The 2008 Nissan Altima Hybrid Payoff
The debate as to whether a Hybrid vehicle is worth the cost over time has gone on for years. At the very least, I’d hope that, over the entire life of a vehicle, I’m going to save money if I buy a hybrid as opposed to buying another vehicle.
In the case of one of the best-selling Nissan cars, the Nissan Altima, that payoff only takes about 3 years. This, of course, assumes that the tax credit you get for buying a hybrid applies. The federal government only gives tax rebates on the first 60,000 hybrids a manufacturer sells, though, so if you’re coming late to the dance you won’t get it. The good news is that Nissan still has some available, whereas Toyota and Honda do not.
Without the tax credit, it takes more like ten years for the extra cost of the hybrid to pay off. In some states, however, this is mitigated by a reduced or eliminated sales tax on hybrid vehicles. The other thing that will affect the payoff is gas prices. The higher the price of gas, the more value I get at the pump.
Certainly I’m not suggesting that a hybrid vehicle isn’t worth buying based on the time it takes for a payoff; helping the environment is motivation enough for some folks. It’s just nice to know that you can do it without having to pay a ton of extra money to do so.
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