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.

I decided it was time to go with a hybrid that was easy on gas and I also felt good about driving. Until recently there has been a hole in the market for hybrid min-vans here in America. They have been available for some time in European and Japanese markets, but now this year there are some available. I narrowed down my choices to these vans. The Toyota sienna hybrid which is similar to the Toyota Estima Hybrid Minivan released in japan it has a 2.4 four cylinder that seems pretty peppy.

It also has a optional 4 wheel drive which is called E-four by Toyota and is automatically engaged when it senses slipping. I like the 4 wheel drive because the winters are icy where I live. To top it all off this van is reported to get around 40 MPG!! This is a very tempting car. The next hybrid van I looked at is the Honda Freed minivan. It is being released in may this year so I haven’t had the chance to actually drive it , but I’m very excited about it as I think Honda is a great company and there products are all ways of good quality. The Freed minivan is really cool looking I can just imagine my family in it. It is like one step closer to the future, it looks like a Jetsons car on wheels.

It will probably have a 1.5 liter engine that will put out 118- horses. That seems low , but when it is hooked up to the continuously variable transmission it should get you up the biggest hills no problem. Unfortunately right now in the U.S. there are not many options when looking for a hybrid van , but it seems that we will be getting some options soon. I think all of us can look forward to lower gas usage and the good feeling that we are part of the wave of environmentally friendly families across the land by switching over to hybrid vehicles.