Top 10 green cars

Poppycat

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/19/eacars119.xml

BillScarab

Interesting but it's only really listing cars with low CO2 emissions, it's more of a list of cheap cars to run. To truly see what cars are green you need to look at the environmental costs of producing, distributing and running the cars.

tomstickland

Defining a "Green" car is very much based on whatever is trendy at the moment. If you resecued a 106 Diesel from being scrapped due to minor work needed to it then you'd have a car that had no additional envirommental impact due to manufacture and could return 50mpg quite easily. Of course, manufacturers don't want you to think like that, so would prefer you to buy a Pious (aka Prius) and shout about "how much you care".

hewhoisnotintheknow

Where i work we have people spouting off about their new hbrid and the fact that they achieved 55mpg on the motorway. On a recent trip from dover i got 74.4mpg average in my old peugeot hdi worth around £1500. What they also cant get into their little minds is the fact that their fancy new cars cost an absolute bomb in terms of production costs on the environment

db21111

Top Gear made a funny point... the amount it costs to make these cars outweighs the greenness of the actual vehicle! And it's not often they bother to make a decent point. Funny show either way.

edit... as the above poster said. oops

kaya

lol, don't believe everything the manufacturers tell you, they have been caught out telling fibs already
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3958376.ece

BillScarab

tomstickland wrote: »

Defining a "Green" car is very much based on whatever is trendy at the moment. If you resecued a 106 Diesel from being scrapped due to minor work needed to it then you'd have a car that had no additional envirommental impact due to manufacture and could return 50mpg quite easily. Of course, manufacturers don't want you to think like that, so would prefer you to buy a Pious (aka Prius) and shout about "how much you care".

Exactly. I own an 1973 Land Rover diesel which I used to use as my everyday car, it only did 26-27mpg but taking into account it's lasted 3 times as long as most cars I reckon it's still pretty 'green'. Especially since a lot of the spares used on it are second hand.

p00

We are seriously thinking of money saving on fuel costs with the high fuel prices. as well as what Id save on road tax and insurance.

Ive read the links about CO2 emissions but which cars also have the best fuel economy on 'short' drives?

my jobs involve going from one workplace to another but not on long distances and I am wondering which car would serve me best. I considered the Smart car as it says 70-90 mies per gallon on the deisel and if that were actually true it would save me loads on even my present Punto which isnt as efficient as I thought it was going to be., especially in the winter months Also looked at the Fiat 500.

Any ideas?

xp00

redux

The main reason for the popularity of the Prius is that its propaganda has conned the taxman into giving it too lenient a rating as a company car. Perhaps those colleagues aren't quite as keen on the environment as smugly boasting that they're only paying tax on 10% of the value.

BillScarab

p00 wrote: »

We are seriously thinking of money saving on fuel costs with the high fuel prices. as well as what Id save on road tax and insurance.

Ive read the links about CO2 emissions but which cars also have the best fuel economy on 'short' drives?

my jobs involve going from one workplace to another but not on long distances and I am wondering which car would serve me best. I considered the Smart car as it says 70-90 mies per gallon on the deisel and if that were actually true it would save me loads on even my present Punto which isnt as efficient as I thought it was going to be., especially in the winter months Also looked at the Fiat 500.



Any ideas?

xp00

No car will give very good economy on short drives. I seriously doubt if a Smart car will get anywhere near 70mpg let alone 90 mopg around town. Look at how much it is going to cost you to swap from your Punto and then consider how much petrol that will buy you.

economiser

The Prius and other hybrids seem rather complicated animals to me. I would be worried long term about the servicing costs, reliability, and repair costs.