Comparing three efficient hybrid cars from Toyota and Ford
Posted By RichC on March 1, 2013
An automotive enthusiast friend of mine, Wayne Gerdes, is a noted “hypermiler” and posted a well documented write-up comparing three of the top selling hybrid cars for a CleanMPG report. His efficiently conclusion is about what my gut would have told me when looking at the car profiles in his photo above … Toyota Prius liftback #1, Toyota Prius V #2 and the Ford C-Max hybrid coming in at #3 from behind. I really do wish the "fun to drive" and better looking Ford could return the EPA 47/47 numbers … but that’s not the real world when it comes to boasting about high mpg’s.
Conclusions
Simply stated, Ford’s claims of the C-MAXs superiority in city, highway and combined fuel economy over the Prius v per its EPA ratings in press releases and advertisements continue even with the number of counter claims provided by journalists, automobile reviewers, and anecdotal comparison evidence by some very important automotive media outlets.
In this direct head to head fuel economy comparison between the Toyota Prius v and Ford’s C-MAX, the C-MAX lacks any credence for such claims. Given the various detailed tests spelled out above, Ford may be able to duplicate the EPA results but they certainly cannot duplicate the claims of besting the Prius v in the real world no matter an all-highway or an all-city commute.
While the C-MAX brings a number of class leading attributes to the table as pointed out in our review, fuel economy and cargo capacity are not within that realm. In a nutshell, the Ford C-MAX is a nice 41/37/39 rated Hybrid offering but is a terrible 47/47/47 mpg rated one.
Click for larger CleanMPG chart.
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