On February 23, 2011 Matthew Wald blogged in The New York Times that, “a car buyer who lays out an extra $6,200 to buy the hybrid version of the Lexus RX will get the money back in gas savings within five years, according to Consumer Reports magazine, but only if gasoline averages $8.77 a gallon. Otherwise, the nonhybrid RX 350 is a better buy than the Hybrid 450h, the magazine says.” Wald notices that the study assumes: ▪ The car will be driven 12,000 miles a year. ▪ Gas will cost $2.80 a gallon. ▪ The hybrid gets 26 miles per gallon while the nonhybrid gets 21. (a) Show that the computation is wrong—that at $8.77 per gallon of gas you can’t save $6,200 in 60,000 miles of driving. (b) Show that you can save that much with that much driving if gas costs $8.77 per gallon more than $2.80 per gallon.
On February 23, 2011 Matthew Wald blogged in The New York Times that, “a car buyer
who lays out an extra $6,200 to buy the hybrid version of the Lexus RX will get the
money back in gas savings within five years, according to Consumer Reports magazine,
but only if gasoline averages $8.77 a gallon. Otherwise, the nonhybrid RX 350 is a better
buy than the Hybrid 450h, the magazine says.”
Wald notices that the study assumes:
▪ The car will be driven 12,000 miles a year.
▪ Gas will cost $2.80 a gallon.
▪ The hybrid gets 26 miles per gallon while the nonhybrid gets 21.
(a) Show that the computation is wrong—that at $8.77 per gallon of gas you can’t save
$6,200 in 60,000 miles of driving.
(b) Show that you can save that much with that much driving if gas costs $8.77 per gallon more than $2.80 per gallon.
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