Study Show Luxury Car Owners Are Twice As Likely To Downgrade To Hybrids

"The survey found, not surprisingly, that such consumers are willing to make the trade to make a statement about their commitment to the environment. Hybrids typically cost $6,000 or more than non-hybrid versions of the same models"

this is a statement of the obvious. it took research to figure out the luxury car buyers are less price sensitive?

Wassup with the Gas-Guzzler pic of the Lexus IS-F? It's far from a Hybid!

Oh...You are my side today?

Edmund's test, Observed Fuel Economy combined: 16.3mpg

Superior to what? A cruise boat?

RS4: 15.4mpg

Most associate 'superiority' with a noticeable increase. That difference is basically negligible. What a lame attempt on claiming the IS-F is somehow fuel efficient.

Well done, Captain Obvious.

wait til the diesels arrive ... all the hybrid talk with become a thing of the past.

Nahhh.. Then it will be diesel hybrids... what it should have been all along.

"If you own a Lexus, you more likely to swap or supplement it with a Prius or another hybrid than any other non-luxury car, per a new study."

you mean

"If you own a LUXURY CAR...

do you need to fix the title?

I know someone close who had an ES330 and switched over to the Accord Hybrid, which was of course, loaded with every option.

I doubt anyone who purchased their Prius in lieu of, or as a second vehicle to, a luxury car (myself being one) believes they have 'downgraded." How offensive. And I cant even blame 009 for that one.

Keyless ignition, backup camera, touchscreen audio/climate control. yeah, a real downgrade.

It has been stated many times that hybrid (esp Prius) buyers are not cross shopping Yarises or Corollas, but would otherwise be likely to purchase 3s, A4s and the like. That does not mean we feel like we have downgraded.

This is very true, my dentist, my lawyer, my doctor and even now even my business partner drive a Prius. None of them think they have downgrade from their MB's,Bimmers and Lexuses.

"None of them think they have downgrade from their MB's,Bimmers and Lexuses"

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL Ohhhh man. thats classic!

At least that's what they say, one fact I know is that these people have the money, have had top of the line cars and now they choose to drive a Prius. They would rather have their banking acoounts grow in this economy rather than go back to old habits. I would like you go see them and laugh at them. Mostly likely they'll laugh at you.

Looking forward to the BMW hybrids, In fact the lexus that I like the most is the suv 400h, 26 mpg city, versus 15 mpg city for the average SUV

I think the key word here is "downgrade"

yeah, if he checked in his diaper, he mite even find a (squashed) stool! LOL!
(he prob'ly didn't even pick up earlier, why i renamed him Stoolchecker. LMAO!)

when Stoolchecker can't FIND stools he's constantly CHECKING for, he pumps out a few in his diaper, just so he'd have STUFF TO THROW.

but if he's constipated, he substitutes his WORDS instead. as we have all noted since Stooly first appeared on this forum.

I would hope that you realize (unlike that unscrupulous little bastard Engels) that there are in fact two impetuses for higher-level order. There are primary motivations which occur on the level of the order, and there are systemic effects that result from individual entities within the system following a specific set of rules, which creates order on level higher than that of the impulse. Certain human beings have a tendency to ascribe all behaviors to the former.

This is perfectly evident in the fact that we ascribe a hierarchical structure to ants for example. We even call the primary aunt a "queen". There is higher level order in these colonies- for example piles of wood are created by different ants. In truth, no ants is telling any other aunt what to do. Each is ant is programmed with about 4 biological responses- one of which is the release of semiochemicals when they pick up a specific type of material (i.e.) wood chips, another is that they are to follow like chemical trails to the one they are releasing. These ants drop these pieces of wood in random locations, and when one aunt intersects another like chemical trail they follow it. What happens as time is iterated upon is that a pile of wood chips emerges. This is an emergent behavior. The man who discovered this won teh Nobel Prize for it, although I cannot remember which one. Engel's failure to fully understand this in his analysis of Manchester England is disturbing. Interestingly, this same pitfall is invariably used by those who argue, in a general philosophical sense, for the existence of god. I am not saying I am an atheist, I am just pointing it out.

"In truth, no ants is telling"

..no aunt is telling...

LOL. ant.

No way in hell would I downgrade my car to a Hybrid. The main problem that I have sen with hybrids is that once you load them up with all your stuff...the fuel economy ends up being worse than a regular petrol car. The damn things end up running on the petrol engine all the time just so it can carry the extra load. My friends prius gets about 15L/100km when the car is loaded.

false argument. and/or your friend does not know how to TRULY drive a Prius efficiently.

1) even when running on petrol, the Prius is still using less fuel because the engine is smaller than others in its size class.
2) extra weight can have MINIMAL effect on economy, with intelligent driving. the extra energy used to accelerate is also EXTRA KINETIC ENERGY recoverable by regenerative braking.

strange how I've recently seen four acquaintances trade their HYBRIDS in for BMWs..... they used to have BMWs & traded for the perceived benefit to the environment-- then they realized very quickly that how the car actually DRIVES was more important than image (not to mention the little-mentioned negative impact of battery mfr process for hybrids & other issues-- more energy goes into making a Prius than most any other car- check out that on google. it's true)

buy/drive what YOU want- not what you think everyone else will car about!

sure-- de-boost me for telling people to drive what they want to drive & not give into glorified peer pressure.

In a word, Bullshiza. Come on these luxury guys are not willing to forgo what they have bought into including vehicle & more importantly brand. That is why the luxury owner may be 'willing' to consider or think about it, but when it comes to actually pulling the trigger let's wait and see. It is the right thing to do to say that you will make this move, but then how come Lexus is having issues moving their luxo Hybrid crates? Why, because not every luxury owner wants to have the image of a Lexus (you know imagery formerly owned by Lincoln and Cadillac of the 60's). The reality is that luxury owners are unwilling to make sacrifices or trade-offs period and this is getting more pervasive in the market overall. IF (that's a huge IF) they were to take the Hybrid plunge they would want to ensure that they were not making any trade-offs and also not missing an opportunity to trade-up. Luxury owners MAY decide at some point to buy a Hybird, but I can assure you that the other bay(s) of their garage will be filled with vehicles that they WANT to drive and to be seen in. Bet on it.

I think we shouldn't be buying hybrids. Because were still depending on foreign fuel. We should be focusing on fuel cell cars or electric cars. Now thats the future

Yeah. Its here NOW. But we need to change. The automakers need to make more fuel cell/ electric cars and then have them go in gas stations