The Yaris: Change your Ways, not your Technology

The WSJ link took me to their homepage where the article didn't jump out at me. Is there possibly a link directly to the article?

LA: I tried it and it works for me. the title is "The view from Planet Yaris" by Joseph B. White.

Here is an idea for commuting that might work, given the realities of US SUV purchases.

If you have an SUV you commute with a lot, buying a small car such as a Yaris instead would be better. But what about weekends, the prestige factor, big trips, etc. ?

The idea is that you could own a second 'commuter car' that would be a small car, and only pay one license plate fee, and a new type of insurance that adds the commuter car onto your policy for far less than the cost of another policy. The policy could have an exclusive clause - only one of the two cars on the road at once.

The commuter saves money, the city breathes easier, and lots of oil is saved.

I like the hatchback Yaris, but if only it had four doors.

And we're depending on people to change their driving habits. If you haven't already, it's because it's not that important for you. You made a choice, and now you're paying the price for that choice. Eventually, you'll be paying the total cost of your lifestyle, and you'll stop making me (who walked to work today, and bought a townhome in the city) pay the externalities.

I don't know knobsturner, it sounds like a good idea, but at the same time, that's kind of like trying to escape an environmental dilemma buy consuming your way out ("Inefficient car? Just buy another one!").

Certainly it would save oil, but perhaps it'd be better for these SUV owners to feel the burn, and wake up to their inefficiencies, rather than being able to escape the anguish of their mistake. Heck, some of them may even be so hurt in the wallet they wake from their slumber (of not knowing the damage they cause...)

Instead of owning an SUV for those weekend trips, why not just rent? And do people really take big outdoorsy trips every single weekend anyway? Don't they need time to do things around the house/apartment/townhouse at least once a month?

There's nothing wrong with renting instead of owning. People do that with limos all the time (and simulate the status, too) ;)

As I said, given the _realities_ of SUV purchases, we are not going to stop them by telling people to just not own one. What I am saying is that it is better to own an SUV and a small car than to buy, say, that horrendous Dodge Durango hybrid. People with money to spend want to feel like they are helping. The 'job' of the environmentalist is to ferret out real solutions, not just complain about people who don't care.

I'm not complaining; I'm suggesting :)

But I'm also questioning the need to own when the concept of renting what already exists is there and ready to satisfy those needs for "power and status". Look at what people rent and why they rent it and you can start to change those "gotta OWN it" attitudes by suggesting the renting "option" :)

The other reality is that there are already millions of SUVs on the road. It would be incredibly inefficient to send them all to the scrap heap just because there are cars with better gas milage available. It makes more sense to properly service all the SUVs out there and use them for their effective lifetime and then switch to something more efficient. better yet, maybe some ingenious soul can develop technology to retrofit all these oder cars with super efficient systems.

You guys are totally right. Weekend SUV renting is a great idea. The rental car companies should market it.

Flashback, 1975 a VW Rabbit diesel gets 50 mpg. In 2006, we're heralding a 40 mpg Toyota? Despite the computer revolution, gains in efficiency are pathetic. Why buy a Yaris when a Corolla gets 40? Good try Toyota, give us 100 mpg. For me, I'll buy a new car when car makers provide us wuth a real alternative. If a Yaris got 60, 70, I'd be first in line.

GreenOrlando has it right. My old triumph got 40mpg. Give me a 70mpg option and I'm there. (I already ride a motorcycle to work and drive a BioDiesel..)

"Flashback, 1975 a VW Rabbit diesel gets 50 Mpg..."

Since 1975 cars have gotten larger and heavier, mostly due to safety regs. At the same time they've gotten faster due to consumer demand. Compairing a 1975 car to a modern car is apples and oranges.

In the early 80's many cars took 12 sec or so to reach 60 but now even econ cars do it in 10 and many cars only take 6 or 7. Most times this power isn't used and the price for having all that reserve power is fuel economy.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8129979/

soon I hope.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8129979/

soon I hope.

Ok I like the 70MPG diesel car idea but it doesn't have to be so fugly. The Yaris is a good looking small car but that thing is ugly.

I remember seeing some show (PBS I believe) in the 1980's about fuel economy advances and who was doing what. Volve built a prototype 100mpg car (small, hatchback) that was multi-fuel, too. I think it would run on deisel, gasoline, alcohol or vegetable oil. It was a really nice design for a small car, a lot like we would see today in style but I don't recall any specs. Only that, typical Volvo, they not only designed the car, but also the factory and manufacturing process in anticipation of the time when fuel costs got high enough to warrant making it. Then they shelved the idea. I think it's time they brought it off the shelf, even if it only got half that 100mpg figure...

If anyone knows any more about this car, let the rest of us know; I can't seem to get the right search words for finding any info on it...

