There are Hybrid cars and SUV’s. Ford Escape Hybrid is a nicely compact SUV, that has quite a big interior. The Chevy Malibu Hybrid is a nice sized sedan that is becoming quite popular. Honda Accord Hybrid’s and Toyota Camry Hybrid’s are very popular too. Once you decide what make and model of used hybrid you might be interested, do your homework, go onto Kelley Blue Book or Edmunds websites to see the value and ratings for the vehicle or vehicle’s you are interested in. Also find out about fuel efficiency, battery life, replacement battery cost and customer reviews.

There are a few key things you really need to find out when looking at a car in person. First you need to do a visual inspection look for signs of excessive wear or damage, both inside and out. Secondly you need to know the mileage. Determine if the amount of miles is high or low depending on the model year of the vehicle. If a Hybrid car or any car for that matter, has a terribly high amount of miles and is fairly new, walk away.

There are plenty of Hybrid vans and cars on the market now, that have lower more acceptable miles. Don’t be pushed into buying a vehicle that you haven’t thoroughly checked over. You must to find out if the car is still under warranty and if so, if it’s a transferable warranty. Find out if the warranty covers anything pertaining to the battery pack. This is where people often end up losing money. Battery packs are extremely expensive.

Once you think you have found the car you want, have an independent mechanic do an inspection on the vehicle. It is important to know the condition of the transmission, the brakes, the tires, the entire running gear, among other critical information. If the car checks out with the mechanic, this is where that previous homework is valuable. With the information obtained by learning about the value of the car you are interested in from Kelley Blue Book or Edmunds, you are armed with knowledge so that you can get the best deal available.

One thing car dealerships and sales people don’t like is to have a customer know more about the vehicle than they do. You can haggle the price, don’t take the first offer they give you. All of these same rules apply when you are buying a used Hybrid from a private party, also.

Here a some facts for you to look at in regards to the battery pack of new and used hybrid cars.

Let’s start off with the issue of the battery needing to be replaced. The battery packs of these cars do not need to be replaced. As a matter of fact the batteries are covered under the warranty for a time period that last between eight to ten years. If you want to know how long that is in mileage, the life span is 150,000 to 200,000 miles, but is expected to last longer than that.

Environmentalist have been making sure that the materials used in the batteries won’t harm the planet, so the vehicles use NiMH batteries. The NiMH batteries are fully recyclable, unlike the rechargeable nickel cadmium batteries.

The batteries of the hybrid cars have hundreds of cells. which usually means that there is a lot of complexity going on under the hood. Don’t worry, the warranty covers the battery, so there’s little to really worry about.

Research has shown that there have been a very low failure rate on the battery pack of these hybrids. Toyota has reported that some of the original Prius models have gone over 300,000 miles.

For those of you who watch the news reports that these batteries cost nearly $9,000 and say that it’s not worth the investment, I’m here to say that these batteries are built to last. If by the off chance the battery does fail, again it’s covered under the cars warranty. The Department of Energy looked into hybrid vehicles, but stopped its test when the capacity was “just like new” after 160,000 miles.

As time goes on and the technology evolves, the next generation of hybrid batteries will have more power, last longer and cost a whole lot less.

So when you start looking to buy eco friendly cars, take comfort to know that the batteries aren’t really an issue.

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