If the "clean diesel" is not for you, there's always the option of a Ford with 1.0 liter gasoline engine: About $16,000 for the Fiesta 1.0 - And $18,000 for the Focus 1.0 with hybrid-style stop/start system They get 40 and 41 mpg on the EPA highway test, and they cost $6000 to 8000 less than a base Prius or Civic Hybrid. LINK: 2015 Ford Focus SE 1.0L EcoBoost Sedan Test – Review – Car and Driver
Half as long as what? A hybrid? I doubt it. The previous owner of my Insight hybrid said he had to replace the battery at 40,000 miles. At $2500 that's a major, major expense. I doubt either of Ford's 1.0 engines will have any major failure like that.
And the Gen 1 Insight and Gen 7 Civic Hybrid were known for their battery failures. Even the Gen 1 Prius isn't that bad (hell, Gen 0 probably wasn't that bad either - AFAIK it used the same type of cells as the Insight and Civic, but Toyota probably didn't hit them as hard). Turbo failures are absolutely a potential issue on the 1.0 EcoBoost - especially if you're having to get on it shortly after a cold startup, causing thermal stress to the turbocharger. That could range from expensive, to really expensive, depending on how bad the failure is.
Nonsense. Turbochargers are FAR more reliable than batteries (which dry-out, or leak, or become unbalanced & no longer work). In contrast turbos are just dime or nickel-sized fans.... much simpler than a 120-cell battery.
Have you actually owned a turbocharged vehicle? The "dime-sized fans" (they're actually bigger than that, mind you) can wear out due to foreign object damage, they can wear out due to lubrication failure, they can suffer thermal shock, they can overspeed, they can experience surge causing the shaft to bend. The controls can fail, causing some of these problems (overboost, underboost and overspeed). Now, these engines don't have VNT mechanisms, but those can stick, causing control issues, and they can require replacement of the turbo depending on severity, too.
I think your engineering is faulty and you are making assumptions concerning reliability information.
Turbos are cooled by water and lubricated by the engine oil. Many hoses (hot air, inlet/outlet also) and control devices. Any failure (as expected since is a rotating mechanical equipment) can cause domino effects in the other equipments - engine itself.
Depends on the turbo - many are cooled by the oil, including the one in the Golf TDI I had. However, the Ford 1.0 EcoBoost does use a watercooled turbo.
Just jumping in: The Ford 1.0 turbo is the size of a "dime". The entire engine block fits in a carryon luggage.
Pretty much. Both Fiesta and Focus are on Consumer Reports' least reliable cars list 10 Least Reliable Cars - Consumer Reports Prius is on their most reliable cars list 10 Most Reliable Cars - Consumer Reports
For that price, if you're looking for a cheap commuter car, a used Chevy Volt would be even better. Sure, it's no sports car, but you wouldn't need gas for at least part of your work commute, or all of it if your commute is short enough or you have workplace charging. And it's got decent acceleration from a stop thanks to the "instant torque" nature of electric motors. And thanks to a variety of factors (the Federal plug-in tax credit, the Gen 2 Volt being out, "low" gas prices driving down demand for hybrids, and people just misunderstanding or are unaware of its existence), a used one can be had for $10-15k easily. Even if you just ran it exclusively on gas, you can get 37 mpg out of it fairly regularly unless you drive 85 mph normally. As for reliability, it's been surprisingly good, especially for a GM product. And the batteries have been holding up really well thanks to GM over-engineering them, as well as using a liquid-cooling system for the battery pack. Zero Chevrolet Volt Batteries Replaced So Far Due To "General Capacity Degradation" Erick Belmer has driven his 2012 Volt quite a bit. He's had to fix a few things on it, but the Voltec system and battery have still been performing fairly well. Here's his latest data according to voltstats. Sure, many cars, especially Prius, have been driven that much, or even higher in some cases. But this should help dispel the myth that plug-in cars are unreliable and will break down and cost $10k to replace the battery. A few other Volt owners also have gone over 100k miles and haven't had any major issues either.
