I don’t know about you, but I find all the different varieties of efficient cars on the market a little bit confusing. It isn’t the basic concept – I understand the important of miles per gallon, I understand what is good and what is bad, I am even starting to understand CO2 emissions levels – but something keeps stopping me from understanding it all fully.
That something may well be the sheer range on the market. There are hundreds if not thousands of difference models, each with a unique set of stats regarding how economical they are. Even worse, every single car seems to use a different set of words to represent their most economical engines – SXI, CDTi, sports versions, green versions, hybrids and electric models. Keeping on top of which is good and which is bad is, quite frankly, something of a challenge.
Of course, looks have to be involved – much like saying you love someone entirely for their personality, it is unlikely to be completely accurate! Economy has to be one element of picking a car, but only one – you still need to remember all the facts about drive, speed, power, torque – and with such a huge collection of figures and information you could be forgiven for getting totally bamboozled.
One of my top tips for choosing an efficient car effectively and still with an element of passion, is to focus on a few brands rather than the entire market. Do a bit of research (asking around friends, reading reviews and what not), and choose some brands who generally produce cars you love the look of and that you love the way they drive. Personally I narrowed it down to a few brands, and then looked a little deeper into each one.
One of my favourite brands was BMW, who as you know produce an extensive range of cars, some of which are more efficient than others. I already knew I needed a small car, preferably from their one series, so the likelihood of them being economical was higher than with massive huge engined cars. That said, never assume that a smaller engine means a more economical engine. Quite often brands will only put their fancy technology on the slightly higher spec models, meaning that a 2.0 litre can often be more efficient than a 1.4 litre! Odd, eh?!
BMW call their efficiency technology BMWEfficientDynamics, and their 1 Series hatchbacks tend to be equipped with it throughout, probably to meet with certain governmental green requirements. They aren’t the most economical on the market, but they manage a brilliant 46.2 mpg combined for the little 3 door model.
What I did at this point was compare the more in depth understanding I had of the BMWs economy and green credentials with a couple of my other favourite car brands. This meant there were fewer crazy complicated terms flying around, and I could focus neatly on which gave me the best combination of looks and fuel saving cost saving tech.
Author Resource:
Pete J Ridgard is a writer and a car enthusiast. He currently writes for the automotive industry. Here he discusses http://www.sytner.co.uk/bmw/used-cars.aspx Used BMW cars.
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