Cadillac Escalade and Lexus: Hybrid Reality Check

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Host: Tony Soprano is not the only famous personality to drive a Cadillac Escalade. The luxury SUV has long been a favorite of athletes, celebrities, and hip hop artists. music General Motors has added a new optional feature on the SUV in addition to the chrome wheels and leather seats, a hybrid engine. You'll pay about $10,000 more to drive the hybrid version of the Escalade. Is it worth it? We asked auto expert, Jim Motovalli.

>> Jim Motovalli: - Because the standard Escalade gets 12 miles per gallon, and this one gets 20. So it's an improvement, but it's not getting you to a point where the Sierra Club's going to applaud.

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Host: In other words, if you think you'll recoup the extra costs in gas savings, think again. Mercedes, BMW, and Lexus all have luxury hybrids on the market now, but none of them can compete with lower-priced hybrids like the Toyota Prius when it comes to gas mileage. The Prius reportedly gets close to 50 miles per gallon. None of the luxury hybrids even reach 30.

>> Jim Motovalli: Weight is a very important consideration with hybrid cars. If you reduce the weight, you're going to get much better gas mileage. Both of these cars here are very, very heavy. They have every possible luxury feature. They've got wood interiors and leather seats and all these high-tech gadgets, and, and DVD players and all that stuff adds a lot of weight. Plus both of them have big V8 engines.

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Host: But what the cars lack in hybrid efficiency they certainly make up for in luxury features. Motovalli particularly likes the Lexus LX600h.

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Host: The sedan's wooden leather interior, Mark Levenson stereo, backup camera, climate-control seats, and voice-activated navigation are only a few of the features that come standard on the Lexus.

>> Jim Motovalli: I, I could not think of anything that is not on this car. This is state-of-the-art luxury in 2009.

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Host: But if you can get this same level of luxury for less, why buy hybrid? Particularly a hybrid vehicle that doesn't save you much gas.

>> Jim Motovalli: So what you're doing is is swagging phonetic your guilt. You're probably feeling some guilt over driving a big, heavy, luxury car, and being able to say that it's a hybrid really gives you some bragging rights even if the fuel economy isn't that great. People probably don't even ask you what it really is. None of the hybrids that we tested really give me acceptable mileage where I could be comfortable owning it because none of them really do much better than 20 miles per gallon. I want to be in the 30's at least.

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