Jetta TDI vs Hybrid on 1 Tank from Seattle to San Francisco

I was told the Prius does 0-60 in over 10 seconds. I definitely got from 0-55 in less than 10 seconds without gunning the engine. Is my timer slow??

 

Great, I'm still waiting for a decent post.

 

John,

Like I stated in my other post, the Prius is just a different ind of car and if you are not into the tech side or the emissions and oil reduction stuff then it is likely you would not find it fun. I can totally understand that as I probably would have found the Prius pretty boring prior to my educational changes. Most people really do love their Prius so that tells me they must find it a fun car despite what you or others think of as "fun". Different strokes for different folks right?

My opinions of the world changed pretty drastically and I could not continue racing my previous without risking total hypocrisy. lol I sold all of the vehicles except the now 850rwhp truck but I'm in the process of doing so and the new owner actually drives and modifies it now (I have not driven it in 1.5yrs). The Trans Am and Corvette used to see some autocross time but I started modding the T/A for drag (11.12@123mph) and left the C5 mostly stock (12.5@111mph) but the C5 still did well in the twisties once I ditched the stock runflat tires. In the tight corners there was no competing with the modified Jettas or Golfs. Those bastards would brake into a tight corner and get up on 2 wheels, sometimes with just 1 wheel on the ground and still show no body twist!

That being said, most us of have nothing against the VW cars. Just the mistakes or falsehoods being presented in this publication.

On a side note, I find the driver is usually the limiting factor in the handling performance of any vehicle. A poor driver in a new ZO6 Corvette could get smoked by a Prius with an excellent driver on a tight course. Handling the twisties is equal part skills and balls, the car plays a smaller part (does not include tires since these are changable). If you have both of the former attributes and you want to push the envelope then I would not purchase the Prius or the Jetta. LOL

 

I had an '84 GTI

 

If Toyota starts making propaganda videos to put down the Jetta then perhaps you might have a point.

Perhaps...

 

The problem is, the Prius pushes technology away from fossil fuels (better batteries and plug-in technology), the TDI does not.

I agree, they would have to be a bad driver but I know a lot of those exist. Hell, look what happens with a mediocre driver on runflats (crappy tires). No traction with runflats.

 

I'm just having a helluva lot of fun driving our Prius. I can't wait to get another one in a couple of years and be a "two-fer" family.

 

Where do you get this stuff? Is this what you were told so you just blindly believe it? Look at fueleconomy.gov. Lookup the prius, the 2009 TDI, and other midsize sedans.

The Prius has a carbon footprint of 4.0 vs the TDI 6.4.
Prius costs $2.15 to drive 25 miles vs TDI $3.48.
Prius uses 0.54 gallons per 25 miles vs 0.76 gallons for the TDI.
Prius uses an average of 7.4 barrels / year vs 11.9 for TDI.

TDI costs 61.86% more per mile to drive than the Prius. It's not *EVEN* close. In fact, the TDI puts out more carbon than many mid sized sedans. What this means is that the new TDI is a BIG improvement over the old TDI, but not even close to the Prius and sacrifices major performance over gasoline powered sedans just to get it's carbon footprint in the same ballpark.

 

I just don't understand why you would post these videos on a Prius forum if you already knew that they are just marketing material for the Jetta. I will admit, however, that this is a great publicity attempt for the dealership.

But anyways, back to the point of the challenge, I'm never going to drive from Seattle to San Francisco anyways. That's driving for 12 hours and more (courtesy of Google Maps). I don't think I can handle that.

All I know is 6 cup holders vs 4 cup holders. 6 > 4 therefore Prius > Jetta.

 

I do it once or twice a year. I even go further to Vancouver, BC. to see HyoSilver. I average 52mpg when I make the trip in the winter (some snow, some rain) and I don't hypermile.

 

First, the adrenaline fun doesn't happen very often when you have to go to work five days a week. City/suburban traffic doesn't allow you to get that rush very often. I never really got that excited about going fast anyway, but I sure am hooked on my Consumption screen... 53.1 mpg over the past 5 weeks. And while it might not apply to the TDI, "driving fun" to me is getting to drive more with less guilt and less pain in the wallet.

Second, I'm old enough, I remember the diesels of the 70s and 80s from Germany and GM. Maybe they are cleaner but do they smell any better? If we're going to have a bunch of them floating around...

 

Please name those "many" mid-sized sedans. I can only think of two that put out less carbon than the TDI: Camry Hybrid, Prius, and Altima Hybrid. Throw in the fact that making the fuel for the TDI produces less carbon than making gasoline (I'm assuming GREET model, if somebody has something better please correct me) and the TDI doesn't look like's sacrificing major performance to get the carbon footprint in the same ballpark. I don't have a problem with emissions comparisons but tailpipe emissions are only part of the story.

 

I am assuming Sorka meant overall emissions and not just GHGs.

Do you have the information stating the exact emissions, or carbon as you stated, emitted creating different fuels? I don't know if I've ever seen that before and would love to check it out. Thanks in advance.

 

He did state "carbon" so I assumed CO2. Maybe he also meant CO and HC's? We will have to wait for his reply.

This is a document I commonly refer to for WTW emissions comparisons: www.transportation.anl.gov/pdfs/TA/339.pdf

A few things to note as you probably won't feel like reading the entire document:

Both the diesel and hybrid are assumed to be Tier 2 Bin 5. In reality, a diesel is T2B5 but a hybrid car will be more like T2B3 (Prius) or T2B2 (HCH). This does not affect CO2, but for PM and NOx, the hybrids will be better than the diesels in the real world.

The diesel fuel in the document is labelled as LSD but they are actually talking about the ULSD (15ppm sulfur) that came out about 2 years ago.

 

This is one of the reasons I bought my Prius, and is one of the biggest reasons to buy one, after the better emissions, over the TDI, even if the VW does get better mileage in some situations.

 

Can't wait for the TDi and 2010 Prius to be available. Then I will have to coordinate a commuter challenge where we use a 2009 TDi DSG (setup and driven by a Toyota dealership employee) against a 2010 Prius (setup adn driven by the same Toyota dealership). The route will be from Gilroy to San Francisco and back durign peak traffic hours for a couple of days and we see what the fuel comsumption is. Obviously during the middle of the summer with AC blasting full speed.

While we are at it we will make sure to invite press to get videos and results.

Then we can show home much better the Prius does during highway driving for fuel consumption. Point being in an uncontrolled test like above you can achieve any result you like.

It is funny that every time these tests are actually done in a controlled enviroment, and scientifically, the results look very different.

Taken from UK (EU) testing cycle: (Results in Imperial/UK MPG)
2.0 Tdi (140PS) with DSG and DPF
Urban (City) 37.2 MPG
Extra Urban (Highway) 58.9 MPG
Combined 48.7 MPG
CO2 154g/km
Not even going to list the rest

Prius (Same cycle)
Urban (City) 56.5 MPG
Extra Urban (Highway) 67.3 MPG
Combined 65.7 MPG
CO2 104g/km

We all know what the EPA had to say from the test results they recieved, nevermind what the 2010 Prius will do or the effect of the apparently additional emissions equipment the US TDis will be carryign over the EU one tested above.