Best Hybrid for the buck

How much room does the car have? Is it available in the states?

I love my honda fit. It can hold 5 (four adults comfortably at least). The best thing about the car is that it is very practical...probably the most of any car that size. The seats fold down to hold a ton of stuff. It's very useful. I get 34mpg and I drive aggressively.

Chris

dd wrote:

I drive the Passat diesel- 37-40 mpg on highways depending on 70 or 80 mph, and low thirties in the city> Lots of room. I love it.

I was unaware that the Passat diesel was available in the US then, by gum, I found one on ebay... Good choice, I think, especially used (with the hope that the diesel will last forever... )

"In fact, the Passat TDI serves as a fresh reminder of this: After driving torque-rich diesels awhile, gas engines, even very powerful ones, seem anemic, as if there's a hole in their power curves. Diesels, thus, are addicting."

"Already one of the best cars in the world, the addition of a powerful new turbodiesel engine means the Volkswagen Passat just got a whole lot better. Forget everything you think you know about diesels. Plain and simple, they're the future. Clean and quiet, this 2.0L 4-cylinder diesel moves like a 6-cylinder gas engine but gets twice the fuel economy."

As for "actual" battery stories, here are a couple (although I think they fall under the headings of "exceptions" and "anecdotal"--also, Toyota has been, I hear, exceptionally responsive to problems):

And some other random info, mostly positive (or at least, where negative, having little to do with the hybrid nature of the vehicle):

Take a look at the Yaris. I'm shopping to replace my 16 year old Tercel. Was going to jump on the hybrid bandwagon but the price doesn't make sense for someone who drives ess than 8k per year. The loaded, 5-door, Yaris gets 37/40 if you get manual. one or both sides of the back seat fold down so you can load it from the hatchback so it can hold a decent amount of stuff. the toyota website is pretty good.

small feet wrote:

Take a look at the Yaris. I'm shopping to replace my 16 year old Tercel. Was going to jump on the hybrid bandwagon but the price doesn't make sense for someone who drives ess than 8k per year. The loaded, 5-door, Yaris gets 37/40 if you get manual. one or both sides of the back seat fold down so you can load it from the hatchback so it can hold a decent amount of stuff. the toyota website is pretty good.

i own a prius but i'm definitely looking at a yaris when my wife's car dies (can't be soon enough, we hate the damned thing). i'll be curious to hear more reviews in a year or two when they've been around longer.

Which car is best depends a lot on how you're going to drive it, how far, and how often.

I've never owned a Prius, but I drove around the Palo Alto / South Bay area in a borrowed one for a few days and got something around 50 mpg. Also drove from New England to Dallas in one this spring and got like 41 mpg total for the trip. Got the best mileage in traffic in Jersey, then got killed by the hills in Western Virginia, then back to around 40 doing 80 mph for the rest of the trip.

I would say that if you do a lot suburban/city driving a hybrid might be worth the money. If your on the highway a lot or in a hilly area, you're not going to do much better in a hybrid than a fuel efficient gas or diesel engine. I also like the idea of buying a used diesel Passat or Jetta, and then seeing where hybrid technology ends up in a few years. There's talk that in 2009 Toyota is going to come out with a hybrid that charges from the wall and can drive for 50 miles before it needs the gas engine. If you do a lot of short hops with time to recharge, that might be well worth the wait.

Family of five? And you're obsessing about a hybrid? The carbon footprint of a family of five outweighs any hybrid positives. Buy a corolla and get over it.

had to ask wrote:

i own a prius but i'm definitely looking at a yaris when my wife's car dies (can't be soon enough, we hate the damned thing). i'll be curious to hear more reviews in a year or two when they've been around longer.

that is my only worry...they are so new. i'm holding out till the end of the year to see if anything major comes up wrong with them. but i've been happy with the toyotas we've had. we replaced a 10 year old 4-runner that croaked with another 4-runner and my tercel has been really reliable. i'd run it till it dies but it's just burning way too much oil for it to be worth fixing. also, i just don't know how much longer i can go without a CD player and cupholders! i think we'd drive the tercel on longer trips if it had these things :-).

asdfdasf wrote:

I don't have time to give you all of my data... but I have spend many hours claculating the ROI of purchasing fuel efficient cars. I did this for a company who is looking at purchasing auto's for sales staff.

what did you find out about the Yaris?

PDong wrote:

VW Jetta Sportwagen comes out this fall with a TCDI (Common Rail Diesel with a turbocharger) and gets 40 mpg in the city, 60 mpg on the highway. Will be 50 state legal for the first time since harsh CARB standards hit.

It's a decent car for a family wit 3 kids.

this also looks like a great option as far as milage goes. question on diesel...will diesel always be available as long as regular gas is available? Is it considered dirtier than regular gas so it may someday not be as available? my parents drove a big diesel wagon in the 70s..it was loud and stinky. are today's diesels like this?

The new Civic gets 30 to 40 a gallon

if you're not Harry, this is the weirdest screen name i've seen in a while.

The new CIVIC is rated at 51 MPG... And I got one last Sunday for $21K including Dest, Tax and Tags. Not sure if you could fit 5 kids in the back with their car seats.

The Hybrid is more about having a smaller carbon footprint that just MPG alone.

I have a Ford Escape Hybrid-2006 model with 6000 miles on it. Outstanding vehicle and in my opinion one of the nicest vehicles Ive driven.

You have a family of 5 and you want to drive around in an economy car? The back seat is too small for even 3 kids. What's wrong with you people?

If money's an issue, go look at a Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV-4, or Ford Escape. Small SUV's yes, but more room in the backseat, BUT STILL CHEAPER THAN AN OVERPRICED PRIUS.

Good advice. Go with the RAV-4. More room and good on gas.

OP,

You might want to check out Edmunds' True Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculator at

http://www.edmunds.com/apps/cto/intro.do

. This is a comprehensive tool that considers depreciation, insurance, taxes, fuel, maintenance, and repairs. I checked against my car and found that it was accurate to ~10% -- I can't vouch for all cars, but this anecdotal evidence suggests it's at least pretty good. I would expect that, even if the absolute numbers are not accurate, it's good for relative comparisons. Anyway, this tool will enable you to see what, if any, trade-offs exist when comparing vehicles.

BTW, one of the biggest drivers of TCO is depreciation. If, like me, you plan to drive your car into the ground, you can probably ignore that. Also, they assume that you will drive 15,000 miles per year, so you will need to scale fuel according to your usage.

For those who haven't done much research... http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/autos/0706/gallery.kbb_fuel_savers/index.html?cnn=yes