'07 Yukon or wait for '08 Yukon Hybrid

[ukonmac]

Hello everyone,

 

First off I wanted to introduce myself to the boards. I've been viewing posts here for months, but never posted anything myself.

 

I had a question I wanted to throw out to everyone to get your thoughts. I am considering the purchase of an 07 Yukon. I've been waiting a long time (as I am sure everyone else has) for one of these babies. I was doing some searching on the GM media site and found a presenation that talked about the Yukon Hybrid units for the 2008 model year. Natrually, thinking Hybrid SUV, why not wait for that because of the potential savings in fuel economy. I don't know, thinking back to the Sierra hybrid unit, I can say that wasn't really all that impressive. So what about these Yukon hybrids. Do we know anything about them? Does one take their chances on a 07 model now and hope the hybrid is not all that much better? I know we are dealing with Moore's Law in a sense, but I thought I would see what others thought.

 

The '07 Yukon has my vote. What a sleek looking unit.

 

Cheers,

Mac

[Trouttrooper]

I'd be real leery about being a guinea pig for first year production of basically new technology.

 

I don't think there's going to be all that much difference in MPG with the hybrid, maybe I'm wrong but I'd stick with the less complicated technology until they get all the bugs worked out.

 

my .02c

 

[sgiangregorio]

I'm interested in the Hybrids, as these gas prices are started to hurt. $400/mo in gas is killing me. But I would be a bit concerned about the newness of it all, although, in general, it's not that new anymore, just in the Yukon.

 

As for savings, it's what Mike said, it looks like the fuel savings may not be that great, or at least the displacement on demand engines only save about 10%. I'd need more than that to justify the additional cost of the hybrid unit.

[ukonmac]

Thanks guys for the responses so far. You make some really valid points. I guess my fear is I buy the 07 and then next year they say, introducing the new 08 Yukon Hybrid, gets the gas mileage of a Honda Civic! While don't really think this is gonna happen, that would just suck if it did. I too was a victim of the $3 plus a gallon prices. That hurt bad especially since my Yukon is used to commute about 40 miles each way. Perhaps if that is to happen again, I might consider a second unit, like an old Honda or something just to commute in.

 

I will ponder this for a bit longer. It is not like GM is running any fantastic financing offers in my area anyway so I have time to weigh my options.

 

Thanks again.

 

-Mac

[Trouttrooper]

A SUV will never get the mileage of a car. Not with the way we are using our technology intelligence. Not saying it couldn't physically be possible, we just will never see it in actual production.

 

Wife puts on 110 miles a day. She use to do it in our '95 Lumina until the rear seal went out last month (180,000 miles). I just picked up a 2000 Impala to replace it. Both cars get real close to 30 mpg. Overall it is soooo much cheaper to run a car vs. truck. Price of tires and economy are two biggies.

[Tucson_02Silverado]

Other than the tax credits, the Hybrids (no matter the make) all seem to be a giant joke on the auto consumer.

 

1. "environmental" and fuel savings if your driving is better than 90% in the city.

2. Most if not all do not have electric compressors for the AC. That would be fun in 90+ weather.

3. Initial cost is a bit too high

4. Cargo/passenger room is sacrificed for the batteries.

5. The electronics and electric motors are very expensive to replace.

 

Only wait for 08 if:

1. you don't want to be the one to "shake-out" a new model

2. guaranteed to have the 6 speed auto option

3. possible more engine combos available with E85 and DOD

 

Ultimately, if you are worried about fuel mileage then an over 2 ton vehicle is not for you.

[ukonmac]

Thanks guys for the input. I went down to my local GMC dealer and I will probably be signing my life away on an 07 Yukon unit.

[ChasSidwa]

I want to see a V6 DMax with the 6spd Hybrid Trans. I think that might get us 25 combined!

[Tucson_02Silverado]

There needs to be a CVT transmission.

 

Military GM Duramax prototype

 

2500, Quadrasteer, 4WD, CVT, Duramax, and 5 weapon M16/M14 holder.

