The old MB diesels got excellent milage at the expense of, well,
leisurely, performance -- meaning DON'T pull out in front of a heavy
truck..... In todays market, that won't sell cars. Newer cars should
be getting much better milage. We had an old Nissan Sentra for a work
car for a while (until they refused to repair a broken spring and I
refused to drive it). Nasty little thing, but with new tires and a new
clutch, it had decent performance and got 42 mpg mixed city/highway.
Not bad.
The problem now is that everyone, as noted, wants 0-60 times under six
seconds. Why I don't know, as I personally could accelerate like that
exactly once a day -- when I turn onto the mail highway going to work.
And then, it's only personal preference, there is a light a mile or two
up the highway and there is always a gap in traffic that even the old
220D is quite comfortable with every few minutes.
My brother's VW Jetta TD gets 55 mpg on the highway and drives like a
scalded cat, go figure.
Hybrids get worse milage on the highway than in town -- their great
strength is regenerative braking. Constant stop and go driving, as in
heavy commuter traffic, doesn't use the gasoline engine much so they
just sip. On the highway, they weigh more than the equivalent
non-hybrid, so they get worse milage. I'd not get one for that reason,
I don't do much stop and go, at least not yet. The vast majority of my
car time is on either divided highways with minimal traffic or country
roads.
Peter
