I agree with the above, however be sure to take fuel cost into account. Almost every car you look at will be a large step down in mileage vs. the CT200h
Is this really true? The official fuel consumption figures are not that dramatic and the user reviews suggest that the official figures are a bit optimistic. Of course it may be that the authors of the poor reviews would not manage to drive anything in a fuel efficient manner, but there are a lot of really efficient non-hybrids out there nowadays.
What do you mean by not dramatic?
EPA Ratings: CT200h - 42, Accord 4 cyl - 28-30
Fuelly: CT200h - 42.7, Accord 30.2
The Lexus gets 40% better mileage. Seems significant to me.
EPA numbers aren't perfect, but they are a lot closer to real world than the Canadian or UK numbers (according to the Canadian numbers there are no shortage of cars that get 50+ MPG).
I've been using Fuelly.com to track my fuel consumption for years. I've found it gives a really good "real world" feel for fuel economy.
According to Fuelly, the lexus (
http://www.fuelly.com/car/lexus/ct200h) gets 42mpg across 200 different drivers. Nobody is getting less than 35mpg average, and the best drivers are getting 50+mpg. We don't know the conditions they are driving in, how they drive or anthing else, but the bell curve is pretty solid, drive like a normal CT200H driver and you can expect 40 - 44mpg.
Going to the accord, if we limit it to inline 4 and sedan, we get somewhere between 25 and 30 mpg depending on year. I'm not a fan of this particuar example since it includes european accords which have smaller engines than the North American models (not an issue for the CT200h which only has one engine option). Still, even if you take a pessemistic view, the lexus should get 10mpg better than the Accord.
Which just leads me to parrot everyone else - go with a used Accord, pocket the difference. Yes, your gas costs go up, but are still fairly low in the grand scheme of things, and your annual maintenace costs will be lower (Honda dealerships charge less labour than Lexus, in general, and the Honda is more likely to be DIY friendly as compared to the Lexus - although I say that never having been under the hood of either).
And what ever you do, don't trade in your car. When I last changed cars I wanted to trade in my Mazda 6. Dealerships were selling my exact car for $12k. They offered me no more than $3k. I sold it myself for just shy of $8k.