Fuel efficient vehicles that are reasonably safe?

[duber34]

Here is a site that lets you plug in the make, model and year of the car you are interested in and it returns some safety results. This is just an example of some of the sites that can be found on the web. As far as fuel economy....... I reckon those numbers can be looked up pretty easily also.... like edmunds....

http://www.hwysafety.org/vehicle_ratings/ratings.htm

Regards,
Dave

 

[California]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Have you looked at the Ford Escape Hybrid? Gets in the 30-35mpg range for both highway and city. )</font>

Not the version they sell here in California. I went to see one and the window sticker said 33 city 26 highway. I looked at that several times before I understood it - the electric motor helps get the weight moving in the city but doesn't help the highway mileage.


Rat, my present fleet is: 1) Subaru Outback with sometimes a trailer attached. I have both a 4x4 trailer for offroad camping, and a 4x8 2000 lb gvw trailer for farm use. This rig is my equivalent of a light pickup truck. It is surprisingly good for light offroad use, nearly as good as the Trooper it replaced.

2) Second car is a Ford Focus Wagon. Cheap, good mileage, pleasant to drive. I use this for our frequent runs between the valley and the 101 corridor, except when I need the greater capacity of the Subaru with trailer.


Update - Added a picture of my rigs. The tiny trailer is enough to carry an arc welder (that I described over in the Build-It-Yourself forum) and two pallets. I've owned bigger SUV's and pickups but this meets my needs for now.

 

[hazmat]

Any science teachers here? This is a great homework assignment....

Go to safercar.gov and look up crash & rollover safety ratings. Then plot them against the milage at fueleconomy.gov

I'm partial to Honda's myself.

Honda Insight - king gas mizer 61 cty 66 hwy
4 star crash & rollover ratings.

Honda Civic Hybrid 45 city 51 hwy
5 star pass & driver head on, 4 star front & rear side, 4 star rollover

Civic gasoline only gets from 36/44 to 26/31 depending on engine/trans

Honda Accord Hybrid 29 city 37 hwy
5 star pass & driver head on, 4 star front & rear side, 4 star rollover

Accord gas only gets 26/34 to 20/30 depending on engine/trans

Honda Oddessy Minivan - 20/28
5 star for crashes - 4 star rollover

Honda CRV SUV 22 city 27 hwy
5 star for crashes- no rollover rating yet

Honda Pilot SUV 17 city 22 hwy
5 star for crashes - 4 star rollover

FYI trucks over ~6,000# have relaxed safety standards vs, passanger cars. Trucks over ~8,800# have even further relaxed safety standards & are not required to report fuel economy.

For comparison -
Ford Taurus 20/27
front driver 4, front pass 5, side 3, rollover 4. Worse fuel economy than all the honda sedans and less safe than even the puny Insight.

 

[jol1269]

im still waiting on a hybrid unimog myself.................. best of both worlds

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Don't know about Cali but here is the article from Fords site Ford Escape Hybrid

Here is one paragraph dealing with the fuel economy

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Escape Hybrid has earned the highest fuel economy numbers for an SUV as certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (36 mpg city/31 mpg highway/33 combined in front-wheel-drive configuration; 33 mpg city/29 mpg highway/31 mpg combined for the four-wheel-drive model).
)</font>

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I see the news talk about roll overs a lot but I have never seen one yet. I can see where it can happen but in a head on collision I do not see the SUV rolling over. A heavier vehicle will absorb more of an impact and protect the occupants much better then a smaller lighter vehicle in an accident.

All I know is that I would rather take my chances of my vehicle rolling over then sit in a car and watch a F-350 run over my hood /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Lesser of two evils come into play again.

There are some cars I like but they are big cars like the Crown Vic that have some weight to help hold their own in an accident. I have been fortunate to have never been in a car accident and (knock on wood) I hope to never be in one.

 

[_RaT_]

Thanks to all. I have received a wealth of information.

 

[Jeff396]

I was surprised to read an article about the Escape that said they used a bank of some 250 D size NIMH batteries for the running portion of the car. It used a standard car battery for accessories such as lights. I had assumed they would use car batteries for both. I would think that the D cells would be cheaper to replace than a bunch of car batteries when they finally wear out. The replacement cost and longevity of the batteries has been my big concern with the hybrids.

Jeff

 

[gsxr1100]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I was surprised to read an article about the Escape that said they used a bank of some 250 D size NIMH batteries for the running portion of the car. It used a standard car battery for accessories such as lights. I had assumed they would use car batteries for both. I would think that the D cells would be cheaper to replace than a bunch of car batteries when they finally wear out. The replacement cost and longevity of the batteries has been my big concern with the hybrids.

Jeff ) )</font>

I would think the car batteries would last longer and cheaper. I use NIMH and lipoys in my r/c heli. The C size cells were $6.50 each . I needed 32 for these packsl the lipos were around 4X more.

 

[Durbob]

Here is an interesting article on Diesel vs. Hybrids.

Diesel vs. Hybrids

Check out the fuel mileage of the VW Jetta.