The real cost of driving a hybrid?

The folks over at MSN (who I think are some sort of competitors to the owners of this site, so don’t tell anyone I’m linking to them, and really, the article was written by someone at Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, so what’s the problem?) put together an estimate on the total cost of buying and operating seven popular hybrid automobiles. They found that the only hybrid that will actually save you money over five years is a Toyota Prius. One more reason it the world’s most popular hybrid. All other models will cost between $300 and $3,700 more than their non-hybrid counterparts over five years. One question the article leaves unanswered is what estimate Kiplinger’s was using then estimating fuel prices for the next five years. This could have a huge impact on the findings presented in the article, yet they leave that information out. [Source: MSN]