>>>Curious. How do you figure that?
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>>The increased purchase price of the car over similarly sized all-gas models outweighs the decreased gasoline costs.
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>Not sure about that. The prices are coming down. The cars will be more plentiful (more supply, lower price), and hopefully less ugly (as you mentioned in this thread).
>
>I have not read studies on this. It depends on how long would you have the car, how much do you drive, original car costs (on the decline), gasoline costs (on the rise), insurance costs in either case and maintennance costs, which I have no idea if they would be lower or higher for a similar model.
>
>If I was in the market today, I would seriously consider a hybrid or anything approaching 50mpg or better.

For the total cost, you are better off to buy a cheaper car like a Yaris that has 40mpg.