Car shopping

For me, car shopping requires a lot of data. How big are they, how much do they cost, what fuel consumption are we looking at?

With my car donated and our other car on it's last go-round at 202 thousand miles, we are shopping. Here is data I collected from edmunds and cars.com on the our top choices.


Capacity (all seat 5):
Car     L    W    IntVol  CargoVol (cubic fee)
-----  ---  ---   -----    ------
V70    186   71    135      33.3
CR-V   179   72    103      37.2
Golf   165   70    105      12.2
Jetta  179   70    125      32.8


MPG/Power/Range
Car      Year  City  Hwy  HP/TQ    Range
-------  ----  ----  ---  -------  ------
v70       01    17   24   168/170  400/527
CR-V 2wd  12    23   31   185/163  351/470
CR-V 4wd  12    22   30   185/163  336/459
Golf      11    30   42   140/236  435/609 (same for '12 and '10)
Jetta     11    29   39   140/236  420/565 (same for '12)

Prices (current advertised prices on cars.com)
           year/miles/price (miles and price in thousands)
v70        04/80/11, 06/54/17, 08/44/20, 10/54/24
CR-V 2wd   07/46/16, 09/57/17, 10/44/21, 11/17/22, 12/13/21
CR-V 4wd   04/56/15, 07/40/22, 10/24/26, 11/20/21, 
Golf       11/5 /20, 11/41/23, 12/14/25, 13/7 /24
Jetta      10/25/24, 12/--/25, 13/12/28

After driving all but the CR-V and based on the data I offer: 

The 2 wheel drive CR-V gets very good gas mileage and has more cargo room than our current car. And it is 7 inches shorter! It is also more reliable than VW. However, VW gets better gas mileage by far. These also have near-luxury interiors and much better handling than the CR-V. The jetta is more car than the golf, but is also more expensive. A newer v70 is also an option as there are some to be had with "low" miles at good prices.

Time to make a choice...

hybrids vs trucks comparing sales

Wow. Encouraging news.

Yearly truck sales have decreased by 57% since 2009, or, an average of -8.2% every year. In the same period, Hybrid sales in the United States have increased by an impressive 1,707,376%, or 165% each year. As the trends relate to the economy, neither category was affected much by the dot-bust recession from 2000-2002. Both categories show significant trending from 2003-2007, during which the U.S. average gas price rose sharply. During the recession of the last two years (during which gas prices dropped), Hybrids purchasing leveled off, while Truck purchases dropped drastically.

Check out MIKE KRUZENISKI's hybrids vs trucks post for more.