Posted on 07/31/2007 5:52:16 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Motorists wanting to buy an environmentally friendly car should choose a diesel model and forgo energy-draining luxuries such as air conditioning, according to a government campaign that ranks vehicles according to their carbon emissions.
The Department for Transport is making an unprecedented intervention into the new car market today by telling drivers which are the “greenest” models in each class. Four of the five cars chosen by the DfT to launch the campaign are diesel-powered. The only petrol car is the Toyota Prius hybrid, which runs on a battery at low speed but, at £17,800, costs £3,000 more than conventional cars in its class.
The campaign’s underlying message is that a diesel car is the best option to help to save the planet, unless you can afford a hybrid. A diesel car will typically travel at least 20 per cent farther for the same amount of fuel as a similar-sized petrol car.
The car with the lowest carbon dioxide emissions is the VW Polo Blue-Motion. It emits 99g of CO2 per kilometre, just under the 100g/km cut-off point for the zero road-tax rating. But it achieves its top ranking only because the manufacturers have removed the air conditioning. Volkswagen plans to sell 900 Blue-Motion Polos this year. This compares with 38,000 conventional Polos, which emit at least 124g/km.
The Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership said that air conditioning reduced fuel efficiency by more than 10 per cent in many models. But it said that manufacturers could make bigger savings on emissions by reducing the weight and power of cars.
The DfT has identified the ten lowest-emission cars in each of 14 size categories, ranging from small cars to 4x4s and luxury cars, and lists them on its website: www.dft.gov.uk/ ActOnCO2.
All 30 of the larger family cars, estates and people carriers listed are diesel, as are the top five luxury cars.
Diesel sales have grown rapidly since 2000, from 15 per cent of all new cars sold to 39 per cent last year. But the rise has begun to tail off, partly because the pump price of diesel tends to be a few pence a litre higher than that of petrol.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, which will host the DfT’s campaign launch, called on the Government to lower the duty on diesel to reflect the lower emissions of diesel engines.
Chris Macgowan, the SMMT’s chief executive, said: “Giving a duty incentive to switch to diesel is one of the quickest ways for the Government to achieve its CO2 targets.”
In France more than 70 per cent of cars are diesel because, as in most other European countries, the fuel is subject to a much lower rate of duty than petrol.
But the Energy Saving Trust said that diesels still caused more air pollution than petrol cars, despite the introduction of particulate filters. There was also a limit to how much diesel could be extracted from a barrel of crude oil without a big increase in the energy consumed in the refining process.
Nigel Underdown, the trust’s head of transport, said that there would be a greater environmental benefit from doubling the top rate of road tax for the least fuel-efficient models from £300 to £600.
He called on the Government to produce similar CO2 rankings for secondhand cars and proposed that tax discs should be colour-coded to give buyers an instant indication of a vehicle’s relative efficiency.
The Government’s existing policy of encouraging drivers to buy low-emis-sion cars by giving discounts on road tax is questioned in a new report by the transport consultancy Steer Davies Gleave.
The report argues that giving discounts on either road tax or fuel duty could result in more damage to the environment because they make it cheaper to own and use cars. People take advantage of the discounts to buy more cars and drive farther than they otherwise would have done.
The report concludes: “The most effective way of capping or reducing fuel consumption would appear to be to increase the cost of buying and running standard cars, while not reducing the costs of ‘green’ cars.”
Hey Ben,
What if I think the planet is just fine and your a looney wacko?
My sister lives in one of the nicest areas of London and she says it is becoming a a crime dump. How about fixing the neighborhood and let mother nature do her thing.
How about a HUMVEE?
My husband drives a diesel, but it only gets 5.7 mpg.
Hmmm. We have three vehicles for the two of us. A Chevy S-10 (1994) and a Nissan Maxima sedan (1994.) Both are paid for many times over and the truck gets about 25 MPG and the car gets 35 MPG.
We have a Dodge Ram Diesel with a camper on top. We use it sparingly for weekend jaunts or a week-long summer vacation.
Both of us drive little; we’ve arranged our lives so we don’t have much of a commute to work each day...and we still live out in the country. :)
I can assure you that we two people with THREE vehicles between us live more lightly on the Earth than anyone who drives a Prius as a “status symbol.” (We have friends who have fallen into this trap. I keep asking them how they’ll dispose of that big-@ss, toxic battery once they’re done being pretentious and so far...no answer, LOL!)
Must be a frightliner with a Cummings.
World, kiss your ass goodbye. The AC stays.
My 4600 lb Ford Explorer’s air-conditioner is sooooo cold, especially when I’m the sole occupant.
Liberals can eat feces and die in their little tin cans.
Even though it has 190K miles and smokes a little, the only oil it burns is in the fuel tanks....
Whenever I want to piss off libs, tailgaters, and other drivers, I just run a gear or two higher to bog the engine a little (<1,400 RPM), and then it smokes a LOT! (Since the exhaust exits on the right side of the truck, I LOVE to catch someone with their window down....)
While these vehicles might be OK for a daily commute of 10 miles or less, how practical would they be in real world conditions? Will they drive through 4-6” of snow on a -20 degree day? How about a 360 mile drive across the Dakota prairie in 110 degree temps at 75 mph?
Run some diesel injector cleaner through once & awhile.
Worked on the diesel tractor & pickup I used to have.
me too. I got a blue chip diesel box on my Dodge CTD. I can’t resist cranking the knob to 10 and mashing the go pedal and unleashing a military smoke bomb on the hood of one of those Prius thingies......GAWD....the most fun one can have with their clothes still on. I can stop traffic for 1/4 mile behind me before the EGT’s get too high.
Actually, a Kenworth. He’d rather have a Volve though.
Are you kidding? the spoiled softies today would die without air conditioning and a 48 ounce soda in their hand.
I put a quart of ATF in the tank every now and then. Totally eliminated the injector knock it used to have. Got that tip from an old Mercedes mechanic....
The smoking comes from turning the fuel up 20% to make use of the Hypermax turbocharger kit. 50 more hp and 2 more MPG....
Like having your cake and eating it, too!
LOFL! I hear ya! What else can I say except "WE BAD!"....
I can stop traffic for 1/4 mile behind me before the EGT’s get too high.
Smoked a county cop like that one night. He was so close to my rear bumper at a stop light, I couldn't see his headlights. I was at the next light before he could move, and he wasn't as close to my bumper....
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