The (Relative) Truth About Efficiency
Nothing like a well-run long-distance fuel economy comparison to cut through the hype and exaggerations. Edmunds took the 2010 Prius, 2010 Insight, 2009 Jetta TDI, 2010 Fusion Hybrid, and a 2009 Mini Cooper on a carefully-controlled outing from L.A. to Las Vegas and back, including back roads with steep grades through Death Valley one way; 200 miles of tedious city driving in Sin City; and I-15 back to L.A. The results shouldn’t be very controversial, since they’re reasonably close to EPA numbers. But TDI fanatics swear the EPA tests undercount diesels. Not according to this test. Here’s the skinny:
UPDATE: Here is an elevation change graph. The left point is Edmunds’ offices in Santa Monica, CA, and the right point is Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, and the elev. change is calculated from a route that is all freeway. This is intended to provide a general guide to the grades the test drivers might have faced; we do not know their exact route.
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@niky besides the theoretical heavy right feet of the testers, there's also a fuel economy penalty when you take into account the smaller American gallon versus the Imperial gallon. 1. Nobody uses Imperial gallons but the British 2. I would guess that most TTAC readers own a calculator and/or a computer and are able to convert between Imperial MPG, American MPG and l/100km, because that's stuff you learn in school... 3. Whenever I post fuel Economy figures in MPG, it's American MPG because TTAC is mostly populated by American readers. @svik I have to say I enjoyed the Bmw a lot. I drove about 200km up and down winding roads on the Italian mountains and it was a blast. I wish I could have tested the same car with the other 3 engine settings. The automatic transmission had two position, economy and sport. However I sometime I did not agree with the automatic behavior, but I guess that is the price to pay. The obvious solution is the 118d with the manual transmission. I own one and love it. The 120d only feels quicker on the Autobahn, but i don't like the shorter gearing in it. The 123d is a beast.
Ah. Just making sure. We always have an awful ruckus when discussing MPG on another site... since half the members are Brit and half are American. Too bad we don't get the other 1-series diesels where I live... but I've sampled the 120d and it's an absolute joy to drive. I only regret not being able to try the newer ones with the lighter engine blocks... as you can really feel the weight difference between the older diesels and the gasoline units when driving hard.