Hybrids are a popular choice
By NORA SORENA CASEY Special to the Daily Press
CITYWIDE In a society powered by a consumer economy, gas prices seem to be driving drivers to different types of vehicles.
Across the city, car dealerships have noticed a steady increase in the percentage of hybrid cars being purchased. As gas prices continue to soar, the popularity of hybrids shows no signs of decreasing.
Roger Zamignani, the sales manager of Toyota Santa Monica, estimates that roughly 40 percent of all their car sales are hybrids. He said that those numbers are up at his lot from 10 to 15 percent just five years ago. Nationwide, Zamignani estimates that sales are more like 30 percent.
Toyota has proven to be the industry leader in hybrid technology. According to data collected by the online car review Edmunds.com the company makes up 74.3 percent of the hybrid market. Over 50 percent of all hybrid sales are of the popular Prius, with over 91,440 already sold this year.
“We don’t have enough to attend to everyone,” Zamignani said. “I’m pretty sure that if we had more hybrids, we’d be selling more.”
Thus far this year, hybrid sales make up just 2.468 percent of all car sales nationally, according to Edmunds.com figures. This number has steadily increased from.05 percent in 2000, and 2.15 percent in 2007.
Santa Monica Lexus General Sales Manager Alan MacLoughlin reported that hybrid sales have especially taken off these past few months, which he attributes in part to rising gas prices.
Jonathan Wahl, Edmunds.com spokesperson, said that the demand for the Toyota Prius and other hybrid cars is now so great that it has outstripped the supply. Toyota and other companies are selling fewer hybrids than the consumer market would allow because their battery manufacturers have not been able to keep up with the rate of sales.
“It looks like there’s been a pretty significant shift in the American psyche away from the large gas guzzling SUVs,” said Wahl.
Rising gas prices seem to have inspired a greater level of consumer awareness while purchasing cars.
“What’s been happening is that people are doing a little more homework before they pull the trigger,” MacLoughlin said, recalling that in earlier times people were much more likely to get excited by a car and just buy it.
Edmunds.com addresses this new concern with a new feature called the Gas- Guzzler Trade-in Calculator.
The calculator takes the vital statistics of the car being sold and the hybrid being purchased. From there it calculates the savings in gas costs, given the driver’s average mileage, to produce an estimate of how many months it would take for the consumer to begin saving money.
“It’s important to calm down, set aside our feelings and look closely at the dollars and cents,” Philip Reed, Senior Consumer Advice Editor on Edmunds.com, stated in a press release. “In some cases, people who make a panicked car-buying decision could sacrifice thousands of dollars of value just to save a hundred at the pump.”
While each consumer’s experience cannot be perfectly estimated by the calculator, it provides a general idea of the average costs. As a typical example, the calculator estimates that trading in a four-year-old standard GMC Yukon for a hybrid Toyota Prius would take two years and one month, driving 1,500 miles a month, before the investment saved money.
For those, like Michelle Salonga, who own a gas guzzling car, the switch to a hybrid may be beginning to look enticing. Salonga’s Audi Q7 costs $85 to fill the tank, and she’s getting fed up with it after only a year.
“I love luxury and my car is luxurious, but with the gas prices, forget it,” she said. “I’m ready to swap it for a Prius.”
Both Zamignani and MacLoughlin believe that there are other factors behind the boost in hybrid sales in Santa Monica.
“We are located in a place where people want to buy hybrids to be environmentally correct and politically correct,” Zamignani said.
Ruben Nava has loved fancy Italian sports cars since he was a boy, and currently owns a Porsche convertible, a Mercedes CLS 500 and a Jeep Wrangler.
“For the first time ever in my life I’m interested in not an exotic Italian car but in something more Earth friendly,” he said. Nava added that he was not motivated by the expensive gas prices, but guilt. He is currently looking into an electric car that is currently being developed.
“I think that will appeal to the sexy-macho [kind of people],” he said.“But it will also be cool with all the greenies that we can all hopefully become.”
MacLoughlin believes that all this will make surging hybrid sales more than just a current trend.
“I think people are going to get used to the fuel savings and I think they’re going to feel better for what they’re doing for the environment,” he said. “I think they are going to replace their hybrid with a hybrid.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 23, 2008. Read the original PDF.