Popular Mechanics compares fuel efficiency of Nissan Cube, Kia Soul and Scion xB
Click above for high-res galleries of the Kia Soul and Nissan Cube
The latest generation of the Scion xB – the car that kicked off the currently popular "box-it-came-in" styling trend – may be a perfectly fine vehicle with a few welcome improvements over the first edition, but we still miss the size, shape and fuel economy that the old model was able to deliver. Now that the 2009 Nissan Cube and 2010 Kia Soul are on their way to U.S. shores, drivers may finally get to choose what size they want their brick-like vehicles to come in.
Popular Mechanics managed to snag one of each of these triplets and they took the opportunity to drive them back-to-back through city slogs, canyon curves and the highway superslabs in between. Not surprisingly, all three vehicles seem to have offered something to recommend them over their competitors, but only one machine could come out on top, and it was the one that also managed to post the best fuel efficiency. We won't steal their thunder, though, click here for the full story.
[Source: Popular Mechanics]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
gorr 8:10PM (2/26/2009)
Is it the same gang that said that water electrolyser-hho engineering, production, installation, metering, ingestion, compression and ignition retarding and burning don't increase consumption?
Reply
Noz 9:43PM (2/26/2009)
All things considered, 31.2 MPG on a combined cycle that includes canyon driving is quite impressive....and even more so considering this thing is a brick.
Reply
majortom1981 7:35AM (2/27/2009)
Well of course the scion xb will ahve the elast amount of fuel efficiency. its has 16 more hp then the kia and 36 more then the nissan.
The mpg that the xb got i thought was pretty good based on its hp.
Reply
BoneHeadOtto 1:11PM (2/27/2009)
yeah and based on its storage space. There is not a car out there with that storage that gets better mileage. I just wish that with these economy cars we could get 6spd manuals. I could eek some more mileage out of that. I also think they should put a different engine in the xB. The 2.7L 4cylinder in the hylander is more efficient, a DI 2.0L would likely get the same power, and the 3.5L v6 (my choice) gets only 1mpg less than that 2.4L in most applications
MikeW 10:30AM (2/28/2009)
That Scion should have a 6 speed stick with the 3zr-fae
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_ZR_engine
The mileage is pretty proportional to weight.