Hybrid? Diesel?

I'm asking here because most of you know a lot more about cars than the people I know IRL.

So yeah, I know I just bought a van like... less than a year ago, but my circumstances have changed and we'll be living a much larger city soon. I'm thinking downsizing would be a really good idea. I've had to drive my van in a larger city before and its scary trying to parallel park that thing.

So anyway, since I've always liked Jettas, I'm looking at diesel engine Volkswagens (Jetta and Golf mostly) and also a few Hybrids (mainly the older model Prius). Which would you choose (diesel engine or hybrid)? Are either really expensive to maintain? I don't want to buy something with the intention of saving gas but then have to pay an arm and a leg for upkeep. Especially since we'll be doing very little "around town" driving and I'm only keeping a car at all because I will need one for long distance travel.

Oh and I have only a little cash tucked away and my van is worth about $5000 so I guess my budget would be about $6000. I would sell my van and pay for the new car in cash though because I don't think I could get financing (and I know I wouldn't get squat for the van if I just traded it in).

diesel!

We just bought a 2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDI and LOVE it. We drove the Prius, but didn't care for the driving experience. We have a Radian and a Diplomat/Blvd, both rfing, in it right now and both fit great. (RF tethering is interesting though).

Get the Diesel! (Our research shows that the diesels are cheaper to maintain than their gas counterparts, but can't speak from exp yet).

I'm partial to diesel myself (worked in engine development for CAT a few years back, and got hooked), but both have their own unique strengths and weaknesses. Here's a few:

• Hybrids shine on stop/go and short hills, but the benefit is less on the highway.
• Both diesels and hybrids have their own unique cold-weather quirks to get used to.
• Hybrids better for short trips, diesels great for longer trips.
• Emissions limits change every few years on diesels, and drive different technologies, each with their own trade-offs. I'm less familiar with the VW diesels, but it might be worth a little homework to understand what changes came in what year. With diesels, newer isn't always better.
• You can get gas anywhere, but not all stations have diesel, and not all stations with diesel will give you the same quality of fuel.
• There's not a lot of small diesels to choose from in the US, but there's quite a few hybrids.
• Except for the new CR-Z, hybrids are generally seen as less "exciting" to drive

We are planning on buying a small diesel SUV soon. Diesel is more expensive than gas (here it runs about 20 cents/gallon more than the premium I currently use) but the gas mileage is better.

Well, we were looking at new so that may change the game a bit, but my DH started out his recent car search looking at the diesel Jetta Sportwagen and he ended up buying a Prius. There were also several other cars he seriously considered in between.

Honestly, I wasn't terribly involved in the decision making process, but I know he made spreadsheets and compared actual cost over time and decided the Prius would be the better choice. We had a 9+ yr old VW Passat wagon that we'd bought new and had found the regular maintenance to be rather expensive overall even though it really never had any major issues. It was a gasoline turbo, so not the same as the new diesel engine, but I know that played into his decision a bit. It required premium and he also didn't relish paying even more than that for diesel. He can put regular in the Prius and has gotten about 53 mpg (manually calculated) on every tank so far.

The Prius isn't nearly as weird to drive as I thought it would be. It will go, but I do think the computer's flashing "Eco" light does try to guilt you into driving it more like a little old lady. Of course, saving gas is kind of the point, and I never really expected it to drive like the Passat's stick shift turbo. Which I'll admit I miss a little, but the money not burned in the gas tank is a fair amount of consolation.

DW bought the new Prius last summer. It's your basic, boring smaller midsize sedan in most every way. The one exception is that it gets 50mpg+ both around town and on long highway trips. If you're looking for a sporty driver experience, the Prius aint it. But it didn't break the bank at 23k and it uses less than half the fuel and produces well less than half the emissions of the Subaru Outback wagon it replaced. To be honest, the Prius is no smaller than our Outback was in terms of passenger space, though the cargo area is a little shorter. The Outback was pretty tame in terms of driving experience, too.

In fact, I enjoy driving the Prius for the specific reason that it's a challenge to maximze fuel economy. That not only saves on gas and emissions, but it keeps me from driving like an idiot! My only real complaints are rear visibility out the hatch and if you have real winters, the fuel economy drops in the winter more than a normal car. Still, we get over 40mpg in the coldest months and over 50mpg the rest of the year so it really works out pretty close to 50mpg overall as the ratings indicate. I like it enough that I'm considering a Highlander Hybrid to replace my minivan. If I was looking for sporty ride, I'd probably go with one of the German eco-diesels.