You can also split the difference a bit too. We just bought a Matrix which has enough storage for our weekend trips and decent mileage as well. Of course we don't use it as a commuting vehicle at all, it is primarily for weekend trips to the lake. For trips where we need more capacity we plan to rent.

Regarding diesel: While it is possible to get extremely good mileage on diesel the emissions are still pretty poor. For us it was one of the deciding factors for not going diesel.

There seems to be a boon of smaller cars coming. Check out car and driver may 2006. I like the honda fit.

Emissions is the reason we do BioDiesel. No sulfer and good use of waste oil from the chinese place down the street.

Why buy a Yaris when a Corolla gets 40mpg?

The Yaris can be anywhere from $5000-$7000 cheaper than a Corolla.

I know people who commute 20-50 miles, one way, in order to get to work. They do it in full-sized pickup trucks and giant Detroit land yachts yet complain about the price of gas. I say, "Why don't you buy something smaller that gets better mileage?" and they look at me like I've insulted them.

I *did* want to buy a SmartCar when I saw one driving around in Bellevue, WA. So, I went online and found that a dealership in Kirkland is importing and selling them - FOR $15,000 over MSRP. That's right, $27,000 for a car with an MSRP of $12,000.

http://www.greencarco.com

I emailed them and told them they were nuts. One can buy an awful lot of gas for $15,000 - 5,000 gallons at 5 bucks per gallon.

Another issue is that house prices are completely and utterly out of control and are not based in any sort of reality. I live 10 minutes away from my place of work, but I'm renting because there's no possible way I can afford to buy. I'd have to live at least an hour commute away before I could even start looking at run-down hovels. Urban planners are more concerned with maximizing house prices so they can maximize property tax revenues. Streets and freeways clogged with cars? Who cares! They're not spending that tax revenue on revamping the transit corridors to handle all the extra traffic they've forced out into the outlying areas.

Skyrocketing fuel and housing prices are going to force a major economic crash folks - regardless of the sunshine the Fed and the Bush Administration try to shine up our asses.

Yes, better than 40 mpg would be nice, some of the vehicles here look promising.

http://www.greencarcongress.com/city_car/index.html

"I cannot alter my driving practices. I consume almost the same amount of gas every month. Don't wait for people like me to change our ways - there are no bike paths, I live 22 miles from work, and in a residential-only area. It's all I can afford."

So start asking for bike paths. And offering to commute with co-workers. And electing local officials who are supportive of affordable housing. And supporting your local community land trust.

Take responsibility for solving the problems you complain about.

Oh yes! I am so totally agreeing with this article. I have had a Yaris for six years - the first model that came out - and this article is completely bullseye with its comments.

It looks as though the American carmakers have once again been caught with their pants down around their ankles. You would have thought they learned by the fuel crisis of the 70's and 80's.
Ford and GM make wonderful small cars in Europe. Why the hell did they not design them with an eye toward selling them in the US? Perhap the US government could make changes to the laws that would make it easier for them to sell them here. It would help Ford and GM and all of us.

GreenOrlando:

The Yaris has an onboard computer that calculates gasoline consumption. My wife and I always have it on. And it almost always gives an average gas consumption reading of six liters per 100km. I have verified this with how much we have consumed and driven. This is for highway driving. I don't know for city driving since we don't drive in the city. If I haven't done the calculations wrong, this comes out to 67MPG.

Here in Europe the Yaris can be bought as a two door or four door, with a hatchback.

And it almost always gives an average gas consumption reading of six liters per 100km. If I haven't done the calculations wrong, this comes out to 67MPG.

It's actually 39 mpg.

In the future, just divide 235 by the number of liters per 100 km.

Actually, it depends if you are using US or imperial gallons for the conversion.

6L/100km can either be:

39.2 miles per US gallon

or

47 miles per IMPERIAL gallon

Actually, it depends if you are using US or imperial gallons for the conversion.

Who cares about the rest of the world? America is the only country which matters. :)

Joseph

Thanks for correcting my mistake. I rushed the calculation and forgot to divide 67 by 1.6km/mile. I apologize for this mistake.

LA: And Joseph, thanks for the easy formula!

My Yaris is six years old and gets 40MPG. Others have commented here that the current Yaris gets 40MPG. Is it really true that Toyota hasn't improved the car's efficiency in these past six years? If so, shame on them.

What they need to do is get the Yaris out as a hybrid with the capacity to burn biodiesel; then there would be a definite improvement. And put some PV on the shell. I can't say this enough.

While it is true that the current Yaris gets similar fuel economy to the 6-years old one, it has cleaner emissions (ULEV2), is safer (can also be had with side airbags) and is built using Toyota's ECO-VAS production system, which if I remember correctly tries to reduce the raw materials, emissions and energy used for the production of the car.

