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Small Car Cage Match. Which Delivers the Best Gas Mileage?
By Philip Reed, Senior Consumer Advice Editor and Dan Edmunds, Director of Vehicle Testing
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Date Posted 05-20-2008
Click here for the 2008 Fuel Economy Comparison Test Video

These days there are a lot of small cars pounding their chests and claiming they get the best gas mileage around. Well, we got tired of the talk and decided to settle the score. Right here, right now!

We picked three cars from our long-term fleet known for squeezing extra miles out of every gallon of gas: the spunky 2008 Smart Fortwo with a 1.0-liter, three-cylinder engine, the thrifty 2008 Ford Focus SES coupe with a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and a 2005 Volkswagen Jetta TDI, with its legendary 1.9-liter "TDI" diesel engine. Then we added a heavily favored gasoline-electric hybrid to the mix: a 2008 Toyota Prius.

While the EPA's fuel economy estimates are a good guide for determining a car's overall economy, we wanted to know how the cars performed in a variety of driving situations. Let's face it. Every car has a different personality, and if you drive it differently you'll get a different level of fuel economy. The only way to settle things was with a fuel economy cage match. Four cars enter; only one leaves.

Our contest consisted of five rounds: three distinctly different driving routes to highlight the cars' different strengths and two bonus rounds of calculation-based challenges.

Here's the card for the first of what we hope to be an annual Gas-Sipper Smackdown:



Best back-roads cruiser — 50-65 mph for 334 miles of back roads
Best city roller — stop-and-go for 133 miles of Las Vegas city streets
Best highway flier — a steady 75 mph for 209 miles of interstate
Lowest fuel costs — Which of the challengers saved us the most cash?
Greenest small car — Which spewed the least greenhouse gases on our trip?
Round 1: Best Back-Roads Cruiser
The challengers gathered at a gas station on Interstate 15 near Fontana, California. They were given rubdowns and teeth guards, and their tire pressure was checked. Then they came out driving. We battled it out on back roads up through Death Valley and then into Las Vegas, cruising at 50-65 mph over a distance of 334 miles.

Due to its fuel tank of just 8.8 gallons, we didn't know if the Smart Fortwo could go the distance (to Las Vegas). But it made it with fuel to spare. This was the first tip-off that our Euro-themed Smart was going to be a contender. But when the dust settled, we had a different winner.

The champ: VW Jetta TDI at 47.3 mpg

Challengers:
2nd Place: Toyota Prius, 46.0 mpg
3rd Place: Smart Fortwo, 43.9 mpg
4th Place: Ford Focus, 36.9 mpg

Round 2: Best City Roller
There's an awful lot of Las Vegas. And we saw it all during 133 miles of six grueling hours behind the wheel. Up and down the Strip. Past the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign. Back and forth across the city, winding up back at our starting gas station.

Not-so-fun fact: Las Vegas has the longest traffic lights in the world. So while the Ford, Smart and VW sucked gas for minutes at a time, the Prius, thanks to its hybrid powertrain, just shut down and chilled. The result was like a cold-cocking haymaker to the non-hybrids, particularly the Focus.

The champ: Toyota Prius at 52.4 mpg

Challengers:
2nd place: Smart Fortwo, 34.0 mpg
3rd place: VW Jetta TDI, 32.6 mpg
4th place: Ford Focus, 23.6 mpg

Round 3: Best Highway Flier
After hours of city driving, Interstate 15 was like a "get out of jail" card. We flew for 209 miles at 75 mph with only one quick pit stop. The Jetta's torque-rich 1.9-liter engine hardly broke a sweat and handled the mountain passes like a cruise-weight boxer. The Prius' nifty hybrid powertrain, meanwhile, wasn't in its element.

The champ: VW Jetta TDI at 48.9 mpg

Challengers:
2nd place: Toyota Prius, 47.7 mpg
3rd place: Smart Fortwo, 40.0 mpg
4th place: Ford Focus, 37.5 mpg

Round 4: Lowest Fuel Costs
To find a winner for this round, we averaged the fuel economy of all the legs of the journey and divided by the total cost of the fuel consumed. While some of the contenders burned less fuel, the type of fuel they ran on was more costly and hurt them more than a tombstone pile-driver. Diesel got slammed to the mat big time on fuel that cost up to $4.43 per gallon during our test. The Smart also got whacked because it required premium gas at prices up to $4.17 a gallon.

