Mom looking at new car, Jetta hybrid?

[RedDevil]

Europe has the Auris Hybrid Touring Sports, which combines all the good of a Prius with more conventional looks and lots of boot space: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Auris


My brother in law has one and is quite satisfied.

I believe they started to sell the Auris in the US as a Scion iM or something, now rebranded as Toyota Corolla?

[MetroMPG]

That's a nice looking wagon.

They did start selling the iM in Canada/U.S., but only the hatchback, not the estate. And only non-hybrid. Originally it was sold under Scion, but then they shut down Scion and moved the remaining cars to the Toyota dealers.

[RedDevil]

Japan has the Honda Fit Hybrid Wagon.
My neighbour has a regular Fit (Jazz) Hybrid. His wife needs a wheelchair; it easily fits in the boot when folded in.
The Fit Wagon can take a wheelchair unfolded.
It would be huge if they sold it over here, but they don't. Honda, why?

[MobilOne]

To me, the killing of the Scion brand was stupid. It had a niche market that a Corolla brand name will not quite match. Hopefully the brand killing will cost the new USA Toyota manager his career.

[GJJC]

Go for the Toyota - if the Prius is too big, she could perhaps have a look at the Yaris? A bit smaller however just as much for and great to drive!

[Natalya]

I already knew to avoid VW before the emissions scandal. Everyone I know who has or had a VW was always spending big bucks to get them fixed. Reliability is important.

[Xist]

As we say here, friends don't let friends drive Volkswagens.

[MobilOne]

You might look at the Prius C which is really a Yaris hybrid.

[Daox]

The Prius C is going to be too small for her. She really likes the size of her Jetta Sportwagen. I keep telling her to look at the Prius. She will cave eventually.

So, last night we went to the local VW dealer to see what they had available. Really, not too much. We drove there only Sportwagen, a 2015 with their 1.8T engine. She wasn't impressed. It seemed slower to her and the gas mileage was way lower than her diesel (duh, but she doesn't know). You can also get it with the 1.4T, but that'll have even less power. She also looked at the Golfs, but they were too small for her. So, we took a quick jaunt over to the local Ford dealer which was just across the street. We looked at their C-max, Focus hatch, and the dealer tried to talk to her about the Escape which she wasn't interested in. She seemed to like the Focus hatch, but they didn't have one available to drive and it was already late.

She is interested in looking at other alternatives. Prius or Prius V is a shoe in IMO, and she'll probably look at those at some point. Her 2011 TDI is rated for 39 mpg highway (she does primarily country road driving), so something around that would be what she is looking for. She also really likes the hatch / wagon for utility. I think a Focus with the 1.0L turbo would be nice to try out. I'm not sure its going to have enough zip for her, but thats rated at 40 or 42 hwy depending if you get the SFE trim or not. The regular 5 speed with 2.0L is rated for 36 which is okay, auto trans brings that up to 40 mpg (jeez short gearing much?). She has historically driven manual trans. The Jetta was her first auto in years. She'd be fine with either I think.

Thanks for the help guys. Keep the suggestions coming.

[MetroMPG]

1.0L Focus will be a dog. She'll hate it.

I'd love to try one.