Hybrids Failing Miserably In Attracting Repeat Buyers With Two Thirds Refusing To Buy Another

Ditto- It been a bit over a year so it is about time for the wife to rotate cars again. I asked her if her RX400h would be replaced with another hybrid. Her answer was absolutely not.

After 12 months her avg is 22.6 MPG, the ML350 that it replaced was virtually the same.

Her thoughts behind the decision was with no financial or ecological gain in the process why spend the extra money.

However to be clear she is RARELY stuck in traffic during the week so the electric portion is rarely utilized. If we live were locked into heavy traffic all of the time then the story might be different but if you can maintain a reasonable velocity throughout your driving it really doesn't pan out.

In my area the average speed limit is 45 and over, well out of the Hybrid's effective range. Basically once you leave the neighborhood alley we are out of the Hybrid's key environment. Now if we were puttering around in stop and go traffic all of the time I have no doubt I would see a difference.

I call B.S also. If you and your wife actually wanted a hybrid, you would know the RX wasn't designed to be a hybrid from the ground up. It is a heavy vehicle and then batteries were added. You probably would of gotten worse without the hybrid (i.e RX350) So maybe your expectations were to high on this vehicle. But your wife shouldn't dismiss hybrid's because of the RX. I personally drive a MY10 Prius, my commute is L.A to Yorba Linda 7days a week. Highest avg is 56mpg. I'm not promoting Toyota or Prius, but it sounds like you should of done better research.

Very few vehicles are designed from the ground up as a hybrid. So I fail to see a blanket statement where a hybrid is superior.

The point is you can design a hybrid from the ground up and get excellent results, you can also design a gas miser non hybrid from the ground up and get great results. The problem is to maximize the potential of either, you need drive in a specific fashion and under specific conditions to realize that potential. Very few drivers do that and many times conditions warrant otherwise.

The real world around you might dictate different driving circumstances. In our case it is more of a mismatch in driving conditions and a driving style (more aggressive due to higher road speeds) that puts the hybrid at a disadvantage. Basically we are lugging around more weight when accelerating to 65 to 75 MPH all of the time. Once getting to that speed the Hybrid is again out of it's element.

Agent001 lives in Southern California and is stop and go all of the time. That is where the hybrid shines rather than in the suburban DFW area where it is wide open all of the time.

The problem is:
"The lineup of alternate-drive vehicles and their premium price points just aren't appealing enough to consumers to give the segment the momentum it once anticipated, especially given the growing strength of fuel economy among compact and midsize competitors," according to Lacey Plache, Edmunds.com chief economist. "For EVs and PHEVs in particular, certain obstacles -- including consumer unease with unfamiliar technology and the lack of an adequate recharging infrastructure -- will need to be overcome before sales increase."

If the everage life for a hummer was 300,000 miles, then the colorado/canyon which the H3 is based on, and the Tahoe/Suburban/Yukon/Escalade/Sierra/Silverado would have the same expectancy as the Hummers are built on these same chassis and drivetrains, only the bodis are different, and those are nothing more than a bunch of spare parts from different GM vehicles.

This story is like saying that two thirds of Tablet buyers won't buy another one if you don't include the Ipad.

Exactly... The Prius and the iPad are on the mark for their target groups, so they will have high loyalty, unlike the rest of the tablet market.

FYI: the RX400h

http://www.autospies.com/news/OH-SNAP-Agent009-Comes-Home-To-Find-His-Wife-Has-THIS-In-The-Garage-63215/

I'm impressed that on so many outlets, bloggers are realizing how bad this study is. Doesn't stop the hybrid haters like 009 from reposting it. But never with a critical eye. Leave it to the rest of us to point out its flaws: Ignoring the several high quarters of trade in retention (often over 40%); not telling what normal trade in rates are; treating the high retention Prius as the outlier, rather than the varied niche hybrid models; focusing on the recession/tsunami years for the data.

Good thing real buyers don;'t give a rat's a$$ about these so-called studies, and hybrid ownership continues to rise. Oh what's that? Did I say more people are buying hybrids? I'm sure 009 insisted on several occasion in the past (post-tsunami) year, that hybrids were on the decline. Guess you were wrong about that one, huh.

"The market demand for hybrids and plug-in cars exceeded all months prior"
http://www.hybridcars.com/news/march-2012-dashboard-44059.html

The problem in general is not the Prius. The problem in general is those converted from existing platform to hybrids are not the most effective.
And yes the sales do not lie, Hybrid sales in general have been in decline. Only the recent spike in gas costs have reversed this trend.

NOW with that said, if the prices continue to drop will the hybrid owners be so satisfied the buy another hybrid? Only time will tell.

"And yes the sales do not lie, Hybrid sales in general have been in decline. Only the recent spike in gas costs have reversed this trend."
The reason this statement is wrong is because you are taking a small period of time and extrapolating a result. Check this out, it works both ways.... Hybrid sales are in a stratospheric climb. It's true. If you look at the last 2 months. What you are doing (and what I just did) is looking at a time when we a) were in a recession (accompanied by a dramatic temporary reduction in gas prices), and b) just as we exited the recession, a tsunami fairly wiped out Toyota's hybrid capacity. So hybrids temporarily declined. But there is nothing over that time period that indicated a trend, as we are now witnessing their resurgence to levels not even seen prior to these dissaters.

It doesn't matter if you or I am right. What matters is taking such limited data and trying to call it research, then using the "research" to make a conclusion. Something you do often. And something that Polk just did.

maybe the repeat for hybrids isnt high because they are moving towards EVs

A poster on another site (TTAC) did some research that showed average loyalty rates. The best in class rates are (not surprisingly) often by the Prius. Other segments lead with around 30% loyalty rates being as high as it goes. So basically hybrid loyalty rates are right there with everything else, and Prius leads the pack.

I propose a new headline.

Hybrids attract repeat buyers just the same as any other car.

Boring huh. But true.