I have a 07 Prius touring with 48k on it. The car has new tires, front brakes, battery, door handle and a outside mirror was just replaced. I can trade it even for a new 2012 a Malibu 4cly Lt with the all star package. I know the gas mileage will not be as good but I am thinking that in three years from now when the warranty is up on the Malibu that the Malibu will be worth more $ than a 8yr old prius with 80k on it. Thoughts?
Based on cars of the same relative age (2009 Malibu vs 2004 Prius) the Malibu "will be" worth $2K more than the Prius. However it will cost about $950/ year more for fuel, for a loss of $850.
Hey, before I bought my Prius, I thought about a Subaru Outback and WRX, Hyundai Sonata, Elantra, Accent, and Veloster, Mazda 2, and 3, Ford Focus, Fusion Hybrid, Fiat Abarth, Subayota FRS/BRZ, Honda Fit, Insight, and CRZ, and I considered keeping my old car. Nothing wrong with research.
Eh? The '13 Malibu Eco (eAssist aka 2nd gen BAS mild hybrid system) is out now, ahead of the non-eAssist versions. When you say new, are you just talking about the latter or something else?
Maybe the 2013 Malibu is ALL NEW, but GM is same old company, and I don't expect anything great from this kind of company at all. I remember reading a book years ago when I was learning the Kaizen, the continuous improvement practice Toyota created. In that book, a Toyota executive talked about his trip 25 years ago to Detroit. When he visited this time, he saw most of the equipment still there, unchanged. He said it is unbelievable that nothing changed during those 25 years in Big Three. Toyota will be dead long time ago if they don't keep innovating. From that time, I understand why Toyota cars are superior on all aspects, not just reliability.
^^^ Well, they have changed in the last 25 years. If you have sometime, listen to . It's really best to listen to it instead of reading the transcript. I've listened to this story a couple times already. Great story on NUMMI on NPR's This American Life | PriusChat was a thread on it.
