When you are looking at a midsized car you are probably
thinking about the extra space to get your children around town, more than you
are the fuel efficiency of the vehicle, but fuel efficiency still matters.
When you examine the fuel efficiency of a vehicle, it is
very important to look at the trend that the manufacturer is going in for that
specific model. In this test study I've taken information from an automatic
4-cylinder Toyota Corolla, and an automatic 4-cylinder Ford Focus and compared
their fuel efficiency over the last five years.
Corolla - 4
Cylinders (Automatic)
2009 - 27/35
2010 - 26/34
2011 - 26/34
2012 - 26/34
2013 - 27/34
The Toyota Corolla starts out well ahead of the Ford Focus
in 2009 and they remain in the lead up until 2012, but there is actually a
negative trend where the fuel efficiency decreases over that time, when they
start to focus on adding more power to the vehicle.
2009 - 24/33
2010 - 24/34
2011 - 25/34
2012 - 27/37
2013 - 27/38
The Ford Focus starts out behind the Corolla and it would
have made more sense to purchase the Corolla in 2009 than it would have the
Focus if you are concerned about fuel efficiency alone, but the Focus makes
some dramatic improvements over the next five years, steadily improving the
fuel efficiency until they surpassed the Corolla.
If you are interested in power you may want to look at the
Corolla over the Focus, but the Focus gets better fuel efficiency. Only time
will tell if the next iteration of the Corolla shows improvements on their fuel
efficiency, but it is likely to come soon since there is a competitor in the
lead at the moment. Toyota has been working to improve fuel efficiency in many
of their vehicles, and the Corolla could be the next target.
