This car gets 64 MPG--20 MPG more than the Toyota Prius--without any of that parallel hybrid nonsense.
Unfortuantely it's Euro-spec only.
Ford could sell every one of these things that they made it they priced a base model around $14,000. I'd be all over one; the only options I need are full gauges, AC, and a decent stereo system--give me this car with a manual transmission and those options and I'd be happy.
90 HP is about the output of my '95 Escort; though the article doesn't say what the torque numbers for the engine are, the fact that it's a diesel suggests that it should make about as much torque as the Escort's engine does. (I would hope so, anyway.) Which means this car should perform about as well as my Escort.
True, it's diesel, which means you have to pay $0.50+ more per gallon. But I demonstrated in a prior entry why gasoline has to get a lot less expensive to make that a downside, when the diesel version gets better economy. (Particularly when the diesel gets almost double the fuel economy....)
Let me see: 36 MPG at $4 per gallon, or 64 MPG at $4.50 per gallon? It's not even close. I think that it might stop being cost-effective when gasoline is about $0.50 per gallon and diesel is $1....
Okay? Same performance, 1.88 times the fuel economy...where do I get one?
