Volkswagen Golf TDI vs Toyota Prius Shootout: Who Makes the Best All Around Economiser?

Since Volkswagen's little oil-burner can trump Honda's latest in hybrid  tech, how about we up the ante and compare a quattroporte version with the world's most notorious gasoline scrooge, the hyper-hybrid Prius? At a combined EPA rating of 50 mpg (FYI, 93 Prius owners are currently reporting an average of 48.8 mpg at www.fueleconomy.org), the Prius runs away with the mpg  facet of this contest.

By contrast, our TDI offers an impressive -- but in this lofty company, comparably feeble -- 34 combined EPA mpg. Recomputed the way it ought to be, as gallons per 100 miles, the Prius requires 2.0 gallons to cover a Benja-mile, the Golf, 2.94, or 47 percent greater consumption per mile. As Queen Victoria was gently (and probably apocryphally) answered while watching the yacht America run away with the Hundred Guinea Cup race in 1851 (today's America's Cup), "Your majesty, there is no second."






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asternmadkatz - 8/18/2010 11:50:26 AM

+1 Boost

I would take 47% penalty...would have way more fun driving a Golf than a Prius.

Agent009 - 8/18/2010 1:34:06 PM

0 Boost

It is odd. I guess it all depends. You can post all you want about Toyota's better reliability and in this case frugality. But when it comes to dynamics and crash worthiness it all flips the other direction.

Just goes to show a vehicle is a compromise. Just where are you willing to make the compromise?

pennfootball - 8/18/2010 2:14:45 PM

+2 Boost

The golf doesn't have a 1500 dollar A/C compressor, a 3500 battery, or a 1200 dollar battery coolant pump that goes KAPUT!

WorldofLuxury - 8/18/2010 4:07:25 PM

+2 Boost

At least Toyota is supposedly coming out with an immediate successor.
*Ahem Honda Insight. You listening?

TDIowner - 8/18/2010 7:36:55 PM

-1 Boost

I don't know what you are talking about.

I owned a 2000 Golf TDI manual that by time it was sold (160k miles) was still returning 53mpg on every tank. The new 2010 Golf TDI manual that I use now can sustain 57-63 mpg.

Those EPA numbers mean little to me.

Willis - 8/18/2010 8:51:51 PM

-2 Boost

The EPA is a joke.

I find it funny that they always seem to suck up to Toyota while giving other manufacturers low fuel economy ratings - which are later disputed by owners reporting much better mileage than the silly little organization called EPA claimed they would get.

And I'd take the Golf TDI hands down.

rubenkincaid - 8/18/2010 8:32:42 PM

+3 Boost

VW, hands down for a better all-around vehicle.

TDIowner - 8/19/2010 7:57:01 AM

+2 Boost

To get my TDI to around 20s mpg I have to drive in 3rd gear at 5000 rpm. Or get to the max speed in 4th gear and stay there. Maybe that is what EPA does all day long.
When I drive it in 6th under 2000 rpm I am already illegally fast and see wonderful numbers on the MPG display.

veyron1001 - 8/19/2010 10:51:42 PM

+1 Boost

76MPH?

GolfTDISPIE - 7/4/2011 8:16:37 PM

+1 Boost

my Golf TDI photos http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0041RSPRS?ie=UTF8&tag=201199-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B0041RSPRS

GolfTDISPIE - 7/4/2011 8:18:06 PM

+1 Boost

again
[url]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0041RSPRS?ie=UTF8&tag=201199-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B0041RSPRS
[/url]