[s-cars] S Car values

[Taka Mizutani]

Part of the reason why gas-electric hybrids are popular is simply due to the
refining mix that we get here in the States- we get much more gasoline out
of a barrel of oil than diesel. In Europe where it's the other way around
and diesel is not more costly than gasoline, you can see why there is a 50%
take rate on diesel vs. gasoline engined cars.

You can get plenty of nice diesel-engined cars these days that are
economical and refined.

The unnecessary complexity of a gas-electric hybrid means that for the
long-term, you're going to end up with one hell of a nightmare if you drive
a Prius a lot and really rack up the miles- I'll bet you're not going to see
too many 500k mile Prii on the roads. Stuff will break and good luck trying
to fix it.

My buddy who is a wholesaler bought a Prius that was out of warranty and
needed a new battery pack- it was over $4k to replace. I don't remember the
exact amount, but even with the price that he paid, he'll have a hard time
selling it once it is fixed- 100k+ mile Prius is a hard car to move.

Taka