Real Data needed on commuter vehicles

[HHR]

I would highly recommend the Toyota Prius C. Our 2014 model has 64,000 miles and has provided 54+ mpg (48 in the winter in snow tires). The car is used for a 110 mile commute on mostly 2-lane highways (60 mph). Excellent 1st and second row leg and headroom and absolutely no problems, recalls or quality issues. Only downsides are a slightly stiff ride and small cargo area.
New ones go for around $18,000 to $20,000. Should be able to find 2012 model for around $10,000. If you shop around.
Level 2 model is the best compromise for decent features and low price.

 

[newbury]

I would highly recommend the Toyota Prius C. Our 2014 model has 64,000 miles and has provided 54+ mpg (48 in the winter in snow tires). The car is used for a 110 mile commute on mostly 2-lane highways (60 mph). Excellent 1st and second row leg and headroom and absolutely no problems, recalls or quality issues. Only downsides are a slightly stiff ride and small cargo area.
New ones go for around $18,000 to $20,000. Should be able to find 2012 model for around $10,000. If you shop around.
Level 2 model is the best compromise for decent features and low price.

Plus for a relatively small investment in an inverter and wiring sundries a handy DIY person can use the Prius as a very reliable 3 KW emergency standby generator.
Or you can buy an assembled kit for $1.5K which is virtually plug and play.

 

[Renze]

Nothing of this vintage sold as Diesel in the US i believe, but on my daily commute i nowadays get 19.2km out of a liter of diesel, with my 1999 Volvo S70 TDI. Which is 45 miles per gallon. Not bad if you concider the amount of traffic lights and jams i meet underway, and the fact that i hit 150kmh on the highway to make up for lost time In light traffic i can get to work in 45 minutes, but on rush hour it takes an hour. Two weeks ago i rounded the 400.000km mark and i intend to keep it at least another 200.000km. (There was a guy in a Dutch car mag who got a free tacho from the Sweden factory, after a complaint that his V70 TDI tacho stopped counting at 999.999km )

As for crash safety, the 850/S70 set the standard in its era, and smaller family cars only recently can touch that... And when watching this Youtube video i understand your safety concerns about the 1991 CRX... My friend had 2nd gen like your wifes, and two 3rd generation CRX, but when he got kids, this Youtube video made him want a Volvo to transport them safely ...

[video=youtube;Xneu-TYyzvA]The Indestructible Volvo Safest Cars In The World - YouTube[/video]

 

[MossRoad]

I wonder how flat that roof would be if there wasn't a safety cage welded in around the driver as seen at 2:24 in the video. Still, pretty impressive.

 

[tlj87]

My vote is for a strait old Honda Civic. It may not get the best MPG but it will return the best cost per mile over the long run. Chris

I'll second this. We bought an 07 Civic in 2010 with 36k on it. It now has 150k on it. This car has been a complete gem! Honda has been great with any recalls. For instance, The hood, roof and trunk lid were repainted at no cost to me due to a paint defect. The only issue other than regular PM was a sensor on the transmission. I calculated the cost per mile on this car to be about 19 cents per mile. Compare this to 40 cents per mile for our 07 Silverado. This makes sense because the civic gets an average of 35 mpg and the Silverado about 17. This cars replacement will almost certainly be another Honda, though we may try the CRV which now gets in the low 30 MPG range.

 

[motownbrowne]

I've got an '09 Fit. Sold our '01 civic to buy it. Both were 5 speed manuals. The fit gets a little better mileage, but not much, and the ride is worse. We drove my BIL's '13 Fit over the weekend, which I thought had a much better ride, and maybe a little less road noise. I'm sure some of that is the tires. Both are Sport models. On our last road trip, the Fit got 38 average with the AC on and driving about 75 MPH most of the time.

Honestly, I'd never drive a VW. I've got lots of friends who fell over themselves to buy them because of the fuel economy, and the darned things are in the shop way more than they should be. Also, they suffer from a tendency to have little stupid things go wrong that don't really warrant repair in many cases, but add up to a quirky car. Also, these cars are pretty expensive compared to the Hondas and Toyotas.

Yeah, the diesels will get a little better mileage, but I think it's silly to look at that solely. Diesel has cost more over the last 5 years. Between my last three cars, I've put about 160,000 miles on Hondas with hardly a trip to the shop. I did the timing belt/water pump on our civic at 100k, and did the front wheel bearings. I had the rotors turned on the car before that, a '93 accord that my dad now drives. That's it. By the way, that accord has 285,000 miles on it. The clutch is original. His previous accord, a '92 had 275,000 on the original clutch when he parked it due to rust issues. All of these vehicles have been dead reliable. I'd happily trade a few mpgs for the reliability of a Honda versus a VW.

Going from a CRX to any of these cars will be an incredible upgrade, but I'd still say to try several to find one that rides the best. My preference would be for the simplest car, I.e. a basic gas manual hatchback. They however will ride worse than a Prius or diesel VW, because they are lighter cars with smaller tires. I'd be looking pretty hard at corollas, yaris, fit, and civic.

 

[RalphVa]

Go to Edmunds.com and do a search for cars getting better than 30 mpg. Edmunds uses the average of the hwy and city EPA values. If you input 40 mpg as your search, you'll only get hybrids.

There are probably 6 maybe 8 models that have EPA hwy values equal to or greater than 40 (generally 40-41). Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Chevy and Ford all only offer sticks in their very basic models.

Look up Consumer Reports issue on new cars. You should be able to get it at the library. They have an area that covers fuel mileage they measured. They also have the service histories. VW Jetta is still on that list, but last because of their service and TDI issues. Mazda3 is near the top.

Ralph

 

[Copperhead]

I would take a look at diesel varieties from various OEM's. I have heard and read some interesting mpg numbers on the diesel cars that rival or exceed hybrids and with diesel being roughly same price as gas now, it might be a viable option even with the higher initial price. More likely than not, the engine will outlast the car. Given the pricing of hybrids, not sure there would be a hit in buying a diesel car.

 

[dodge man]

Just me thinking out loud, but I wouldn't focus on cars getting more than 40 mpg. I'd focus on getting the best car for the money, and if it gets 35 mpg, I wouldn't rule it out.

 

[motownbrowne]

Just me thinking out loud, but I wouldn't focus on cars getting more than 40 mpg. I'd focus on getting the best car for the money, and if it gets 35 mpg, I wouldn't rule it out.

Yes, exactly.

My Fit would get 40+ if I drove 60 on the highway, and kept my foot out of it getting up to speed. It's more fun to wind it out, though, so I happily sacrifice a few MPGs.