This in response to Beth's post about the new fuel-efficient BMW 5-Series. With rising gas prices burning a hole in our pockets, fuel efficiency in our vehicles has become an eminent concern for all Americans. We have seen a series of Hybrid vehicles from household-names like Toyota (the Prius) and Honda (the new Accord/Civic), however luxury companies like BMW and Lexus seem to be taking up the trend as well. While this is definitely a positive change in the right direction, it still seems like a catch-22 situation, being that the MSRP on these Hybrid vehicles can be as much as $10,000 more than a standard car - the non-hybrid 2008 Lexus LS starts at $62,000, whereas the hybrid version starts at jaw-dropping $104,000. In the long-run I'm sure the benefits would outweigh the lofty price difference, however we are all familiar with the astoundingly fast rate at which a car's value depreciates - is it really worth it to invest the extra couple thousand dollars now? The new 5-series BMW gets 42 miles to the gallon because it runs on diesel fuel (as opposed to gasoline), which is more efficient in terms of performance, but also produces a significant amount of harmful soot particles. With all-due respect to tree-hugging liberals, I don't think these hybrid cars do much to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, unless you have an extra $10-20,000 lying around.
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