 

Other than the low rated Duramax, what more could you want? especially the holder. Ok maybe a holder for a couple of M60E4/Mk43 Mod 0.

[TwinTip]

How is GM managing the year models now? With the Yukon '07 model out in Spring of '06 when usually these are out in the Fall, will there be a late '07 model (with any possible changes) coming out in the Fall of '06 or will it remain as the current '07 model?

 

When will the '08 models come out? Will these be out in the Spring, Summer or Fall of '07?

[Elwood 2000]

For what it is worth, and take this info. with a grain of salt because I read a random article on the internet, but the article said that the price of replacement batteries (they are finding about 5 years of useful life) cost more than the money saved in fuel economy over the life of those batteries. They were talking about these little hybrid cars that get a zillion miles per gallon, but if I were looking hybrid, it is definately something to consider.

[pknowles]

Hybrids only make sence if you drive in city traffic almost all the time, where they are using the electric motor. On the highway you are using the gas motor and carring around all the extra weight of the batteries. So if you drive the highway to work and hybrid makes no sence. If you have a sales job that is on the road or in real estate where you are driving tons of miles then a hybrid begins to make sence $$ wise.

 

Since Ford has the regular Escape and the Hybrid Escape, lets use those numbers to see how many miles you have to drive a year to break even on fuel savings alone. Some math for all in city driving:

Hybrid Escape gets 36 MPG city and the regular one gets 24 city (per Ford.com)

that means for every mile you drive at $2.34 a gallon for gas, what I paid for regular yesterday, you save $.03 a mile using the Hybrid [(1/24-1/36)*2.34=.0325]. So if batteries cost $5000 and you need them every 5 years, then you have to drive 30769 city miles per year to break even on just the cost of batteries [($5000/5)*(1/.0325)=30769].

 

Doing the same thing for highway miles the regular Escape gets 29 mpg highway and the Hybrid gets 31 mpg highway. If you follow the math from above and do the same thing as above you have to drive the Hybrid 192,094 highway miles a year to break even on the cost of the batteries. Although if you doing a lot of highway miles you may not wear out the batteries as fast becuase you are not using them a lot, but you get the point.

 

Of course you still have to pay an extra $5k for the Hybrid when you buy it and with all the extra systems in the Hybrid, maintence on those systems might be higher then their non-hybrid counterparts.

[Elwood 2000]

192,094 highway miles a year

 

 

I could do that! It would take a shoe-horn to get me in one of those things and if no one bought back a shoe-horn to get me out, I would have nothing to do but DRIVE!! LOL

[Daubs]

pknowles is right. I read article in Consumer Reports where they looked at initial costs and all the benefits of hybrid cars including fuel $$ savings. The hybrids end up costing you more even if driven for 5 years and 75k miles. They even calculated out to 10 years and still were not breaking even.

 

Granted, you will save fuel for the planet, but it's going to cost you more to drive that little "fuel saver."

 

I say let all the tree-huggers drive em...and save more fuel for me and my Big Block

[Alex D]

Hello everyone,

 

First off I wanted to introduce myself to the boards.  I've been viewing posts here for months, but never posted anything myself.

 

I had a question I wanted to throw out to everyone to get your thoughts.  I am considering the purchase of an 07 Yukon.  I've been waiting a long time (as I am sure everyone else has) for one of these babies. I was doing some searching on the GM media site and found a presenation that talked about the Yukon Hybrid units for the 2008 model year.  Natrually, thinking Hybrid SUV, why not wait for that because of the potential savings in fuel economy.  I don't know, thinking back to the Sierra hybrid unit, I can say that wasn't really all that impressive.  So what about these Yukon hybrids.  Do we know anything about them?  Does one take their chances on a 07 model now and hope the hybrid is not all that much better?  I know we are dealing with Moore's Law in a sense, but I thought I would see what others thought.

 

The '07 Yukon has my vote.  What a sleek looking unit.

 

Cheers,

Mac

 

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I would let that hybrid prove itself for a couple of years in the market.