Study: Resale of hybrids will pretty much suck

ridiculous article, borne out by no numerical evidence. In fact the only numbers provided seem to indicate that hybrids WILL hold their value, contradicting the point of the story. More hybrid bashing, just another day on the blogs.

One would think Automotive Lease Guide would be the one that may best describe the actual residuals of any car.

After all their job is to track it. In this part of the country (SW USA) Hybrid resales are no different than their gasoline counterparts.

So while owning a hybrid may make a green statement. There is significant loss financially by doing so. You lose on initial price that can never be recouped, and no boon in resale. A double loss.

No "boon in resale" in not a loss. It's parity.

Supposedly the Lexus RX400h is one of the best resale vehicles. It has one of the five highest residual values... Yeah, i'm not feeling this article much... This looks more like Amercan Vehicle Manufacturers propaganda... Another excuse to promoted antiquated engineering...

The fear is that the cost to replace batteries will be exorbitant.

and, in fact, it will!

DaHarder that is a myth. Batteries have not failed yet, and they are generally predicted to last the life of the vehicle. It's been 10 years, it's time to shatter this myth.

You could say the same for those infamous control arms that would go every 30k miles on the old A4's and Passats, not to mention the unreliable turbo. Repairs for those were in the thousands, and (although they do not hold their value as well as the other Germans) Audi's hold their value just fine.

Some cars blow head gaskets after 10 years (see: Land Rover Discover).

The market just needs to 'adjust' to the idea of an 'old' hybrid...they dont really exist yet, so everyone's scared of them.

Right now Honda (the oldest Hybrid in the US) has not seen any rise in battery replacements. So they do seem at first glance to be providing the service life intended.

But after 10+ years of use a replacement battery may indeed exceed the cost of the vehicle so many of these cars may be junked a in a few more years.

The actual battery life may be longer than expected but there is a point the car will need one.

Has the battery technology changed? As in, a 10+ year old battery, which may less advanced and cheaper to manufacture than one in a brand new hybrid?

But what about the overall complexity of the vehicle. Surely that's gonna weigh on the consumer's mind when they're looking to buy a used hybrid. If people are skeptical used hybrids inevitably the market value will drop.

Agreed, I've often entertained the idea of buying my best bud's Honda Insight, as he seldom drives it anymore, and it looks like new.

ricemaster, you once again amaze us with your lack of knowledge of automotive engineering ... and your political bias shows in every poorly-worded sentence you type.

But omarrana isn't exactly presenting a balanced story either. Toyota wouldn't have warrantied their batteries for 8 years if there was any risk of them not being durable enough to last that length of time. I would expect that any used hybrid buyer would be intelligent enough to have a reputable mechanic -- that is, electronics technician -- thoroughly evaluate the vehicle before purchasing it. Downgrading a vehicle on perceived potential problems is nothing new, though. One can find many excellent bargains in the used vehicle market of all flavors. Hybrids are really no different than any other complex electromechanical machine -- except that people politicise cars to the point of absurdity.

An average gasoline hybrid has to pull 200 to 400 lbs more due to added infrastructure than a comparable gasoline only vehicle. I'd seriously doubt they last any longer.

Resale value has many factors mileage,service history and wreck history and just how well the previous owner took care of the vehicle.Hybrid batteries are designed to last the life of the vehicle 15yrs or so.The price of those batteries will continue to go down as more hybrids are built and sold just like the initial price of hybrids will go down.The reason they last longer than normal batterie is they never let them get fully discharged,when they reach a certain level the gas motor kicks in to recharge them.