Gas-Sipper Smackdown! smart, Prius, Focus, Jetta TDI

[stan1174]

Gas-Sipper Smackdown!

[bottlerocket]

The Prius isn't a fair fight IMO. Nowhere near in the same category as the other three.

Overall good comparison nonetheless

[Docthrock]

Seems like a mishmash comparison, but interesting and fair data, and a fun little read. A hybrid, a diesel and a couple gassers? Now, factor in purchase price and long term ownership costs, smart looks a LOT closer to the top. Time will tell!

Thanks for the link!

[curtis]

yeah, so if you take out the Diesel and the Hybrid the Smart wins in a TKO! ding! ding! ding!

[Alustiza]

Isn't it amazing that the diesel, even a 2005 model, beat the Smart in green house gases?

[Guarana81]

I made up a formula to integrate initial cost of the vehicle into this test and I came out with some numbers. I'm not sure they make sense so let me know if im crazy but anyways, I took initial cost of the vehicle plus (12000 miles divided by average mpg) times (us gas average 5/19 3.791) [i used 3.991 for premium for smart and 4.497 for diesel] here are my numbers. first year of driving your car with the mpg's this site calculated you get.
Toyota Prius $22,453.71
VW Jetta TDI $22,731.77
Ford Focus $17,441.13
smart fortwo $12,787.30

I used the base initial price for each car. I thought it was interesting

[jwight]

To be fair, the Pure is the base smart but most folks buy the Passion & Cabrio. I'm guessing using those initial costs would get a lot closer to the Focus.

[Guarana81]

add 2000 for passion and 5000 for cabrio so its a little more than a focus if you get a cabrio but the cabrio costs more than the stock focus anyways

[Guarana81]

personally I would much rather drive a loaded smart cabrio than a stock focus but thats just me

[saskdiesel]

Those diesel VW's rock.
No wonder people keep them forever and sell them with 500 000km on the odo.