Although gasoline prices have continued to spiral upwards, a recent poll by Kelley Blue Book Market Intelligence of visitors to KBB.com found the majority remained unconvinced that any potential savings at the pump would actually offset the added cost of acquiring an alternative-fuel vehicle.
That bottom-line driven opinion, voiced by 53 percent of survey respondents, was almost double the next closest answer, namely that these cars were simply out of the potential buyer’s price range. Interestingly enough, 57 percent of men who responded said they believed the benefits of these alt-fuel vehicles were not worth their price premiums, while only 39 percent of women felt that way.
This group of new-car shoppers, surveyed between July 1 and September 30, also voiced misgivings about several other aspects of the current crop of alternative vehicles. Twenty-six percent removed them from consideration because of questions regarding dependability, another 23 percent dinged their performance and 19 percent cited potential range limitations. Finally, seven percent of the sample just said mileage was not important to them.
