Car of the Year Award -- LOL!

It was actually the BlueMotion branding of the Polo, Golf and Passat models that won, but you can't get even the larger cars in BlueMotion form in North America yet.

As I commented on Autoblog, the comparable model to the Prius in size is the 1.6L (diesel) BlueMotion Passat Saloon. The Polo is close to a Yaris or Ford Fiesta in size. In the UK the base-model Prius is cheaper than this model of Passat, lighter, it uses less volume of fuel (not even allowing for diesel's higher energy density), emits less CO2 and far less NOx (higher CO though) - and accelerates faster.

The Passat's 0-62mph (0-100km/h) time is 12.4 seconds according to VW's UK website. We're told that the Prius time of 10.4 seconds (toyota.co.uk) is too slow for the US market. I hate to think what you'd make of the Polo BlueMotion's 13.9 seconds. All BlueMotion models have manual gearboxes which would also not go down well on your side of the pond. The 7-speed Auto-DSG seems to increase urban fuel consumption and slightly reduce extra-urban fuel consumption for a slight increase when combined, leading to increased CO2 emissions. Acceleration times are about the same.

 

So what? It is the automotive equivalent of the Nobel Prize. "We think this could be good, so let's give it an award!"

 

They really need to define "geen" and weight each type of emission, interior volume, price, acceleration, safety, etc...

Without quantitative values, the award is as good as he said she said.

 

Thanks for the information. Many of us would like a manual gearbox or the dsg above the eCVT. But it really is those slow acceleration times, that stop many of the clean diesels from coming over here. I never liked the reliability of VW either, and they don't seem to have that extra something that their german rivals have.

I picked the prius because nothing came close to the fe without some major compromises. I wonder if those picking this car actually drove it very far.

 

i know one: durallymax

 

Obviously, these folks did NOT consider all cars. After all there are LOTS of better cars if you consider cars that are NOT yet available. That means we can look WAY into the future, right?
So certainly the number ONE future car choice that EVERYONE can agree one would be this one:



I elect the flying car as #1 ... you know ... available sometime in the future.

.

 

Avoid Car and Driver and this sketchy summary of the 2010 Prius -

Toyota Prius Car Buying Guide- Get a Quote on the Toyota Prius at CARandDRIVER.com- Car Buying

Out of line with what I've experienced in 500 miles driving a 2010 Pri.

p1 of 2009 Car and Driver Buyer's guide - Ford ad
p2 - Suzuki ad
p5 Hyundai ad
p13 Buick ad
p21-24 Lincoln ad
p31 Saturn ad
p39 Nissan ad
p67 Honda ad
p71 BMW ad
p83 cadillac ad
p101 - 102 Acura ad
p157 Viagra ad among others
p161 Inifinit ad

and finally p162..
Chevrolet ad

 

The humor is lost on me.