With the advent of green living and more Earth-friendly lifestyles, companies all across the board are featuring and promoting products that follow the green philosophy. All of us are probably familiar with organic markets, reusable water bottles, canvas sacks, and of course, the hybrid car.

The hybrid car is supposedly eco-friendly because it uses less fuel compared to your standard, run of the mill car. When a hybrid car is running and it gets into a certain speed, its batteries come on, therefore consuming less fuel. Of course, the batteries are rechargeable, which is also a nod to reusable energy. It is not uncommon that many families and individuals, in the effort to save money, have switched to hybrid cars in lieu of regular ones.

Despite hybrid cars costing more than regular cars on the market, studies seem to indicate that hybrids promote more savings in the long run, as hybrid car drivers don’t have to refill with gas as often. What about in the realm of insurance? How much would it cost to actually insure a hybrid car? Would a car owner expect to pay more or less? Is it really less expensive to insure a hybrid car? Read on to find out!

First, the bad news: it is actually more expensive to insure a hybrid car. A recent study concluded that hybrid and small cars in general cost more to insure compared to larger, more fuel-hungry counterparts. To name specific examples, a Honda Civic will be about $400 more expensive to insure than a Honda C-RV. To ensure a Toyota Camry hybrid will end up being $600 more expensive than ensuring a regular Toyota Hybrid.

Now, why is this so? It’s not that insurance companies are against hybrids, saving the planet and the green movement in general. At the end of the day, insurance companies run on cost. The cheaper a car is to repair, and the easier its parts are to source, the cheaper the insurance rate for this particular car. In the case of hybrids, there are plenty of reasons why they cost more to insure. First, their repairs are specialized, and you can’t go to them anywhere, which means that you will most probably get a hybrid specialist to repair it in case something goes wrong. Another reason is the parts: hybrids have very specific parts which cost more than the average parts. Lastly, hybrids and generally small cars are more commonly stolen compared to their bigger counterparts. All of these help to add up insurance costs for the hybrid.

If you’re really set on a hybrid, then there are still possible solutions. Perhaps the best thing to do is shop around for insurance companies. Some insurance companies actually provide discounts for vehicles that prove to be fuel-savers. If you manage to find an insurance company like this, then you can count on saving a few bucks on car insurance.

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Sam Briones writes for SafeAuto, covering an array of topics from finding cheap auto insurance to safety tips.

Photo Credit:http://www.automotoportal.com/article/all-you-need-to-know-about-hybrid-cars

You can buy a lot of services based on how much you use them. Cell phones are just the tip of the iceberg; you can get everything from stock photos to video games on a pay-as-you-go basis. So what about car insurance? Can that also be pay-as-you-go?

It can be, but it depends on how much privacy you're willing to give up, something that infuriates consumer advocacy groups -- even as they cheer the idea of more granular pay scales so consumers pay only for what they need.

At the heart of the problem is the metering device most insurers require you to install as part of the program. The device tracks how far you drive and when you drive: those who drive fewer miles at safer times of day, namely during daylight hours and especially not late at night, are qualified for lower insurance rates. The idea is that it allows the insurer to match your data against the criteria of the program, and if you fit the criteria, you get the lower rates. If not, well, tough.

The insurers point out that the device isn't a tracking device: there's no GPS in any design. Nor does the device track how fast you're going: it's limited to mileage and times of day only. Still, that's more than some people want to allow, and many consumer insurance advocates find it frustrating that insurers want people to surrender their privacy in order to try for a discount they might not even get. Similarly, some people are shut out of the program altogether: if you work the late shift, you're essentially wasting your time trying to get the discount. Driving at late hours puts you at higher risk of a collision, with more drunk drivers and sleepy drivers on the road.

Even worse, from the consumer advocate's viewpoint, not all insurers are willing to pay for a custom device, and only make the program available to customers driving cars equipped with services such as OnStar. Once again, it creates a financial barrier: don't feel like paying for OnStar service, or don't want to drive an OnStar vehicle? Find another insurer. And, just to rub it in, the OnStar vehicles are clearly equipped with GPS; the insurer may not collect the data yet, but that might change in the future.

