Regular civics have gray interiors for most of them, which is alot better than the ivory or blue interiors in my opinion, so that is one thing in their favor. And it has rack & pinion steering, which may or may not be better than pure electric steering, I don't know. But yeah, they're great cars as well and I hear they get 40+ mpg even at high speeds when cruising on the highway (and as low as 30 for city driving... EPA specs are quite accurate for that car).

 

You know what is really messed up is that you only get $2100 for the Civic Hybrid but you get more for the 4wd Highlander Hybrid.

I realize that it is because of the difference in mileage versus the base models but it does seem kind of silly. The credit should be based purely on the mpg. Penalizing someone in the tax credit arena for driving an HCH vs. a 4wd Highlander Hybrid is stupid.

 

Is that how they make those calculations?!? I was wondering. It seemed so random that I figured it was based on which manufacturer contributed the most to the lobbyist who wrote the bill. That is a really stupid way to do it. It essentially penalizes the manufacturer with the best overall MPG.

 

As I understood it, it's based on conversion cost from a regular gas only model of the car to the hybrid version of the the car, plus the gas use factor. So for example, it costs more to convert an auto Civic to hybrid auto than it does to convert a standard to a standard hybrid, and thus the tax break is different and less for the manual.

 

I guess that explains why the Prius gets the biggest credit, with the Insight being one of the cars that gets the second-biggest credit... both cars were designed from scratch as hybrids, but the Prius system uses more original components than the Insight.