Thanks for providing the information below. I agree that there is a certain amount of variability between a light duty diesel and a hybrid gasoline vehicle based on the percentage of city vs hwy driving. So obviously if you drive mostly city (perhaps 70% or more) then a diesel engine is not the right one.
The way I approach it is looking at the expected averages from databases such as Fuelly,
www.fueleconomy.gov and similar with as many accumulated miles as possible. At this point one can say that the Toyota RAV4 hybrid and the Equinox diesel are not new vehicles anymore and have accumulated enough miles to make a reasonable average MPG comparison. So from Fuelly this is what we are getting:
* Equinox diesel: ~36 to 37 MPG. I assume this is in mix driving (city/hwy) with or without AWD
* RAV4 hybrid: ~ 31 to 32 MPG. I assume this is in mix driving (city/hwy)
So from this data we can conclude that,
on the average, the Equinox diesel is approximately 16% more efficient than the RAV4 hybrid. This is your
expected gain in efficiency between these two vehicles based on thousands and thousands miles of accumulated miles across various conditions and variables. It does not take into account the potential performance improvements (torque) offered by a light duty diesel engine over a gasoline hybrid vehicle, especially with CUV/SUV vehicles with AWD.
Now, if VW, or any other company can successfully develop and market an all electrical CUV/SUV that the average American is willing to purchase, then you got the best of both worlds, efficiency and generous amount of torque!
Equinox diesel: 28 city / 38 highway / 32 overall
Rav4 hybrid: 34 city / 30 highway / 32 overall
fully loaded msrp - the chevy is $400 more.
It really comes down to where are you going to use the vehicle the most. My wife and I are discussing the Rav4 hybrid because of the amount of stop and go city driving she does. The Rav4 hybrid will (should) get better mileage that what she is currently getting in the JSW.