BEHIND THE WHEEL: Fuel saving is about the past [Chrysler 300 gets 37MPG on Diesel]

MARK PHELAN, FREE PRESS COLUMNIST - -I tested the past, present and future of alternative-fuel and high efficiency performance as I cruised Woodward Avenue this week.

The past won, but the future is coming fast.

For four days, I drove a Chrysler 300 large sedan powered by a diesel engine, a gasoline-electric hybrid Saturn Vue compact SUV and a hydrogen-powered Ford Focus FCV fuel-cell compact sedan around metro Detroit, including hours in stop-and-go pre-Dream Cruise traffic.

The good news is that all three improve fuel efficiency.

The bad news is that you can only buy one of them.

The Vue hybrid is the present. It goes on sale next month for $22,370. That's a pretty reasonable price for a hybrid SUV. My fuel economy in the Vue was a respectable but unexciting 24.7 m.p.g. At a rough guess, that's six or seven m.p.g. better than I would have experienced in a comparable gasoline-powered Vue.

Other hybrids like the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape, both of which were developed for slow city driving, probably would have gotten better mileage. The Vue does have its price and a roomy interior in its favor, however.

The Focus FCV is the future. Its fuel cell runs on hydrogen and emits only water.

Unfortunately, the Focus I drove cost somewhere north of $1 million, and you'd have to tow a dirigible behind it to have hydrogen to refuel.

The diesel Chrysler 300 -- sold in Europe, but not here due to different emissions regulations -- turned in an astounding 37.7 m.p.g. in my test. That's nearly triple the mileage I'd expect with my driving style in a Hemi V8 Chrysler 300 under the same stop-and-go conditions.

Diesel engines -- patented by Rudolf Diesel in 1892 -- cost more than gasoline engines, and new emissions regulations will increase that cost. The car I tested would probably sticker at over $30,000. But the 300 is a roomy large car, and the diesel provided excellent performance as well as money-saving fuel economy.

The past wins. For now.