Hate bang for buck? Buy an XL-1!

Volkswagen has confirmed its 313mpg two-seat diesel-electric hybrid, the XL-1, is now officially available for purchase in the UK. But it comes at a price, and a pretty hefty one at that: £98,515. Which is the same as an Audi R8. Gulp.

Still, if you're are one of the lucky 30 to get the British allocation of the 200 production XL-1s up for grabs, you can at least rest happy in the knowledge that you're driving the future.

Something we found out when driving the XL-1 right across Britain at the cost of about 20 pence of diesel. The XL-1 is a car that pushes boundaries, opens up a new worlds of technologies, drops jaws. It's an eco-Veyron, worthy of our ‘Innovation of the Year' at the TG Awards last year. 

However. That massive 313mpg, and tiny 21g/km of CO2, come courtesy a diddy 27bhp electric motor and 47bhp of 800cc twin-cylinder diesel engine. Which, when you think about, isn't a lot of bhp bang for your buck.

Actually, thanks to a little bit of Top Gear Maths, we think the XL-1 could be one of the worst offenders for in the go-for-your-dough stakes. 74bhp for nearly 100 grand makes it worse bang-for-buck value than a Bugatti Veyron, or even a Boeing 747. But better, at least, than a horse.

Don't believe us? Check out our spectacular, scattergun examples of good, and bad, bang-for-buck contenders over the following pages, and tell us: what high-price, low-power offenders have we missed?

Cost: £34,995
Power: 432bhp
Bhp per £1k: 12.3

Cost: £16,995
Power: 173bhp
Bhp per £1k: 10.2

Cost: £6,690
Power: 68bhp
Bhp per £1k: 10.2

Cost: £74,450
Power: 550bhp
Bhp per £1k: 7.4

Cost: £1,130,000
Power: 1,001bhp
Bhp per £1k: 0.9

Cost: £206,665,000
Power: 157,000bhp
Bhp per £1k: 0.8

Cost: £98,515
Power: 74bhp (combined)
Bhp per £1k 0.75

Cost: £1,200,000
Power: 750bhp
Bhp per £1k: 0.6

Cost: £12,000
Power: 1bhp
Bhp per £1k: 0.1