Posted on 09/05/2004 9:51:24 AM PDT by sully777
Automakers Getting a Taste for Vegan Values Sharon Bernstein Los Angeles Times
Is your car vegan?
Actor Michael Bell’s is. The 66-year-old Encino, Calif., resident doesn’t eat or wear animal products, and his hybrid car doesn’t have a stitch of leather in it.
Toyota has tapped into the enivronmentally conscious customer base with its fuel-efficient, leather-free Prius.
If it had, Bell said, he wouldn’t have bought the car, a 2001 Toyota Prius, despite its impeccable green credentials.
In raw numbers, vegans such as Bell are so few that they barely register on surveys of consumer habits. But to automobile manufacturers trying to win favor among the increasing number of consumers who say they are environmentally conscious, vegans — who avoid all animal products — are what one marketing expert called the center of the bull’s-eye.
Pleasing vegans, the theory goes, is key to reaching a wider group of consumers — affluent shoppers who worry about the environment and who are willing to pay extra for food, clothing and even automobiles, if they are made in ways that do less harm to the planet.
Toyota Motor Corp. is so attuned to the sensibilities of these so-called green consumers that the company doesn’t even offer leather seats for the popular Prius.
Ford Motor Co., under fire from environmental activists for its gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles, ran an eight-page advertisement in the New Yorker magazine touting the company’s green credentials. The ad led off with the boast that 11 members of the design team for the company’s soon-to-be-released hybrid Escape SUV are vegetarians, and its leader is a vegan...
(Excerpt) Read more at cars.com ...
Vegans. They taste like beef.
I thought they tasted like chicken.
Either way, God help you if you try to pork one. ; )
The last I heard, vegetables and fruits are living things.
There are plenty of cars for capitalists too. If the automakers want to sell a particular car to vegans that's ok with me.
Though, personally I thought they all drove Volvos. ;-)
Survey: How many Vegans do you know?
I've known a few teenager who were temporary Vegans but I know no adults. And I don't know any active Vegans at this time.
97 Chrysler Town and Country here. Full leather seating and trim for 7
...direct to you, from the land of fruits and nuts...
What's a vegan? A resident of Las Vegas?
There is no way to produce a automobile without using animal products in it's production. Many chemicals used in the process of production use animal products in some form or another.
You obviously don't live in Ithaca, the City of Evil.
...direct to you, from the land of fruits and nuts...
I'm a fifth generation Native Californian. The vegetarians and vegans I know are people who were NOT born in California, or people whose parents were NOT born in Calfornia. It was so amusing to the husband of one woman: before she told me she was a vegetarian, the three of us were talking about California "fruits and nuts," and I pointed out that the "fruits and nuts" were hardly ever real Californians, but rather people who had moved here from elsewhere and who had bought in to the stereotype of California being "way out." Later, when I found out she was a vegetarian ... from the Midwest! -- her husband smirked (he is NOT a vegetarian).
These idiots that won't use leather and are so conscious of the environment are too stupid to realize that leather at least breaks down and decays. Plastic, on the other hand, will never break down. It will always be here. The only way to get rid of the plastic dashboards and vinyl seats is to burn them. Morons.
I've know a few adult male vegans. They are all the same. Very docile, quiet, almost nuetered. What happens is that as male get older they produce less testosterone. Eating meat products helps replace some of the testosterone so we remain acting as men. The vegans, on the other hand, get such low levels they become girly-men.
My brother-in-law used to be a regular vegetarian he was as weak as a kitten. At 98 lbs I could work harder and lift more than he could.
What about cars for gays? This is clearly discriminatory.
Funniest headline EVER!
LOL! You are spot on. I am a third generation native Californian, I escaped from there 12 years ago. The state has been totally inundated and invaded from those who were "from elsewhere" trying to turn it on its head. And they have succeeded in twisting their hype and "stereotype" into something that is convoluted in their own little minds.
I, like you, miss the "old" California. I wish it would return someday, but I'm afraid that will never happen.
Hmmmm? But if we get more environmentally friendly cars, those that use less gas, where will the politicos get the TAX revenues when people start driving more and roads need even more repair.
As usual .. the enviromentalist whackos never think about tomorrow .. only the selfishness of today.
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