best new car for money and mpg's

[Southcross]

if it were my money for a highway cruiser... I was paying for the car in full... etc etc

2009 VW TDI Jetta... Chip it... put a CAT back exhaust on it... hypermile it and be happy

[theunchosen]

Hondas are pretty reliable. I trust mine 3-400 miles away from anyone I know and its at 257K miles with no mechanical work whatsoever(other than previous idiot switching my gears).

[theunchosen]

If you are going to be drving that much the only thing that ought to matter is mileage lol. . .

if you drove 500 Miles a week. . .
A jetta would (estimated 60 mpg) need 8.3 gallons of diesel
A Insight would(estimate 70mpg) need 7.14 gallons of gas.

If you averaged 500 a week the diesel would cost 19.09(diesel of 2.30?)
"" Insight would be 14.28. 5 bucks a week with the insight or 250 a year. If prices go up the difference will be more. I think your malibu gets 30? at 30 it costs twice as much to drive it around as the Insight(30 a week).

Used Insight will also be cheaper initially than the Jetta. Can take the extra money and hook up with a power pack from another wrecked one and some flexible solar panels to put in the front and back windows to boost FE potentially 5-10% again depending on battery pack retention and if you drop an additional unit in.

[Southcross]

isn't 70mpg based on running on the battery, typically city driving?

oh... and Run B10 (10% Biodiesel), its certified by VW to not void the warranty and its more environmental friendly

**I'm only slightly biased to VW cars.... now if the Honda(s) came in a TDI/Turbo Diesel... hmmmm

[theunchosen]

Originally Posted by Southcross

isn't 70mpg based on running on the battery, typically city driving?

oh... and Run B10 (10% Biodiesel), its certified by VW to not void the warranty and its more environmental friendly

**I'm only slightly biased to VW cars.... now if the Honda(s) came in a TDI/Turbo Diesel... hmmmm

not really. There are users here that get that. There are also users here that get over 100.

It could still be slightly lowered over stock and one thing that would heavily improve its IMA is passive energy collection. Flexible panels flush along the roof and in the front dash and rear would not provide a huge amount of power but its power you don't get from gas and when you are already squeezing out 70 mpg any "little" thing on a 35 mpg car has 2x as much effect if its drawing fuel. Although it would be expensive if the OP is covering 500 mpw a 10% FE increase might pay off quicker(half gallon a week at 70 mpg to 77.)

If he were planning on going solar with his house at the same time and just shoved one panel onto the rear window deck it would whipe out 50% of fuel consumed to power the alternator during the day.

I dont know how warm the front hood of the insight gets, but like most ICE cars it probably gets too hot to mount a panel there. Also that would influence the aero. . .

[Southcross]

What I really like about the TDI engine for highway is the massive amount of torque it has for a 4cyl. It has no problem keeping speed in a head wind, pulls excessively well with hills... and as a friend of mine proved: He had a TDI that was chipped, had larger injectors, a larger turbo and he drove it like it was a $5 hooker.... and STILL got 45mpg

[theunchosen]

I think the OP is really looking almost strictly for FE. He drives 300-1000 mpw so a difference in 45-70 mpg for a car that has alot more oomph, is going to make a huge dent in is his budget. Also a 2009 TDI starts at 22K with epa of 41 and the Insights can be had for 10K without substantial wear with an epa of 70.

If I am going to pick a place to start modding for FE I'm going to start with 70. Its not impossible to get that out of the TDI, I'm not saying that. But it will take some effort to get from 55 to 70.

Also with the 10K in savings you could coat the Insight in really expensive solar panels that will mount flush(flexible) add 3 more reasonably sized motors and have an EV for around town that passively recharges for free, or drives for free for the first 40 miles-60 miles on a battery pack(not the stock one) then switches to gasoline until the pack is fully recharged by passive recharging(regen braking and solar) and then switches back.

Cars For Sale: Car Details - AutoTrader.com
Here you go. Sell off the engine and trans if you like and save the weight. drop 3 more 10Kw motors put them on the wheel hubs, add a much larger power back to get you 100 miles(I think the Insight can get away with 20 hp at 60? so 20 KWh. If you can find them in wrecked Priusae that would be the way to go otherwise you own't get the ev range) and slap solar panels all over it.

500 miles per week is 100 per work day. So assuming you do all the driving all at once you need at least that much power(20 KWh). The panels would boost you outside the danger range of the batteries if you drove half parked and then drove back. so 50 miles in the morning and 50 at 5, you could recover 8 kwh to keep the batteries outside of the below 50% range.

Seriously lol Buy an old insight sell off all its ICE parts(radiator, diffs, trans, fuel pumps, muffler, catalytic converter, ecu,) rip out everything you can't sell(intakes, exhausts, fuel tank) You can probably make back a grand parting that out, find 3 wrecked insights and buy their IMA motors and bolt your 4 IMA motors to the wheel hubs. You scrapped 3-400 pounds of just engine and trans plus other little tid bits. The weight would be well invested in battery packs and solar everywhere.

If your driving is more round-trip lean towards solar more than battery packs because the solar can recoupe almost 50% of your spent energy on a sunny day(9-5 work day). If its usually a shorter stay at work or longer range(more than 50 miles to work) you'll need lots more batteries and probably a charging station at work.

If you really want to go for the gold. . .Leave your house as soon as the suns up and stay at work until you have just enough time to make it home without flipping on the headlights. Then you maximize recovery between trips and then just have to pay the power company to recharge it overnight. So you get -50-70% of your charge for free and pay for the other 30%.

[Southcross]

well then... wait a few years (2012 model year?)...
VW TDI Polo...
Geneva 2009 - New Volkswagen Polo

The potential in the new TDI engines is clearly evident in the example of the Polo 1.6 TDI with 66 kW / 90 PS: when combined with a "BlueMotion package", its average fuel consumption of 3.8 liters per 100 kilometers and 96 g/km CO2 makes it the most fuel efficient and lowest emitting five-seater diesel in the world.

edit.... oh and put zero faith in the EPA estimates for most Diesels as they base them off the California emissions standard (a joke )... VW had to tune back their timing to appease CA emissions standards for fear of loosing a large segment of West Coast customers. A Chip fixes that, and oddly enough still passes emissions in CA (why CA emissions deserves the )

[PaleMelanesian]

You might look at the Cobalt XFE. Pretty low cost, pretty good mileage. Depreciation is bad, so a lightly used one might be a better bet.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Southcross

isn't 70mpg based on running on the battery, typically city driving?

Not with the Insight. Its hybrid system works differently from the Prius, and it can't (normally, anyway) run on the battery alone. Instead, the electric motor provides a boost when accelerating or climbing hills, allowing it to use the very small gas engine efficiently at cruising speed.

My own experience, and I've owned one for about six years now, is that it will get very much better mph in highway cruising, especially if you can manage speed & road conditions to stay in the "lean burn" zone. For long distance driving, though, the speeds for that are likely to be a bit below average freeway speed. If you try to keep a consistent 70 mph or more, you'll see mpg drop to 50-55 range.