Edmunds.com smart vs prius vs jetta vs focus

[smarteepants]

Fuel economy video on Youtube. I found it very interesting, and very similar to my own experiences.

[jwight]

Good comparison, if a bit on the apples to oranges side. No doubt a hybrid is the way to go for maximum fuel economy, and diesels do well also. The VW shown is a 2005 model, not available now. Will have to see how the new VW diesels do on mpg but the torque mentioned is a strong point if you do a lot of mountain driving. That still leaves the smart looking pretty good for a non-hybrid, gasoline powered car.

[stevenvillatoro]

Balanced and unbiased reporting... what a concept! A pleasant surprise.

[Razorback]

I didn't hear ANY comparison between prices of cars either. For an honest comparison all different aspects need to be addressed for total overall cost vs price.

[anthony94114]

The test of city mileage in on the Las Vegas Strip.. a totally flat street would also only illustrate the best of conditions. I wouldn't trust this as an indicator of what people will really get in their own environments (hills are brutal on gas mileage) but I do think it was a relatively un-biased report. Odd that they wouldn't even test the newer Jetta, but interesting. Rare.

[stevenvillatoro]

Originally Posted by anthony94114

The test of city mileage in on the Las Vegas Strip.. a totally flat street would also only illustrate the best of conditions. I wouldn't trust this as an indicator of what people will really get in their own environments (hills are brutal on gas mileage) but I do think it was a relatively un-biased report. Odd that they wouldn't even test the newer Jetta, but interesting. Rare.

It only tests one car relative to another under three controlled conditions. The test was reasonable.

[bradgarbus]

That's funny, based on the research I have done, that is right on target. I can't wait to get my smart!

[garys]

Based on short term results the video seems to do a fairly good job of describing the pros and cons of the different cars but it really has two big faults that should be addressed if your doing a true comparison of operating and environmental costs.

1) like Razorback pointed out they should have factored in the cost of the car into their last comparison.

2) When buying any hybrid one needs to take into consideration the batteries, not just the incremental cost of the purchase price but the environmental costs of building the batteries and disposing of the batteries.

Also, I have yet to see a definitive statement of battery life and what the replacement cost will be. If the batteries only last say 75k then you would need at least two sets of batteries during the cars useful life further mucking up the comparisons.

I also found the overall gas price vs mileage figures interesting. In Oregon, where I live there is a $0.60 difference in price between premium and diesel fuel so one would need to factor in the differences in fuel price based on their particular routes, more city or less city could make a huge difference.

I think if a little more effort had gone into the points based comparison the smart would have moved up in the list not down.

gary

[saskdiesel]

See this thread which is just down this page.
http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/for...jetta-tdi.html

[SnakeFarm]

Originally Posted by Razorback

I didn't hear ANY comparison between prices of cars either. For an honest comparison all different aspects need to be addressed for total overall cost vs price.

They keep forgetting that people don't want to save gas. They want to save money. That's different.

Also, I get pretty tired of them ignoring the total environmental impact versus the greenhouse gas theroy stuff. Fortwos have a MUCH smaller overall impact because of real world factual environmental impacts such as all those dirty chemicals in the batteries, non-recyclable metal body panels yada yada yada.