver 33 mpg

Ford Aspire can get about 33 mpg

Mid-’90s Mazda Proteges about 30 mpg

Early 90’s Dodge Colts

Honda CRX HF models can get in the range of 39 to 45 mpg

Toyota Echo – 30 mpg or better

Honda Civic – 30 mpg or better

Chevrolet Prizm and Mini Cooper

Related posts:

1. Used Hybrid Car Prices Down What were you doing last summer when gas prices skyrocketed over four bucks a gallon? Did you walk more? Take the bus? Carpool? Did you ditch that big Hummer or Suburban in...
2. Consumer Reports Analysis: Some Hybrid Cars Can Save Owners Thousands of Dollars Over Five Years Toyota Prius and hybrid versions of Chevrolet Malibu, Chevrolet Tahoe, Ford Escape, Saturn Vue, and Toyota Camry pay back price premium after one year YONKERS, N.Y., Sept. 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — With gas...
3. More Tips for Buying a Used Car The Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Connecticut Offers the following tips for Buying a Used Car: As Americans watch gasoline prices rise, consumers are moving away from their luxury cars and large...
4. Top 3 Best Hybrid SUVs With automakers adding more hybrids to the lineup in 2010, consumers looking to go green have plenty of choices. What it comes down to depends on your needs for passenger seating,...
5. Top 10 Reasons to Buy a Used Car vs a New Car This blog is written by the team at iSeeCars.com, a Google-like search engine for used cars for sale posted on sites like Craigslist, eBay, and many other car classifieds websites.  The mission of iSeeCars.com...

Tags: hybrid, used cars, used chevrolet prizm, used dodge colt, used for aspire, used ford festiva, used geo metro, used honda civic, used honda crx hf, used mazda protege, used mini cooper, used toyota tercel

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at and is filed under Tips on Buying a Used Car, Tips on Hybrid / Fuel Efficient Cars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.