The Prius hybrid from Toyota was ranked first by the Consumer Reports’ Best New Car Value rankings consecutively second time. Analysis conducted by Consumer Reports’ provided rankings to more than 200 cars on various parameters like costs, reliability and performance that analyzed this over a period of five years.  Over five years, the Toyota Prius costs  47 cents per mile to operate and own. Lower operating costs and depreciation for the Prius hybrid clearly balances off the premium price that one pays to buy this chic looking hybrid from the Japanese automaker.

The Prius delivers an overall mileage of 44 mpg and is regarded to be the best fuel mileage of a non-plug in vehicle that has been tested by Consumer Reports. Rik Paul, an editor of an automotive magazine commented that the Toyota Prius does not exactly fall in the low price category and is certainly not a cheaper car to buy but the depreciation of Prius is so strikingly low hat it costs considerably less to own this car over the first five ownership years that its introductory MSRP. In addition, indeed, the Prius hybrid is a value for money car in true sense.

The Prius hybrid has been a golden egg for the Japanese automobile manufacturer. Toyota has sold over 3 million Priuses across the world ever since it was first introduced nearly 15 years ago. From these 3 million sales, nearly 1.3 million Priuses sold in the United States itself. Thus, the Prius became the most successful and popular hybrid for sale in the United States. The retail price of Prius hybrid ranges from $21,000 to $27,000 and even higher. Sitting at the opposite end of the ownership cost spectrum is the Nissan Armada.  The per mile ownership and operation costs for the Nissan Armada come up to 1.20 dollars per mile.

The Armada is a huge SUV from Nissan and it delivers just about 13 mpg and also poorly scored in the annual reliability survey of the Consumer Reports’. To create the annual Best and Worst New-Car Values List, Consumer Reports digs in owner-cost data, reliability and performance for calculating the value score for over 200 cars that range from small ones like the Honda Fit and the Hyundai Accent to high-end luxury sedans like the BMQ 750Li and the Cadillac XTS.

There are several factors taken into consideration to determine the rankings provided by Consumer Reports’, which include CR’s own road tests, stability and reliability as claimed by the reader generated data from magazines, insurance premiums, fuel economy, score based on depreciation, sales tax, maintenance and servicing and repair expenses incurred over a period of five years and above. At the Consumer Reports survey, ten different car categories were used for ranking. In these, the Prius hybrid from Toyota emerged as a clear winner, scoring high in all the categories.

One thing that seemed odd in the Consumer Reports’ analysis was the category of Large/Luxury SUVs.  It is a general perception that a SUV can either be categorized as Large as Luxury, but combining these two categories seems to be an oddity.

Tagged: Toyota Prius