Hybrid: Reality - Article - Road and Track They test a 2010 Prius II, a 2010 VW Golf TDI, and a European Ford Fiesta. In 9 tests drives the Prius has the highest mileage in every test. Cumulatively they drove 336 miles and got Prius 54.5 MPG, Golf TDI 42.7 MPG, and Ford Fiesta 40.8 MPG for results.
336 miles? I mean...yay for Prius, but for goodness sakes, can't they put a couple thousand miles on these cars? 336 miles is 2/3rds of a tank for me.
Agreed. Edmunds did a similar test with the G3 Prius, Jetta TDI, Insight II, Mini and Fusion hybrid. But they drove from LA to Vegas ( leg 1 ) on back roads then checked the results; then they drove 200+ miles in the city around Vegas ( leg 2 ) and checked the results; then they took the Interstate trip back from Vegas to LA ( leg 3 ) and checked the results. The Prius G3 easily won all three legs in terms of fuel economy. Fuel Sipper Smackdown 2: Which Car Gets the Best Fuel Economy? EDIT: Now after actually reading the article.. :rockon: ..I'd say that R&T did a reasonable job of testing the vehicles on a good variety of actual driving environments.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to show people how average speed is calculated and what the average speed number SHOULD look like. Most people assume that if the speed limit on my commute to work is 30mph, then their average speed is 30mph. No it is not. Even witha 60mph segment, they averaged 25mph. I know a few people here have comment on how "slow" we drive because our average speed on the trip computer is 20mph.
I didn't get a chance to read the article carefully, but they should've pointed out what all 3 cars (might not know for the Fiesta) really count towards with unfudged EPA dyno numbers since that's what the "35.5 mpg" is based off of. The Prius and Jetta TDI should both already be FAR above 35.5 mpg combined, esp. the Prius.
The "unadjusted" EPA mileage data are available at Download the Fuel Economy Database (2010 datafile). According to that source, the unadjusted mileage for the 2010 Prius is 72.0/69.6/70.9 mpg (city/highway/combined); VW Golf/Jetta/Audi A3 TDI 38.8/60.1/46.2. Ford Fiesta not reported in the latest version (2010) that I could find.
Did the Fiesta really average 40.8? The trip totals box says it got 34mpg. Good to see that both the Prius and Golf beat their EPA ratings.
I subscribe to R&T, and read the dead trees version of this article, then linked to the online article. I thought that for a car mag, it was unbiased and well written. (No mention of Geo Metros, for example) There are no differences between the paper and online mileage of the Prius or the Golf, but the Fiesta has quite different numbers Test Paper Online Ratio 1ES 38.1 31.7 5/4 2SS 43.8 36.5 5/4 3MS 42.1 35.1 5/4 4CC 34.4 28.6 5/4 5FW 41.5 34.5 5/4 6DC 42.8 35.5 5/4 7TL 32.2 26.8 5/4 8CC 46.8 39.0 5/4 9CC 44.4 37.0 5/4 I am noticing a trend here... They (and I) mentioned it was a European spec Fiesta, they also mention using the onboard trip computers. I bet the Fiesta reported imperial gallons rather than US gallons, and no one caught it until after the paper version went to press. (Too bad, with a 20% fudge factor, the Fiesta was quite competitive with the Golf. I find it odd there is no comment mentioning the error )
In this month's paper Road and Track they have an error report, explaining that they used imperial gallons as if they were US gallons.
