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Driving Television did a Hybrid Commuter Challenge to compare fuel economy of 7 cars in real world commuter driving:
Video Clip featuring Canadians
They took all of the cars on a 203.6 km trip and measured the amount of fuel used. Here are the rankings:
7. Honda Accord (4-cyl) - 12.0 L / 100 km (20 mpg)
6. Ford Escape (4-cyl) - 10.7 L / 100 km (22 mpg)
5. Honda Accord Hybrid - 9.1 L / 100 km (26 mpg)
4. Toyota Camry (4-cyl) - 8.9 L / 100 km (26 mpg)
3. Ford Escape Hybrid - 7.5 L / 100 km (31 mpg)
2. Volkswagen Jetta TDI (manual transmission) - 6.8 L / 100 km (35 mpg)
1. Toyota Prius - 5.2 L / 100 km (45 mpg)
Not a big surprise, but it's nice to see some positive news about hybrids every once in a while instead of the incessant hybrid bashing. If they had just driven the Prius, they'd probably be complaining how it didn't meet its advertised EPA rating of 55 mpg. With the other cars also being measured, it's clear that many of the cars failed to reach their EPA ratings, so it's an issue with the rating system, not with the hybrid technology.
BTW, there's currently a $3150 tax credit on the Prius, lowering the "hybrid premium" by a substantial amount. The credit will begin phasing out in the third quarter of 2006.
Anonymous
January 11 2006, 22:20:56 UTC 6 years ago
Jetta
I have never gotten less than 40 MPG (riding it HARD) with my TDI, and routinely get 45-48 MPG.January 11 2006, 22:30:46 UTC 6 years ago
Re: Jetta
Hey, I have no problem with diesels, especially with the clean diesels coming to market with the availability of low sulfur fuel. If there were a diesel hybrid available, I'd be all over that.But the key thing to remember is that people's mileage for a given car varies... A LOT. One person gets 35 MPG, another gets 65 MPG. The only way to make a comparison between models is to drive all of them in exactly the same way and see which one used more fuel. In this particular case, the Prius toasted the Jetta. I didn't mean to imply that the Prius would toast the Jetta in every possible controlled test, which it surely wouldn't.
In general, I'd say that any test where there's more stop and go city driving would favor the Prius, and any test where there's more highway driving would favor the TDI.
BTW, who are you?
January 13 2006, 16:02:35 UTC 6 years ago
Re: Jetta
I'd go so far as to say that the Prius WOULD beat the Jetta in every single case, since on CR's test, it smoked the new Jetta on both highway AND city driving.People who baby their Priii can easily get the EPA estimates (mid-50s), which proves absolutely nothing about the real-world results.
January 13 2006, 16:03:16 UTC 6 years ago
Re: Jetta
whoops, forgot the link:http://mdahmus.thebaba.com/blog/archive
January 13 2006, 17:18:43 UTC 6 years ago
Re: Jetta
Thanks for the link doinky! In light of this evidence, it indeed seems that the Prius is the superior vehicle when compared to the Jetta TDI in terms of fuel economy. Now, if only I had a EV with advanced batteries, lots of cargo space, and decent acceleration (and where grid power is supplied by fusion)! One can dream...