Jetta TDI Throws Down with the Prius
I was in Miami recently and had the opportunity to rent a Toyota Prius. I’ve never driven a Prius before and once I actualy figured out how to drive it, it was quite fun. But as gas prices continue to climb in the wake of Memorial Day, I was most impressed with the gas mileage. So when I saw the new Jetta TDI commerical this weekend where the car is compared to a Prius I found it quite amusing.
The Jetta TDI claims that it gets 58 miles per gallon (mpg), breaking the record for all current “gasoline” fueled cars, even beating the Toyota Prius - a hybrid. I might have grown skeptical in my old age, but I’m having a hard time swallowing this claim to fuel economy. What, were they driving 20 mph on the highway and never stopping?
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It is interesting to note that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lists the vehicle as getting an estimated 30 mpg city/41mpg highway - and that’s running the air conditioner (a claim of the commercial). Do you want to take bets on a “false advertising” campaign circulating in the blogosphere?
I know this car appeals to a lot of people. According to the commercial it’s fun to drive and makes a great “vroom, vroom” sound that is “missing” in the Prius. For those who are concerned about fuel economy this car, comparably speaking, gets good gas mileage. It could also be argued that it’s ahead of the curve of the new fuel economy standards that were passed last week. This new policy will go into effect in 2012 and ramp up through 2016 and will require passenger cars and light trucks to get an overall average of 35.5 mpg by 2016 (it is currently 23.1) while cars are expected to average 39 mpg (currently 27.5) and trucks will be required to get 30 mpg.
Interesting policy considering hybrids like the Prius already exceed these new standards. I’m not going to debate the new fuel economy standards but I will say that it doesn’t go far enough on reducing our use of fossil fuels. America needs to support technologies that have a greater impact on reducing our dependence of oil like flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs), electric vehicles (EVs), plug-in, flex-fuel hybrids, hydrogen, and others.
I wonder what car company will go after hybrids next….
I had a 2009 Jetta TDI and got 51MPG routinely going from Austin to Dallas. The 58MPG was done by a couple of hypermilers driving thousands of miles across the country. I drove a Prius for the weekend and got 40MPG.
My ‘09 Jetta TDI (named Loretta) averages in the mid 40s - that’s a mix of in-town & highway. 58 was the record and I believe the people who did it only did 55 mph at most. It’s nice that it tells you what you’re current MPG is so you can learn how to drive and get better mileage.
A Prius would probably be a good bet if all you do is in-town stop & go driving - since it has regenerative braking and can charge with the brakes. But if you do more highway miles, the TDIs rock. Also, VWs are just better designed and dang does Loretta have a lot of trunk space, which I use every bit of.
It’s nice that diesel is back to being cheaper than gas. But what I really want is for VW to NOT void your warranty for using over 5% biodiesel. Wish they would jump on the biodiesel wagon - B5 seems much harder to find than B20. And Loretta wants to be a volksvegan!
My 1999.5 TDI averages in the mid 40s. I think it’s quite appropriate for VW to point out they have had high mileage technology in production for 10 years :-).
Now, let’s see a TDI-hybrid running B100…
I had a 1986 VW Golf Diesel that got 55 mpg when I stayed at the 55mph speed limit. That was 23 years ago.. They might be able to do what they claim. Only problem for VW is that diesel is always more expensive than gasoline. Just wonder if they used materials that allow it to use biodiesel?
All power to whomever improves on the gold standard for fuel efficiency as long as they’re really doing that and then leaving a vehicle with ample space to justify driving instead of riding a scooter or public transportation.
I’ve got to blow my Prius’ horn. Almost 130,000 miles, average 50 mpg, with four people and two large dogs. I’m nuts to write this out loud but it’s only needed new tires since I bought it in 2004. For 18 months I drove 140 highway miles a day to work and shuttled kids locally when not working. I’ve never encountered anything with the Prius that I haven’t been able to get inside it: Five arborvitae trees; two adirondack chairs; a rolled 12 x 13 foot rug; bicycles. It goes on and on.
diesel has been 10-20 cents cheaper than 87 gasoline in San Diego for the past few months…this is a big change from where it was a year ago. I have an 09 TDI as well, so I’m happy to see the prices reverse. I am bummed that I can’t run over 5% biodiesel…otherwise, its been a great car.
I drive around in an old Peugeot 106 diesel and get 70mpg out of it - at motorway speeds! Oh yeah, and I’m British, so our gallons are larger than yours, so UK observers have a tendency to laugh at such paltry aims as 30-odd mpg for all cars by 20-whatever, only because we’ve forgotten that you guys use different conversion factors!
US liquid gallon = 3.8 litres
UK (Imperial) gallon = 4.5 litres - nearly 20% more, hence UK mpg figures are 20% higher too!
Damn: my Peugeot’s not so good after all…
I have 1300 miles on my ‘09 TDI Sportwagon. It’s a lot funner to drive than the Prius, definitely. But I’ve only been getting 32 mpg. That’s still great compared to where most cars are, but it’s not getting the 40’s like the hype factory rumored.
I met another guy on the road who swore they got mid forties all the time. How could it be so different? I’m wondering if VW manufacturing isn’t consistent and some are winners and some losers.
Certainly I wanted to believe the rumors that the EPA underrated it, but that has not been true for me yet.
Truth in advertising is an oxymoron. It is clearly a very high mileage car. That’s good. But we will not get much more out of that technology unless we build diesel hybrids. Cost is the limiting factor to that combination.
The Jetta costs about $5K more than the new Insight:
http://biodiversivist.blogspot.com/2009/04/first-sighting-of-new-honda-insight.html
And whatever you do, don’t burn crop based biodiesel in one. Also demand proof from your biodiesel distributor that they really use waste grease instead of virgin oils. I suspect some are starting to make false claims now that demand for waste grease biodiesel is high.
Flex-fuel cars are also old school. If you are concerned about energy independence, drive a high mileage car. The highest mpg flex fuel car in the states is 19 mpg:
http://gas2.org/2009/05/11/biofuel-industry-%E2%80%93-no-money-no-respect/
For every 1.25 gallons of corn ethanol one gallon of it came from fossil fuels. Flex fuel cars are competing high mileage cars for car sales, hampering innovation.
People still think the Prius gets its best mileage in the city. My wife got 58 mpg on a 40 mile highway trip yesterday in a Prius (at 65 mph). Priuses always get much better mileage on the highway.
Andy, get your foot out of the accelerator! If you treat it nicely it will get better mileage. Also, it will improve once you break it in a little more, it’s still very tight.
The problem (in my opinion) with pushing hybrids and EVs is that you have batteries to dispose of later. There are other technologies that are more useful, Biodiesel for one, boosted ethanol (made from cane not corn) engines.
The commercial from VW is misleading though, the 58mpg was some hypermilers driving over several thousand miles, same type of situation with the Fusion Hybrid getting 70+mpg.