2001 New Beetle with Diesel engine: 43 mpg

Yep!  That's what I clocked on the open highway.  I had to make a business trip from Houston to Lake Charles.  I filled up outside Beltway 8 and the next day filled up again near my home.  About 286 miles round trip and about 6.5 gallons of diesel.

So, this started me to thinking:  What if I bought a Prius?  How much would it cost me?  This was a little difficult.  In fact, the numbers probably still aren't apples-to-apples.  I decided to do a comparison of a new lowest priced VW Beetle TDI to a new lowest priced Toyota Prius.

Cars.com is a pretty good one-stop-shop.  They also have a built in calculator to figure out your monthly payments.  Based on the MPG numbers listed on their website, here are the results for monthly expenses:

Toyota Prius			VW Beetle
729.24	per month pmts		579.21	per month pmts
48	mpg		41	mpg
50	per day driven		50	per day driven
20	days per month		20	days per month
1000	miles/month		1000	miles/month
21	gallons/month		24	gallons/month
3	$/gal for regular		4	$/gal for diesel
63	$/month		98	$/month
792	$/month		677	$/month

The VW Beetle monthly costs are 85% of the Toyota Prius.

Now, this was a comparison of HIGHWAY MILES driven.

For miles driven in the city, the numbers are a lot closer, but still favor the VW Beetle:

Toyota Prius			VW Beetle
729.24	per month pmts		579.21	per month pmts
51	mpg		32	mpg
50	per day driven		50	per day driven
20	days per month		20	days per month
1000	miles/month		1000	miles/month
20	gallons/month		31	gallons/month
3	$/gal for regular		4	$/gal for diesel
59	$/month		125	$/month
788	$/month		704	$/month

Here's the link for the VW Beetle TDI

Here's the link for the Toyota Prius

The financing was based on no money down, 36 months and 2.73% interest rate.

In case the links don't work anymore: