Growing up, William A. Russell III remembers the vehicles of his youth: stocky muscle cars, leggy sedans, enormous convertibles with scads of room and plenty of power.
He drives a conventional sport utility vehicle today, in an age when an increasing share of Americans are switching to fuel-efficient, energy-conserving compacts and hybrids.
But it was more a question of finances than love of big domestic wheels that compelled Russell, a certified public accountant in Charleston, to run the numbers on a question that had always puzzled him: "does going green save you green?".
Russell said he suspected that hybrids, with sizable upfront expenses, are not as cost-effective as some proponents suggest. But he said he didn't know for sure how the figures would play out when he computed the price to purchase a new hybrid while trading in a used, but hardly used up, sport-utility.
"How much of a loss do you take financially?" he posed. "Are people stopping to think? Do the math."
Here's the bottom line. "It would take 26 months of owning a new hybrid car to save enough money to break even versus keeping the 'gas guzzler'," Russell said.
The principal with Jarrard, Nowell & Russell LLC in late October crunched numbers on a hypothetical case for The Post and Courier.
The example: Purchase a new 2009 Honda Civic hybrid, which would be eligible for a tax credit of up to $4,000 as a energy-saving vehicle. At the same time, trade in a 2005 Yukon, a large sport-utility made by GMC and its sister Chevrolet. Assumptions are that the owner would drive 15,000 miles a year, and that gas prices are $2.50 a gallon, which has fallen recently but had been the average up to a month or so ago.
In his computations, Russell set the Yukon purchase date at Oct. 1, 2004.
The vehicle, based on figures on automotive.com, gets 15 miles per gallon. The Yukon trade-in value is $10,500, according to the kbb.com subsidiary of market price expert Kelley Blue Book. Based on autobuyguide.com, the original purchase price of a 2005 model Yukon was $41,165. Russell, in the example, assumes the buyer financed over 84 months (seven years), a not uncommon practice, at 7 percent interest. The loan payoff would be $20,121.
Since the trade-in is less than the payoff, the buyer -- in car parlance -- is "upside down," owing more than the car is worth.
The new Civic hybrid, priced at $16,050 to $25,090, garners 40 miles per gallon, according to another research Web site, automotive.com. Russell figured that the fuel savings a year based on the $2.50 as gallon price would be $562.50. Including the tax credit, the savings are sizable the first year at $6,640.65. But it would take until the third year of ownership for the total savings to outweigh the original debt.
"If it makes you feel good" to buy a hybrid, then do so, Russell said. But think twice if it's simply to save money on the fuel-slurping sport utility. The calculations, he said, "are really to help people make a decision." For more information, visit the firm's Web site at www.jnrcpas.com...
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