Getting your Hybrid Feet Wet – Helpful Hints when Buying One Used

Hybrid cars are all the rage on the current market. Dealers are having trouble keeping them on their lots as consumers buy them out from underneath them. Boasting a very high rate of demand, naturally, the supply is going to be limited. A limited supply drives the prices up. If you're thinking about buying a used hybrid, make sure you carefully research pricing before you get into any deals. Hybrid cars are selling second-hand at much higher prices than traditional vehicles.

This price increase is not only a function of the initial price being higher. Hybrid cars do, indeed, cost more right from the start. However, that is not the only reason for which hybrids are reselling at higher prices. The real reason is that hybrids are depreciating less than traditional models. For example, a $15,000 traditional car that goes up for sale, used, at $9,000 is what you are used to. A $15,000 hybrid car might go up for resale (after the same amount of time as the traditional car) at $12,000. This is a significant difference in resale value for cars that started out with identical sticker values. One reason for this is the supply and demand scenario mentioned above. If used hybrids can be sold at a certain price, they will be sold at that price; there is no need to lower the price and make the depreciation rate similar to traditional vehicles.

Another reason is that hybrids are coming with long warranties, such that owners don't have to be thinking about all of the money they're going to have to 'put into' their car. Buying a used car that still has 6 years under warranty left is a very attractive prospect. Almost everyone is willing to put up the money up front to have that guarantee that repairs will be paid for by the company. When we're talking about an object as mechanical and as expensive to repair as a car, having a 100,000-mile warranty is a wonderful thing.

Another reason is that the most typical hybrids out there (Toyota and Honda) are known to be 'good cars' in the first place. Both automakers have an extremely good performance record and a great reputation to live up to. Even non-hybrid Toyotas and Hondas are known to be built to last; add in hybrid technology and once long-running cars will run even longer. When you're in the market for a used vehicle, it's only natural that you'd put up more money for a vehicle that's going to be with you for 8 years than for one that's going to serve you for only 4 years.

Automakers claim that all hybrids will run longer than their non-hybrid counterparts, so we shouldn't make this decision based solely on the reputation of the automaker. A Ford hybrid SUV should run longer than a Ford SUV, regardless of Ford's track record as a whole.

Another important consideration when in the market for a used hybrid is how many years old you are willing to go. If you're looking at a model that's 1.5 years old and selling for $4,000 less than brand new, you should consider going for the brand new version. About half of the four grand will come back to you immediately in most states as a tax credit for having bought a hybrid. (There is, obviously, no tax credit or deduction for used hybrid purchases.) If you buy the new model you'll be able to resell it for that much more than you'd be able to resell the older model for. In the market for traditional cars, buying one that's 1.5 years old can be an exceptional deal; in the hybrid world, 1.5 years old is not going to benefit you either in the short term or in the long term.

There is not a huge hybrid resale market yet because hybrids have only been around for 6 years and are mostly still under warranty. As these warranties come to an end, perhaps we will see a rapid increase in second-hand hybrid sales as folks play the gambling game that we all play with our past-warranty vehicles. The market for second-hand hybrids has not yet established itself and developed a trend that we can put our full trust in. For the time being, the trend is steady, but the market is not yet large enough for us to be sure that this is a trend that will continue into the future.