[quote=Navydoc]
Your high milelage presumption is interesting svelte, as Prius gas mileage on the highway isn’t all that great. Their biggest advantage is in stop-start driving. It has always been my contention that the average Prius driver would get better mileage and thus less environmental impact from a Jetta diesel. Your numbers might support that. I wonder if we can get HOV stickers for diesels? (Ha Ha)[/quote]
Our Prius averaged over 45mpg on a recent round trip to Vegas, including over all of the hills and through lots of wind. Turbo diesels do get good long distance mileage but the majority of people drive most of their miles in daily commutes through start/stop traffic. Popular Mechanics did a comparison of the Jetta TDI and the Prius that demonstrates this well. Yes the TDI performed better on the highway — by .6mpg. In city driving the Prius beat the Jetta TDI by 12.7mpg and again, that’s where most of us do most of our driving.
