I wish we had it in Canada.

Still waiting for the Honda Jazz/Fit... It will probably be my first car (with the CVT).

Just hold out for the hot new engine technologies that are going to flood the market once the fuel scare really hits hard.

The Fiat engine is a compromise. You still need to be capable of putting your foot down sometimes to avoid certain situations. All you will get outof the 1.4 is noise.

For the record I've driven the 2004 Honda and Mitsubishi Colt CVT cars. CVT is the weirdest thing and coming from manual the sensation is that your clutch is constantly slipping. Very unerving. :/

But they are nothing special. The Colt's 70 Kw Mivec engine was especially uninspiring considering the Cyborg came out with a 120Kw non-turbo modification of the same engine in the mid nineties.

Get a WV Golf TDi 2.0. I drove one for a test. Silent and a bit scary when you put your foot into it. (Sorry to sound like a promotion man)
Uses 5.7l/100km with 100Kw, and 320 Nm of torque, which is about three times more then the Fiat in terms of pull.

I *hope* the diesel fuel economy numbers they site are wrong. A modern 1.3L common rail diesel in a car that weighs around 1000 kg should *easily* get in the high 50's mpgs mileage. My 1350 kg 1.9L VW TDI Golf gets 47 mpg with about 50:50 city/highway driving and it's absolutely yesteryear diesel tech.

-mt

Marshall,

Maybe it is because of how the transmission is geared? Maybe it is not optimized for fuel economy...

Nope, those are the specs. 5.9 l/100km city (40 mpg US); 4.0 l/100km highway (58.8 mpg US); 4.7 l/100km combined cycle (50 mpg US). That's on a European drive cycle.

I've been getting 4.9/100km with my old 1.6 VW mechanical turbo diesel's. I would like too see a real improvement before I fork out for one of the newer common fuel rail. There selling smart car's in Canada right now but where's the trunk. If the manufactures would just wise up being in cars like the Lupo. 85 mpg and a trunk that would get me to the dealership.

Yeah I must agree. A lot of the fuel economy hype revolves around sometimes impractical sized cars.
A new benchmark should be made so that the car in question getting compared has at least roomy rear seats, and a boot that can fit a full complement of luggage.

Something like a Honda Accord hybrid in wagon form that could hit 55-60mpg combined cycle is where we should be looking in the near future.

A big part of the problem is - nobody is going to spend money developing new technology when they already can sell all the hybrids they can make loaded with all sorts of overpriced junk.

If/when people stop putting up with the ripoffs, they will say: "See? I told you hybrids will fail"

"If/when people stop putting up with the ripoffs, they will say: 'See? I told you hybrids will fail'"

The fact that a class A or B car can get similar mileage (mostly on the highway, possibly in the city) to a Prius (even though it gets worse emissions) is not a "Prius Killer" feature because the two cars are different enough on other points.

The Prius is as big as a Camry and has many features that are not available in other cars (at any price, for some).

If the Prius was a small B-class car and got only 60/51 EPA, now that would be a problem. But for a mid-sized AT-PZEV hatchback, it's not bad.

Finally a car with a discriptive name. -DC

I think if you spent 2 hours on the highway in you Punto and then 2 hours in a Prius, you would experience a world of difference in driver and passenger comfort: space, seats, noise, etc... Especially if you had any luggage.

those mpg figures are in US gallons which aren't as big as everyone elses and therefore the petrol should be around 55-65mpg and the diesel easily 70+ mpg with the modern technology. The only thing is that it could do with a 6 spped gearbox to reduce noise at high speeds, when you get to about 95mph it is doing about 4800rpm where as if it had an extra gear it would be doing about 3600rpm.

I'm still getting 43+ MPG on my 2002 Golf TDI but wondering when the new Golf will be imported into America. Anyone know? Also why doesn't VW import more of their diesel cars like the Polo and Fox?? Toyota and Honda are making a killing with their hybrid models.