Well the long and the short of it is that it depends on the sort of driving you do. If you are doing no more than 10,000 miles a year and intend on keeping your hybrid cars for an average of five years then it is unlikely that you would accrue enough savings at the fuel pump to off set the original higher cost of owning a hybrid car.

If however you are a higher mileage driver covering 30-50 000 miles a year then the fuel efficiency factor turns it into a whole different ball game.

If you regularly cover these sorts of mileages and are not too heavy with the gas then you could rack up substantial savings with a hybrid car. Under these circumstances the economics make much more sense and real savings can be made especially if the car is kept for a long for several years.

The saving grace for the hybrid car as far as costs are the federal tax breaks that are now being applied, and these may help to push you towards a decision that hybrid car can indeed be a viable cost effective alternative to conventional motoring.

Although cost is not always the main reason behind the decision to buy a hybrid car it is still worth taking a little while to consider the cost advantages or otherwise. The cost of motoring is a substantial part of the equation in any household budget and not one that can readily be ignored. But if the type of motoring you do fits then there are considerable advantages over a traditionally powered car.

With the price hikes at the gas pump set to continue this may be a much easier and much more straightforward calculation to make in the future.