The way things are going many of us are looking to buy fuel-efficient vehicles. Featuring its capability to get up to speeds of 60 mph on city streets and nearly 70 mph with highway driving, the Honda Insight hybrid is considered to be the most highly efficient car on the road. The Insight’s layout incorporates tires that are low resistant and takes advantage of the combined electric and gas power. However, the Insight did not offer a lot of space and had some unique style issues.
Leastwise the most efficient mid-sized car, the Toyota Prius hybrid, is big enough to carry up to five people. The Prius utilizes a combination of gas engine and electric motor to generate 110 HP enabling it to reach 51 mpg while driving in the city and 48 mpg on the open road. In contrast to the Insight, the Prius happens to be friendlier to drivers and its precise form enables it to be a bigger vehicle. The most inexpensive American hybrid is reputedly the Honda Civic which is certainly an extremely efficient compact car that gets close to 50 mpg in both city and freeway driving. Because of its improvement over the standard Civic design and output of 110 HP, the Civic hybrid is an extreme competitor in its class.
In the sub compact car category, the most efficient car is the Volkswagen Beetle diesel, which is even ahead of the hybrid sub compacts. It does not sound that powerful at 100 HP, but it does have 177 lb-foot of torque. A highly efficient station wagon was developed by the coupled strengths of Pontiac and Toyota and was able to reach 30 mpg in the city and 36 mpg on the freeway. Toyota together with General Motors experienced a joint venture in developing the Pontiac Vibe and the Toyota Matrix. Primarily, General Motors supplied the design and engineering but Toyota supplied the engines. The Matrix and Vibe possess efficiency, elegance and smoothness, but they aren’t going to win any street race with their 1.8L 4 cylinder engine, that produces 126 HP.
The Hyundai Sonata is considered the top car in terms of efficiency rating for big cars as it receives 24 mpg in city driving and almost 35 mpg in freeway driving. Because of the range of other high quality competing cars, it was totally unexpected. It does use a powerful 2.4 L 4 cylinder engine, which is also smooth and responsive. The vehicle’s suspension is somewhat soft and targeted more toward comfort than its ability to handle the vehicle. The standard of how efficiently experts agree it is built is great, even though it isn’t a BMW. Certainly the Hyundai has improved to the point where it is no longer a manufacturer that is second-rate.
There are lots of fuel-efficient cars and trucks being built today, giving a much greater choice for the drivers. You have many more options now that energy conservation is so very popular in our society.