The champ: Toyota Prius, $53.32 of regular gas with a trip average of 47.7 mpg

Challengers:
2nd Place: Smart Fortwo, $66.37 of premium gas with a trip average of 40.0 mpg
3rd Place: VW Jetta TDI, $66.66 (a scary price) with a trip average of 43.81 mpg
4th Place: Ford Focus, $75.96 with a trip average of 33.3 mpg

Round 5: Greenhouse Gas Smackdown
This is a horrible contradiction in terms. Greenies don't usually smack each other, bash each other with folding chairs or drop each other on their heads. But in our test we pitted these tree-huggers against each other for one final dust-up. We calculated the amount of greenhouse gases that each emitted. Greenhouse gases are not the visible pollution (called particulate matter) that can be seen chugging out of the Jetta's tailpipe. It's the gases that are blamed for turning up the thermostat on the planet. Here's how the contestants stacked up over the 669.2 miles driven.

The champ: Toyota Prius, emitting 0.18 ton of greenhouse gasses

Challengers:
2nd Place: VW Jetta TDI, emitting 0.19 ton greenhouse gasses
3rd Place: Smart Fortwo, emitting 0.22 ton of greenhouse gasses
4th Place: Ford Focus, emitting 0.26 ton of greenhouse gasses

Overall Winner and Contenders
The Toyota Prius was the overall winner, with victory in three rounds: best city roller, lowest fuel costs and greenest car. The Jetta snagged two rounds as the best back-roads cruiser and the best highway flier. Meanwhile, the Smart Fortwo scored two 2nd-place finishes for best city roller and lowest fuel costs. The Ford Focus, while undistinguished in any one category, performed surprisingly well on the highway with fuel economy up to 37.5 mpg, well above the EPA's estimated 35 mpg highway rating.

Post-Match Commentary
Anyone thinking of buying one of these cars should take a look at this comparator and choose the car that suits their primary type of driving. (We included a 2008 VW Jetta for an apples-to-apples comparison.) If your driving is mainly around town, the Toyota Prius is a great choice — if you have the money. If you only do short hops and parking is tight, the Smart Fortwo is a nifty ride. The Ford Focus is another budget selection that gave us surprisingly good fuel economy on the open road. And finally, our used car contender, the 2005 VW Jetta TDI, gobbled up the open road while providing better-than-average around-town mpg.

Remember: Before buying, get a realistic picture of a car's fuel economy. Ideally, you should allow enough time for your own test-drive smackdown, since the winner will be your daily driver for years to come.

 

Interesting.

Good to see a comparison using more functional objective measures, instead of frivolous ratings such as lateral G force or 0-60 times...

 

Yep, I thought it was a good comparo.


only thing not taken (fully) into consideration was the purchase price of each vehicle.

sidenote - I'm pretty sure the smartcar will run on regular with no issues....at least that's what I've read.

 

good review
i cant wait for the next gen prius

 

Back in the 1980's and early 1990s, Honda, with the CRX HF, and Suzuki/Geo/Chevy with the 3-cylinder Sprint/Metro XFi, had cars that got better mileage than today's hybrids and Smart cars......with a lot less technology and complexity. The CRX HF and Sprint/Metro XFi could....and often did.....55-60 MPG on the highway, with 40 MPG in town. And my brother had a 1995 Civic Hatchback CX with the 70 HP engine and 5-speed manual that got 45-50 in the road.

 

comparing older vehicles that don't meet today's safety or emissions standards (nor along's today measured EPA mileage cycle) is pointless. i won't even get into the performance aspects of those vehicles (highway on ramps must of been an adventure)....

 

My one friend uses to have 94 CX 5 speed also man that was a great car.

My oldest brother still has his 85 CRX HF. Kept it in the back yard for about 12 years until about 2 years ago when he tuned it up and put a new muffler on it and it runs like a top. Of course it has some fender rusting issues that he easily fixed with red duct tape (its a red car) lol

 

Looks to me like the Prius and Jetta excelled where they are supposed to however. However, with Li-Ion battery technology Prius could excell...well it could excell anywhere.

 

I agree with the safety and emissions part but the CRX HF only weighed 1,800 LBS. It wasn't fast by any means but it had no problem getting on the freeway.

 

No, it's not pointless. I brought the comparisons up for a reason......to show that we have overregulated today's cars and simply put too many features on them, some by consumer demand and some by excessive regulations. So what we have today are far more complex cars that don't get any better mileage because of the weight. In some cases they get better performance, but not always.....I find the Prius quite sluggish.

One of my ex co-workers had a Honda CRX CF that she commuted some 90 miles round trip a day in, kept it for almost 300,000 miles, and averaged between 50 and 60 MPG. It rusted a little, but ran reliably with just routine service.

However, your point about performance has some merit. These cars were not slow to the point of being dangerous, but, with the exception of the Prius, were slower then today's high-mileage cars.

 

I wouldn't want to give up my ABS.

 

i dont want to give up my 4-5 star safety rating too

 

What car doesn't have ABS in the past 5+ years?

 

really cheap cars...

 

Doesn't matter. I was saying that I wouldnt want to give up such a feature in an effort to save weight. Though, modern ABS systems are getting lighter and lighter.