Round One: 2011 Honda CR-Z vs. 2010 Volkswagen Golf TDI
Diesels Versus Hybrids: Which Provides the Better Drive -- and Gives the Other the Birdie?
Diesels versus hybrids.
We might as well be bringing together cats and dogs. Or Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann. What was once simply an interesting choice between alternative high-efficiency powertrains has recently been spiraling into a quasi-religious conflict among their supporters.
Moreover, I'm starting to wonder if which "camp" you're in is even an entirely chooseable thing. Having visited Germany on press trips for (gasp) over a quarter century now, I'm still amused by how giddy German engineers get over pretty much anything that's mechanically complicated (cuckoo clocks, anyone?).
A mechanism that pulses with reciprocating pistons, bulges with psi, and has a whistling 100,000-rpm turbine? Deutschland's brightest get dizzy at those press conference podiums just describing them.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the planet, if you've ever walked through Tokyo's Akihabara district, you'll appreciate how effortlessly Japanese engineers conjure impenetrably complex -- and inevitably reliable -- microelectronic devices. (Hey, what's a mere hybrid to a country that effortlessly creates flat-screen, 3D TVs?) Recently, I sat next to an editor from the Japanese magazine Engine during dinner, and he confessed to me the dire state of Japanese car magazines. "The economy, eh?" I asked. "No, the real problem is that young Japanese males are so engaged by smart phones and electronic games that they've stopped driving." Is that happening in Germany?
Doesn't appear to be. There are lots of reasons why Europeans embrace diesels as they do -- immensely favorable taxation being the biggest schnitzel enticing them. But frankly, I'd be surprised if diesel's Euro-popularity would be hurt all that much if their governments suddenly stripped away its generous spritz of financial sweeteners. Diesel is in their veins now.
So the philosophical aspect of our stage is set. What we need now are some automotive actors for this two-part, hybrid versus diesel drama we've dreamed up.
In Act One, we've confronted a two-door, manual gearbox-equipped Golf TDI (Turbodiesel Direct Injection) with Honda's latest in small-caliber hybrid artillery, the spirit-of-CRX-evoking CR-Z. After an intermission, we invite you back for Part Two of the program, which finds a four-door, Golf TDI with DSG (ach du lieber...it's complicated!) co-starring with Toyota's hybrid bippu, the Prius (which is both technologically interdisciplinary and complicated). Our Prius, a "Prius III," is the usual layer cake of gas and electric propulsion, though this one's frosted with a solar-panel roof that refreshes the cabin's air while parked in the baking sun. (And I ask you, who the hell but Toyota would nonchalantly sheath a car's roof in solar panels and then act as if it's normal?)
Compared with the high-flying, tech-dense Prius, Honda's sixth iteration of its Integrated Motor Assist retraces the Insight's modest technological trajectory, though in the case of this CR-Z, its target has pivoted several degrees away from stinginess and toward sportiness. The reciprocating half of this very practical electro-mechanical marriage is a notably undersquare 1.5-liter four-cylinder, which, by itself, produces 112 horsepower (compare this with the Insight's 1.3-liter with 98 horses). Pancaked against it is a 2.4-inch-thin electric motor providing 13 more horses but, far more significant, 58 pound-feet of torque at 1000 rpm. Even though the engine is iVTEC-enhanced (at low rpm, one of its twin intake valves opens less and more slowly to generate combustion chamber swirl), the little electric motor actually contributes 47 percent of the CR-Z's peak torque, and the vast majority of it while at low speeds. No small thing (though the motor is a small thing, physically).
And let's take a moment to recognize we're now speaking about one of the two pedestals of hybrid logic: the hand-in-glove fit between an engine optimized for higher efficiency within a narrow rpm band and an electric motor that back-fills the consequent low-rev performance hole with what it does really well-make low rpm torque. (The other pillar, maybe you've guessed already, is the capability of the CR-Z's modest 84-cell, nickel-metal hydride battery pack to vacuum-up a fraction of the kinetic energy that's otherwise frittered away as heat while stopping. And if anyone tells you that hitting the binders at 60 mph doesn't really waste all that much energy, imagine what your car would look like after hitting a brick wall at 60. Same amount of energy.)
Speaking of truncation, the CR-Z is essentially a two-seat, shortened and widened Insight, and a damn-sight better-looking one at that. The windshield's flatter, the profile's a doorstop, and the tail is arrogantly hippy and fascinatingly detailed. Cloaked beneath the front fenders are aluminum lower A-arms replacing the Insight's stamped steel. And at center stage in our car's interior was a light-effort six-speed manual gearshift. A hybrid first.
As its keys were passed around the staff, however, the CR-Z starting pushing conflicting buttons: Some drivers were impressed, regarding it as a contemporary, green-aware, CRX while others heard too many of the maligned Insight's bones clattering around down there. The question that came up again and again? Who is this car's audience? That was never quite answered.
Ed Loh: "Before driving the CR-Z, I was curious. After driving it, I had even more questions. It's not fast, but it does have sporty handling. Though slow, it's not a commuter car either, as it lacks such niceties as an armrest and serious freeway fuel economy."
Scott Mortara: "The car rotates too much (cornered hard), maybe it's the batteries, but I found myself constantly correcting in the corners. Its seats aren't as comfortable as the VW's either: Typical Honda, they're a bit too small and firm." (We suspect Scott moonlights as Bigfoot in handi-cam movies.)
Ed again: "The main high-performance issue is that the CR-Z moves around a lot, especially when braked hard, which can be disconcerting. In corners, it displays an odd diagonal chassis shimmy; certainly doesn't feel anywhere near as planted as the GTI, which gobbles up bumps and poor pavement. Also, the CR-Z's Eco mode is particularly penurious. The way the A/C shuts down immediately when you come to a stop here in broiling-hot Palm Springs is so sadistic, it's kind of funny."
