Is it a good idea to invest the extra money in a new hybrid vehicle?

I read an article a few days ago - I don't remember if it was online or in print - about the costs of purchasing a new hybrid vehicle instead of a non-hybrid. What I don't think I have seen anywhere is a discussion of the availability of gasoline and its effects on any vehicle that we need to drive.

What if there WAS no gasoline available? What if it was rationed again, like during WWII or the early 1970s? How do we know that won't happen again? Nothing is certain in this world, right?

If that happened, it is hard to believe that we the American public would pull together and find an alternative source of fuel - it didn't happen in 1973. A lot of us did start buying smaller cars, but that habit didn't necessarily last for all of us. I was in college then and did not own a car, but I'm guessing that a lot of people were upset then, too, because no one wanted to buy their huge V8 American cars from them so they could afford a small new import.

So my point is that, while it definitely costs more to buy a hybrid vehicle, and it will take a while to recoup the extra price by offsetting fuel costs... if gas becomes hard to get, that family will be able to drive 450 miles a month if they can only get 10 gallons of gas a month. No matter how much gas costs, if you can't get it, you can't go anywhere.

My husband's truck, the 1994 GMC pickup with 160,000 miles, might get 12 miles per gallon going downhill in neutral, with the wind behind it. So, if he can only get 10 gallons of gas a month, he won't be going much of anywhere. In fact, that truck will be parked or even scrapped, because it just won't be worth insuring it, maintaining it and keeping tires on it. (Even parked, the tires will rot after a while.)

My own 2007 Honda Civic LX Sedan gets about 30 mpg, less than I would like - but I think that's because I do very little highway driving anymore. I leased it on July 7 th last year and it has almost 6200 miles on it today.

Speaking of leasing, one of my customers pointed out to me today that another really good reason to lease your next vehicle is that if technology changes (as it is sure to do!) you can still turn the vehicle in at the end of the lease, per your contract, so you are not stuck trying to sell or trade in a vehicle that has become unpopular (this is the situation that many V8 truck and SUV owners are in today, just like in 1973 - they want and need a smaller, more fuel-efficient car, but their finance contract locks them into payments on the older vehicle and they have too much negative equity to make the change; they are forced to keep driving the gas-guzzler.)

I used to discourage my customers from buying hybrid, because of the extra cost - but I've changed my mind because of what is going on in the world market with gasoline. Also keep in mind that the Federal and State governments could do away with the hybrid tax credits in the future - so take advantage of them now! Also - the price of hybrids is going up! There are not enough of them to go around, and at my Honda store there has been a huge surge in demand over the last two weeks. So the big discounts are disappearing very quickly ... along with any factory incentives that might still be out there. Again, the law of supply and demand ...