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….
SLVR6,
Batteries are recycled, not disposed of. Like the metal used to make a car, the lithium and lead are reused. Ethanol does not “boost” engines, it degrades their mileage. Not all biodiesel is created equal. Using virgin oils screws with food prices and damages ecosystems.
I think the 2010 Golf TDI being slightly less weight will do even better than the 30/41mpg combination published by the EPA. A Golf TDI 4-door will be available making it even more maneuvable in city traffic and parking in tight spaces over it’s sister Jetta.
I am going to wait till September or October when they start hitting the U.S. Also not bad is the 6th generation GTI with a more aggressive stance and much improved interior layout. It’s mileage is still very honorable at 32mpg on the highway.
Wow!!! I suppose that Ford Fusion hybrid never got 1440 miles on a single tank of fuel either. With the assumption that they only stopped to change drivers in that 34+ hour stint, the average speed in the Washington D.C. area and on the beltway was just over 20 MPH. the average fuel mileage was over 80 MPG. Yes it was done by hypermiling experts. And it was on a week-end which would reduce the traffic.
Sorry Prius cheerleaders, but the mileage ratings for the Prius were also obtained by conservative driving in a manner that was best suited for the MPG ratings. The big increase in MPG averages for diesel powered vehicles, especially in the city is a result of the operation cycle of the diesel engine that does not have “pumping losses”.
Chuck,
We consistently get 50 + mpg highway in our Prius. Not a big deal.
Of course it’s misleading. They forgot to mention that the Prius has achieved well over 100mpg in similar hypermiling experiments.
And a diesel is *not* a good sounding engine, even a turbo. It sounds like a backhoe. Lol, some construction equipment have turbos too.
Oh, and we get 50+ in our Prius, too, without doing anything but driving it like a normal car on mixed highway/city.
And yes, highway is usually better. Stop-and-go LA traffic is particularly good for the Prius MPG’s, which softens that pain a bit I guess…
The reason ‘09 TDI drivers can’t use more than B5 biodiesel is simply the type of emission system VW chose that periodically regenerates the diesel particulate filter(DPF). The DPF is burned off periodically by an extra squirt of fuel into the regular combustion chambers. If more than B5 is used, too much unburned fuel will end up in your engine oil and this may destroy a TDI engine over time.
Another technology (one not chosen by VW) allows for the fuel injection to occur downstream by adding an extra injector closer to the DPF. With this in-stream injection, biodiesel is actually superior to diesel fuel, because the oxygenated fuel more completely burns off the DPF thereby resulting in less frequent burn offs and less engine backpressure.
VW chose the cheaper version thereby disregarding the ability to use high blends of renewable fuel.
I suspect that the new TDI’s fuel economy is highly underrated by the EPA. My ‘06, with the older 1.9-liter, under the new fuel economy standards is rated at 33 mpg, overall. I have gotten below 40 only once when the car was new. I drive conservatively, about 70% highway (62 mph, mostly highway commute, curvy/hilly roads), and I average 46.5 in the winter and 47.5 in the summer and that’s after taking out the possibility of a odometer error. I subtract 4% after dividing the miles driven by the gallons pumped in. When I was able to find B20, I lost only about one mpg, however, the car ran smoother and quieter.
A certified, independent company estimated the ‘09 Jetta TDI automatic and came up with 38 city/44 highway. They did not test the manual, but it probably would have done a little better.
I’m not sure which group exaggerates more; Prius owners or TDI owners, but I like my chances running my windy-road commute in my ‘06 Jetta TDI manual against a Prius and I’ll even run 20% biodiesel. If we were able to put each power train into the same car, I like my chances even better. The Prius is designed specifically for those green-minded folks. The TDI goes in the same car as the regular gas guzzlers, so the technologies are not truly compared.
Sure–A Prius can win in strictly in town driving, but if one is only driving in the city, then he or she doesn’t really burn that much on fuel anyway, since he or she is not driving that many miles. I must drive 16K miles per year to get to work and back. The whole concept of parallel hybrids doesn’t even make since for people who actually drive on the road where the electric motor does nothing but weight down the vehicle. The Prius does well on the highway because of the entire set up for the vehicle to excel in fuel economy; not because it’s a hybrid.
A serial hybrid, like the upcoming Volt; now that’s a different story.
The VW hypermiler experiment with the Austrailan couple is well documented, http://www.vwvortex.com/artman/publish/volkswagen_news/article_2508.shtml, and most importantly worth evaluating prior to suggesting false advertising, although anything is possible in the blogosphere.
Reducing dependency on fossil fuels and lowering CO2 will require many solutions like you say (although the Sec of Energy has killed funding for hydrogen). This includes flex fuel vehicles, plug in electrics and “other” in your terms, meaning clean diesel cars like the Jetta TDI that get 20-40 percent more mpg than a similar gasoline car.
Your last comment about which company will “go after hybrids next” exemplifies the problem with this debate. If told often enough people develop a mindset that regardless of economics, real world performance or any other factors, if it is a hybrid it must be good and if not a hybrid it therefore must be bad. Have you driven the Jetta TDI ?
While hybrid technologies are very viable and worthy technologies of saving energy, they are not the only ones out there, as many respondents are reporting ver good fuel economy with a clean diesel as well as a nybrid. NOt everyone wants a hybrid nor would find an optimum benefit or value for their specific needs; some might like a diesel and some stick with smaller very fuel efficient gasoline engines.
It’s not that companies are attacking hybrids– in fact VW has hybrids in its future as well. More at http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/feb2009/gb20090211_050836.htm
Many are waiting for a diesel hybrid vehicle that would be very hard to beat from a fuel efficiency http://www.hybridcars.com/news/volkswagen-diesel-hybrid-pipe-dream.htmlperspective.