Toyota Prius GT and VW Jetta Diesel Comparted

[jkash]

Green Living: Toyota Prius and Volkswagen Jetta Diesel Compared

It's in the air. You can detect it in the popular press and celebrity media. There's a sense these days that in the sophisticated places-London, Hollywood, Ann Arbor-you're not really making the scene if you aren't green. In Europe, they've got the highly conspicuous Smart city car and a host of other micro-machines to prance around in to show that their hearts are in the right place. But here at home, there can be no better way to alert the world to the fact that you're green like money than with the new Toyota Prius gas-electric hybrid. Prius might almost rhyme with pious, but that's OK, brother, because you're religious in your zeal to conserve fuel and cut emissions, are you not? Or perhaps Your Righteous Dudeness would prefer to go green more subtly, facing down global warming with the sonorous turbo-diesel sounds of the extraordinarily abstemious Volkswagen Jetta TDI?

Read entire article by clicking this link.

Jeff

[efusco]

Wow, finally, someone in the press that "sees the light".

[Marg]

I agree! Finally someone gets it!

[Danny]

Really good article:

"Like its scuttling-beetle look or not, when you're driving the new Prius, the ability to generate endless good vibes outside the Starbucks is palpable. Optimal fuel efficiency is achieved with an attitude adjustment."

I also didn't know that it's 0-60 is a full second faster than the diesel Jetta.

[pkjohna]

Good article but there still seems to be some fud over the battery.

Batteries are costly to replace-though they're warranted for eight years or 100,000 miles-and pose significant, if not insurmountable, environmental issues in their manufacture and end-of-life disposal.

Anyone know if there's a white paper out on the batteries to set the record straight?

[Bob Allen]

The whole equation/comparison between the Jetta TDI and the Prius goes out the window ifyou run the Jetta on biodiesel. I have yet to read any review of cars/diesels that mention biodiesel. Admittedly, it's not available everywhere, but it is a growing component of the alternative energy market.
In Oregon, you can buy B-20, which is 20% biodiesel mixed with regular diesel. Even at 20%, the reduction in emissions is startling. Several school districts in WA and OR are running their busses on bio diesel; one system reported a huge drop in mechanics' sick leave. They were able to remove one of the air scrubbers at their service facility because the overall pollutants were reduced significantly, and the fuel itself is biodegradable.
A TDI running on biodiesel is the environmental equivalent of the Prius in overall driving.
Bob