Eco-Friendlier Vehicles
06 Jul 2014
“They’re priced a little higher, but it’s worth it,” says Scott Thorne, a Longmont resident who has been driving his 2007 Ford Escape Hybrid daily for nearly eight years. “Our hybrid gets great gas mileage, and we also got a tax credit the year we bought it, so we started saving money right away.” A hybrid is a low-emissions vehicle (LEV) because it runs on a mix of gasoline and electricity. Though it has a standard gas tank like a conventional gas-powered car, it also has an electric motor with batteries that recharge as you drive. When more “oomph” is needed, like when accelerating or going up a hill, the gas-powered engine takes over. But if you’re driving at slower speeds—say, 35 miles per hour or less—the vehicle is powered solely by electricity and therefore uses less gas and sends fewer emissions into the atmosphere. Popular hybrid models include the Toyota Prius series, the Honda Civic Hybrid, the Ford Fusion Hybrid and the Infiniti Q50 Hybrid. David Hooson, who taught high-school shop for 20 years back East, is now the “resident hybrid specialist” at Larry H. Miller Toyota in Boulder, where hybrids make up around a third of the dealership’s sales. “After I bought a Prius in 2005 and fell in love with it, I decided I wanted to sell Priuses to help better the world. I don’t feel like a salesman, though; I think I’m just trying to be a good teacher, educating people about why these cars are better for their wallet and better for the Earth.” Boulder County is an ideal place for Hooson to do his “teaching,” with the Denver-metro area ranking second only behind San Francisco in most “green” cars on the road per capita. The Fischer family of Niwot likely skews Boulder County’s rating a little, because they currently have three residents in their house and three hybrids.“I drive a Prius, and I regularly get more than 50 miles per gallon,” Lynn Fischer says. “My daughter Shannon doesn’t like the Prius’ hatchback look, so she has a Prius-C, which she calls her ‘baby Prius.’ My husband, Fritz, has a hybrid, too—a Lexus CT200h. We’re the ‘hybrid family’ and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Elizabeth Frame, a salesperson at Frontier Honda in Longmont, appreciates the fact that Colorado buyers are so hybrid-savvy. “Most clients coming in to purchase a hybrid car are already well-educated and informed about the many advantages of owning one,” she explains. “I enjoy talking with them about the newest technologies and the environmental issues. As the Honda marketing message says, ‘We all benefit from vehicles that respect our planet.’”
If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is—but not in the case of hybrid cars. The pros greatly outweigh the cons: You’re helping the environment because your vehicle is spewing less harmful stuff into the air, and you’re saving gas money. (In fact, according to Hooson, hybrid sales naturally increase when the price of gas goes up.) While hybrid cars were once considered to be “gutless,” newer models generally have just as much pick-up as most conventional cars.
On the subject of cons, Thorne says he can think of only two, and they’re relatively minor: “I can’t add a towing package, and when the gas engine shuts off and the electric comes on, the engine is so quiet. I have to be careful so I don’t startle pedestrians.”