If this sounds like a bad deal, well, it depends on your situation. Most customers who qualify save around $150 on their car insurance. Some programs offer a small discount, usually 5%, just for signing up for the program in the first place. For others, the data collected is used to qualify the driver for a variety of discounts that they may not even be aware they can get on their insurance.

Even consumer advocacy groups want pay-as-you-go insurance. For years, they've argued the systems put in place by the insurance companies give people more insurance than they need. This means people drive more, putting them at more risk for accidents and polluting the environment.

It's likely a debate that will go on for a while, but if you drive relatively little and mostly during the day, consider asking your insurer if they have a program like this. The savings could be well worth it.

Image Credit:

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/01/china_468x312.jpg

Hummer limo? Pfft! F-650 limo? Please. You think that's the weirdest limousines get? Well...OK, so did we. We thought a hot pink stretch Hummer was the most bizarre limo in existence. We were very, VERY wrong.

Your eyes do not deceive you: that is a stretch (well, to use the term loosely) Volkswagen Bug. If you look closely, it even has the license plate “LIMO BUG”, just to get the point across that these people chose what amounts to a station wagon to ride around in. (At least it’s a cute station wagon.)

We're not really sure what the story is behind this particular limo. We know it's a Mini Cooper, or, rather, two Minis seemingly welded together in some unholy union (look in the back: there's a steering wheel). But the flames? The stretch? The paintjob? Don't ask us. We don't know. We don't want to.

Why, yes, that is in fact a stretch Ferrari. What we like about this design is that it really does look like it's about to snap in half, possibly out of shame for being made to look so utterly ridiculous. Somewhere, Enzo is crying.

We guess this qualifies as a “limo”. It's long. It's got a lot of seats. It's ostentatious. It obviously isn't cheap.

On the other hand, is there a country in the world that will actually let you drive this beast on the road?

We can't mock this. This is brilliant. Somebody sat down and thought “what's the best way to announce that I absolutely mean business, need to get to where I'm going, and will brook no crap in my way?” And hit on this. Traffic is no longer an excuse: you can go over it!

The Jeep limo! Because, uh...well...we guess if you were in a place without a lot of roads, and wanted to get somewhere in style, your options are kind of limited. We'd really hate to see how this thing performs on a terrible back road, though. Also, if you hit a mud puddle...what happens?

When you absolutely, positively need to get somewhere on time, don't resort to this. The Anaconda or “Hawg Limo” seems like a terrible idea simply because motorcycles are designed to go fast, and this seems roughly as safe above speeds of five miles an hour as making a pass at Mike Tyson's sister.

Now this, on the other hand, is what the perpetually tardy desperately need. OK, so you'll show to the big meeting or the gala premiere or your own wedding with helmet hair and possibly some bugs in your teeth. On the other hand, you will be on time.

There isn’t anything capitalism can produce that Communist states can’t poorly imitate, and as proof, we offer this, the Trabant limousine. The Trabant was an East Germany car famous for being so bad the Yugo trembles in shame to be from the same area. We bet this limo lived up to Trabant's sterling reputation.

Finally, we have this, the infamous “Art Limo”. Supposedly worth $1,000,000 or so, at least according to the guy who tried to sell it. We're not sure of the Blue Book value, but we think that might be just a little high.

Image Credits:

http://www.uncoached.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/weird_wedding_limo_9.jpg

http://limofan.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/05-weird-limos-ferrari-modena.jpg

http://www.weirdworm.com/img/misc/10-weird-wheeled-devices/boeing-727-limousine.jpg

http://yeinjee.com/discovery/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/tanklimo.jpg

http://limofan.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/07-weird-limos-jeep.jpg

http://www.capricelimousine.com/images/HawgLimo.jpg

http://blogs.lctmag.com/images/blogs_lctmag_com/limocentric/RacingLimo.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_S7eaHixdRvs/TCbGHm2ul_I/AAAAAAAAFQ8/gGaAVhM4RNg/s640/art-car-limousine3.jpg