What car to buy for a long commute

[FL_Cracker]

I just sold my F250 and purchsed a F350 Crew Cab diesel and I don't want to trash this truck commuting back and forth to work. It also only gets 13mpg so I'm spending a lot on fuel these days.

My thoughs were to get a less expensive car that gets good milage and use that to commute to work. My wife and I run the business together so we drive together most days. We drive about 120 miles per day and travel at least 4-5 day a week. I saw some recent information about the VM Jetta TDi diesel and it claimed they get 42 mpg.

My questions are as follows,
1) Do they really get 42mpg on the highway?
2) Do they hold up well for high milage use?
3) Are they expensive to repair once out of warranty?
4) Are there any better cars to considder that get this type of milage?

Thanks in advance for you thoughts, I've always owned a truck so I have never spent much time on car research.

Charles

 

[Birdman]

One of my son's friends has a Jetta and he gets in the mid 40's per gal with it. As far as I know he has had no problems with it. His commute is probably only around 50 miles per day. Can't really comment on your other concerns.

 

[getut]

For a short period of time I had a Honda Civic hatchback with the smallest engine available in it.. those were the really short length and really wide cars. I think they may have been precursors to the Honda CRX's. It was like a 1990 model and I got around 43MPG if I slugged it and could get around 47-48 MPG if I babied it.

It was bare bone if there ever was one though. No air conditioner, no power anything.

 

[gsxr1100]

Not causing a problem here; Maybe I am biased since I own the #1 car /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif, but look at the stats here. VW is WAY down there.

I would go for some above the Ind/Avg and then select a car.

http://www.jdpa.com/studies_jdpower/pressrelease.asp?StudyID=996

 

[ByronBob]

Any smaller size car will do you well based strictly on MPG. For that matter a hybrid would get great mileage like the Toyota Prius.
Diesel cars are by nature more expensive because of the up front cost. Throw in the fact that they're foreign makes parts more expensive also.
Is comfort a priority?

 

[Gatorboy]

I had a 1984 Honda CRX. It had a 1.3 liter engine and I would get about 48 city / 57 hwy. Great little car.

You might want to check out the Scion xA -- they claim something like 32/38 mpg. I don't know how good they are, but they are not as common as a Civic or Corolla on the roads if you are happening to look for something a bit more unique.

 

[Richard]

Bought the wife a 2005 Camery just a couple months ago, only has about 6,000 on it now.

It gets real world, about 35 mpg

 

[gmsssi]

If comfort is any factor, my 3.4 liter Monte Carlo will get 32mpg if kept under 65mph. I do a 800 mile round trip in it every other week and it gets a consistant 29mpg, I have somewhat of a lead foot though!

 

[Gatorboy]

<font color="blue"> ( It gets real world, about 35 mpg )</font>

Toyota claims the Camry gets 24/34 -- it's rare to find a car that gets better than advertised on gas mileage.

 

[Will_C]

I would recommend any Toyota or Honda model. Not only do they get good mileage, they also have great reliabilty as well (probably important if you are racking up the miles.)
On a side note, my Toyota Tundra is currently getting 18 mpg. Toyota claimed 14/17, so I am happy beating the manufacturer's estimate.
Will