Eco-conscious car showdown, VW Jetta TDI up against Toyota Prius
 

Video from Volkswagen’s*TDI Blog. http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?hos...el&ref=&feed=1

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showed that prius whos boss

I'm one who likes both Toyota and VWs. Toyota has great quality and long lasting trucks. I have a 2wd tacoma that has towed my corrados around for at least 50k miles and across the coutry and up and down the mountains without problems over the last 300k miles. Most of the their cars are rather boring and this includes the Hybrid. If you like the fun to drive factor as much as the sipper economy then the TDI is probably where its at.

Also I find the hybrid cars to be too quite when cruising through a busy nieghborhood with kids in the street. :booo:

yeah, hybrids are too quiet.
In terms of long-term longevity and servicability, I'd be willing to bet the Jetta would be a better pick.

at a straight up dragrace the tdi might not be the fastest but all around driving it wins hands down.

The TDI has a massive torque to weight ratio allowing for a great driving experience. What it doesn't have is displacement so as stated when going above 100 MPH you really can't get it to move much faster in a foot race because there isn't anymore volume there. I've pushed my TDI to 170 KM/h and it felt like it was going to fall apart. The benz on the other hand just hums along at that speed.

The one thing that has alway bothered me about VW is there cheap quality after about 4 or 5 years of ownership. The stupidest things break and are sometimes hard to fix. That said, they make great daily drivers and are cheap to run.

On driving television (a canadian program) the Jetta TDI was the only car that actually met and then beat the posted mileage statements of the gov't sticker. Not even a single hybrid could do that. The north american public really need to stop getting sucked in by the big 3 marketing groups and really start thinking about true efficiency.

IE: the most fuel efficient sedan on the road apparently is the Ford Focus yet both the Jetta and the Passat TDI both get better economy and are better for the environment? The GM Traverse is the most fuel efficient cross over yet my R Class (sure it is likely twice as much) gets better mileage hands down.

It won't change until the customer becomes educated.:choochoo: