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Given that it is driven 12k miles a year ...will an hybrid last as many years as a conventional car (before excessive repairs)....I do not think so because I think that electronics will degrade before mechanical parts do. Most mechanical movie film cameras made in the 50's still operate, but most video cameras made in the 80's no longer function.

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  • The reason cameras from the '50s still operate, while cameras from the '80s might not is planned obsolescence. Planned obsolescence has become much more common today as companies aim to get you to buy more of their products. It's to the point where you almost can't avoid it. Cars might be the exception, for now...
    – Poisson Fish
    Oct 13, 2015 at 14:15
  • It's not really fair to compare a very precise hand-assembled machine like a film movie camera from the 50s with a mass produced piece of electronics made to hit the lowest price point possible. You wouldn't compare a classic Swiss timepiece to a cheap quarts watch.
    – JPhi1618
    Oct 13, 2015 at 15:16
  • @tom7 are you the tom7.org ?!
    – Andrew Ravus
    Apr 6, 2016 at 12:08

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Our experience with the Prius is that is holds up very well over time. The Prius Hybrid Battery failure rate below 200k miles is low. Inverter failure is not common. Some of the motors in the transmissions will fail but not at low mileages. The Honda Civic hybrid has a had battery problems at lower mileages. The risk with a hybrid is that hybrid designs have two extra expensive parts that can fail; the Battery and the inverter.

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    I wouldn't say the battery is an expensive part. Replacing it is far cheaper than, say, an automatic transmission or an engine. Junkyard batteries are available for $500. Furthermore, the electrical system allows the eCVT transmission to be far simpler (and thus cheaper!) than conventional manual or automatic transmission. Thus, hybrids have lower likelihood of transmission failure and lower transmission replacement cost. This more than outweighs the theoretical battery or inverter failure cost, which in practice happens very rarely.
    – juhist
    Dec 24, 2015 at 11:40

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