Mileage: Do not jump to conclusions!

In the UK Volkswagen sells a VW Polo bluemotion, tuned to deliver 70 MPG (UK). Fifth gear has tested it in normal driving, giving the car to the wif of a presenter for a week. She did 47 mpg (UK).

So I am pleased when we get 60 mpg UK....

it states the prius does 54 in that test, so once the epa gets a hold of that 70 itll drop to more like 60.

once that car comes out it wont matter b/c by then the next generation hybrids with li ion batts will already be beating anything it gets

also its a diesel, which costs more so whatever percentage diesel is more expensive, subtract that from the mpg.


conclusion: it doesnt beat the prius or future prius but it does a hell of a lot better then joe suv so im all for it

Yes, in theory the VW diesel hybrid gets better mileage (than a Prius). But is it (or will it ever) be available for sale in the USA?

At least Toyota is able to put hardware on the table - unlike VW?

Of course, the next big jump in fuel efficiency will most likely be a short range (20mile?) plug in hybrid.

Don't know about anyone else...I worked on diesels for more than 30 years. I won't own one, especially in the mountains of Colorado. Besides that, VW rates very low on reliability on most of their models.


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I wouldn't choose a VW hybrid Golf over a Toyota Prius:

1) The Golf is in the category of the Corolla in size and comfort, the Prius is much more spatious than any of them. The Golf may have better mileage but it is also smaller so what is the point comparing. Not to mention that milage of a concept car will get worse by the time it get out of the factory door.

2) VW is quite bad quality nowadays. It is almost as bad as Fiat or French cars. Toyotas are generally light-years ahead and the Prius is one of the most trustworthy Toyotas.

3) Here in Europe you can have diesels without particulate filter. I bet VW will try to leave that out to save on costs. The hybrid Golf will be as stinky as the other middle-category diesels. (Yes, even the modern ones stink like hell). A good sign though, that a lot of EU cities are restricting inner areas from diesels and other high-polluting vehicles.

i agree to the fact that even modern diesels stil smell bad and there is still a lot of black smoke out off the exhaust only not at al times like before. ( only when the particle filter burns its .......( cancer ).... stuff )

i don't like the fact that city's are being closed for less fuel eff cars.
because there are no actions for the less payed drivers to get a new car.
so there must be a tax benefit for these people to buy a new car.

one of my friends has a jetta tdi, plagued with electrical problems, sensors, starter.

made in mexico

That's my biggest concern with VW. The 2009 Jetta TDI diesel wagon that was being showcased by VW in the last year really got my attention as we're thinking about getting something a bit bigger than the wife's Corolla to schlep kids, gear, etc. around and yet won't take a big MPG hit. Then I heard actual sales were being delayed until later in the summer due to some non-specified production problem. VW really needs to get a handle on their quality if they expect to sell to anyone other than the hardcore VW heads!

Jim

thats the big problem
its not made in Germany
here there are no problems ( big ones anyway )

How does the cost per mile play out? Diesel costs more than regular gasoline.

As it gets colder, they stink *much* worse! For some reason a lot of folks drive turbodiesel powered pickups from Ford, GM, and Dodge. These are trucks designed to pull a +10,000 kg trailer, yet are empty with one person in the cab

By the time the temp gets to -40, the stench they give off is so eye watering and naseating, you feel like stopping to throw up your breakfast. About the only good thing is that a lot of diesels won't even start in bitter cold temperatures

Yet the diesel folks claim all that black smoke is perfectly harmless. Well, if that s*** is so good for us, how about I run a pipe from their diesel pickup truck into their house?

Breathe deeply, it's GOOD for you!

I think I can shed some insight on this one since I've owned a 1998 Jetta TDI, a 2003 TDI wagon, and until recently a 2005.5 TDI sedan. Now I own a 2008 Prius.

As far as fuel economy goes, it's a no-brainer that the diesel hybrid will get better fuel economy. Our last Jetta got 44-46 mpg - and yes it was hand calculated. Our Prius is getting 47-49 mpg hand calculated. Even though the Jetta was heavier and less areodynamic it's fuel economy numbers are not that far off from the Prius.

As far as people's impression that diesels smoke, stink, biodiesel is great, diesel smoke is cancer causing, net energy is better, ect I won't get into that because there is too much B.S. flying on both sides of that fence

The problem with the Jetta is that it is built by VW. Their dependability is not any where near that of a Toyota. But more importantly their service is tha absolute worse of ANY of the car companies. They go out of their way to blame the customer or the fuel for their reliability issues. The new Jetta is actually a great car - but who wants to own a new car without a warranty? You buy a VW, it will need a repair under warranty, and chances are that you will get crappy service.

I like drving the Jetta a little better - just a little. The wife likes driving the Prius better because of all the gadgets. I now call her Gadget Girl. The peace of mind that the Toyota brings over the VW is priceless

Ironically enough, I noticed that diesel was .62 more (about 20% higher) than gas about the same as the national difference between. I can't remember if diesel is supposed to be cheaper in the summer or the winter. I don't recall it ever being cheaper than gas in my neck of the woods though.

I had a conversation with a friend in Scotland a while back, and it seemed that the UK cars had much better published fuel efficiency than their equivalent US counterparts. The source of the discrepancy turned out to be that the UK gallon is significantly larger than the US gallon.

If this test is using UK gallons, then multiply the result by 0.83, since the US gallon is 83 percent of the volume of a UK imperial gallon.

So, 70 MPG UK would be equivalent to 58.1 MPG US (Assuming that they're using miles and not nautical miles lol).

Scott

Poms sell fuel by the litre but measure distance in miles, not nautical miles just normal miles.

At least they did didn't use Smoots!

BTW, the poms used real gallons not those shrunken ones the snake oil salesmen love in the USA.

(Poms are English people)

Diesel was always cheaper than gasoline until around 1980, when gasoline in the US first broke the $1.00 per gallon mark, and when diesel cars became popular. Since American cars were suddenly being powered by diesel engines for the first time (prior to that only a small number of Mercedes Benz's were on the road with diesel engines), more gas stations felt it necessary to carry diesel. Before then, diesel was usually only available at truck stops. Today you can find diesel fuel at most gas stations in the US.

Probably the reason for the increase has more to do with the added costs involved in low volume distribution than the relative cost of production. Delivering a small amount of diesel fuel to a large number of gas stations is an expensive proposition, and the markup on the product would be accordingly high. My understanding (though I don't know this first hand) is that diesel fuel is actually a by-product of the process to make gasoline, so it's not likely to be the cost of production that makes it more expensive.

I was just kidding about the nautical miles. On the other hand, my discussion with my Scot friend pertained to the UK practice of advertising the fuel efficiency of their cars using MPG, not Miles/L or km/L, so regardless of how the fuel is sold (by the liter, or by the smoot), it seems that fuel efficiency is advertised by people who sell cars in the UK expressed in terms of Gallons. The point is that the UK MPG is not the same as the US MPG. As for snake oil salesmen, I'm sure they would much rather use the UK Gallon in their pitches than the US gallon since it's a bigger gallon, thereby inflating the MPG figure to a more appealing number.