Thread: Car Talk
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joveblue
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Melbourne
 
2009-12-02, 23:28

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xaqtly View Post
This came up in conversation with my co-worker today - if you were going to buy a car primarily for gas mileage, which way would you go?

A) Gas/electric hybrid
B) Diesel
C) Small lightweight car with tiny gas engine

I chose diesel, because to me it represents the least amount of compromise. You can still have a bigger car or a wagon or something while retaining respectable gas mileage. There's no main battery to replace after 3 years, and you can fill up on diesel at the same pumps everyone else does.
I'd probably choose a small lightweight car, as long as the acceleration was decent enough to take up from lights and get up hills easily and so forth. I prefer something smaller anyway: they're sportier and easy to manoeuvre. My worst nightmare would be a big-arse 4x4 or something. My dream car at the moment would probably be something like a BMW 1 series.

If I needed the extra space for a family or something, I'd probably go with a hybrid. although I'd research it a bit more first.

Diesel doesn't really appeal to me. Although the milage is better, the carbon emissions aren't a huge amount better (I don't think?) and the exhaust is also dirtier. Also, I'm not sure on this one either, but don't they have worse acceleration?
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