Toyota’s Greenest Car? Not the Prius.
Not that anyone should be surprised. Not only is that battery a toxic nightmare, but hybrid vehicles consume more water than their fuel counterparts (due to the massive amounts of water used in electricity generation). Oh, and in a recent MPG road challenge, the Prius’ numbers paled next to it’s stablemate, the Toyota YARIS, which recorded a whopping 84.66 MPG.
Tags: cars, mpg, prius, toyota, walking is better
That’s the diesel though, wasn’t it? For some crazy reason Americans never get to see those cars. I’m not sure if diesel is the answer, but it sure seems to help the pocket book. Hell, even an ’80s Mercedes Turbo Diesel gets over 40mpg and can be converted to also take biodiesel for a pretty reasonable sum.
I think that may be my next car.
This brings up a scary point for me that never seems to get discussed: what about all those old, classic cars that some of us own? What happens to all that rolling history when the world drops gasoline? Should that even matter? Is it too selfish or does it have some merit? Maybe there will be some gasoline niche providers out there. What about race cars? Screw NASCAR, I’m talking about real racing like the 24 Hours of Le Mans? How crappy would that race be with electric vehicles? The only sound being the guy in the pits clearing his throat.
Is all this to be abandoned for the greater good? Just so we can slow down our inevitable demise?
Nevertheless, I still want an ’80s Mercedes Turbo Diesel.
1. We should allow wider import of diesels into the U.S.. It’s a long battle, having to do with emissions control. Create a larger market for a vehicle, and you’ll find more money available to tinker with things like this.
2. The old classic cars will, sadly, eventually fade, me thinks. My pop-in-law points out the declining value of the Model Ts, the cars from the 20s-40s. The people who really love those cars, for the most part, are disappearing. Hence the huge zoom in the 60s, 70s (even 80s) muscle cars. But that’s a temporary jump…well, if you call the next thirty years temporary. Races always, always change and are entirely dependent upon the vehicles on the road. I don’t think the LeMans is going to disappear soon, but it will. It’s a race most in the U.S. ignore anyway (though it made me a huge fan of the Lancia when I was a young boy). Don’t worry, we’ll always have YouTube to chronicle our youth.