Too bad they didn't bring the CVT transmission and stop/start feature to North-America, though (the Japanese version, the Vitz, has those, along with smaller engines (1.3)).

Toyota already does make a diesel subcompact that gets 69 mpg, they just don't sell it here:

http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/car-reviews/car-and-driving/toyota-aygo-1.4-diesel-1005002.html

One suspects they are talking about imperial gallons (it's a british article, but they aren't explicit), but impressive nonetheless.

Kenneth

Thanks for this link and info.

You want a 60mpg gasoline car? The 1994/5 Honda Civic Vx (MSRP $12000) got around 52-60 mpg and was spacious and reliable for a compact car. That was when gas was 89cents a gallon, so the people who bought them (or who have them now) were street racing kids who supped them up because they were super-lightweight.

For all the UK peeps, diesel in the US is dirtier (sulfur) than diesel in Europe.

Small cars dont sell well enough in the US. Here people say "what if I need to haul blah, blah, blah..." In England they hitch a trailer to the back of their compact car. End of problem.

SUVs have tremendous profits, so of course companies prefer to make them. Cars like the VW Polo and the 110hp,40mpg UK Ford Focus stay in Europe, because as a Ford salesman in London told me "Americans like big engines."

Why must we drive tiny cars to get 40 mpg!
My 2003 Taurus gets 33 mpg, and is twice the size.
Impalas of the same vintage are rated at 36 mpg.

"The Yaris can be anywhere from $5000-$7000 cheaper than a Corolla."

that is funny because that is how much I spent on my 3 year old Corolla!
I get 30+ mpg, and would love to get a Yair when it is a plug-in.

For what it is worth, I too live 25 mile from work, in a residential area, but I often take the bus. Sure it takes 30 minutes longer, but I prefer not to have to worry about assdrivers and I like to spend the time winding down whilst reading periodicals.

Joe,

The Ford Taurus 2003 is rated 20/27 and its air pollution score is 2-3 out of 10.

http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/E-FORD-Taurus-03.htm

The Impala, depending on the engine, gets either 21/32 or 18/28 and the air pollution score is 2-3 out of 10.

http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/E-CHEVROLET-Impala-03.htm

Real-world results are usually below EPA, though it's possible to sometimes get over if you drive carefully and the conditions are right (though it's usually not over long periods of times and it all averages to something lower than the peaks...).

I guess I have some English in me. If I need to haul something I hook up my trailer rather than have a huge truck.

"Why must we drive tiny cars to get 40 mpg!"

1. Hmmm...Isaac Newton's Second Law of Motion (F=MA). Notice as mass goes up the amount of force goes up. It does wonders to learn science.

2. If everyone in the US switched over to manual transmission we could save millions of gallons in gasoline. But saving energy is about other people learning, developing skills, and making concessions, right?

3. Not to be rude, but that kind of question shouldn't be asked. If you don't know get a science book.

LA: Please, in future hold the flaming. That's why people ask questions, to learn.

Honda in 94-95 Civic and CRX (If I remember) were exceptional. Honda offered 3 engine options, one with very high mileage.

Again efficiency could be/should be the goal of automakers--and car buyers. What forces prevent greater efficiency, which also translate into lower emmissions? How can we overcome such forces and start to see real change?

Hybrids sound great on paper, but what if we focused on efficiency for the short term?

"
"Flashback, 1975 a VW Rabbit diesel gets 50 Mpg..."

Since 1975 cars have gotten larger and heavier, mostly due to safety regs. At the same time they've gotten faster due to consumer demand. Compairing a 1975 car to a modern car is apples and oranges.

In the early 80's many cars took 12 sec or so to reach 60 but now even econ cars do it in 10 and many cars only take 6 or 7. Most times this power isn't used and the price for having all that reserve power is fuel economy.

Posted by: Tim Russell | May 3, 2006 10:54 AM "

Well, Tim, I have a 1997 VW Jetta TDI (Diesel) and it gets 50 MPG and it has "modern crash protection"
and it goes 0-60 in under Ten seconds + it runs on 100% biodegradable fuel (Biodiesel)
no modifications needed, I just fill the tank!

High mileage isn't quite the same as "cleaner emissions", though they are related.

Some of these older high-mileage cars have quite worse emissions (PM, NOx, other smog-forming stuff) than modern cars, in part because of the emission-control system, in part because of the way the engine is tuned.

I'm not super-knowledgeable in that area, but from observation I'd say that tuning an engine for a cleaner burn hurts mileage, and it would be easier to get higher-mileage if we had the same emission standards as 20-30 years ago (not that that would be a good thing).

One of the big problems that keep fuel economy from going up is the ridiculous horsepower race; all new cars need to have higher HP than the previous model, and their comeptitors, etc.. So all efficiency gains go to more HP instead of downsizing the engine. It would be possible to keep the HP the same from one generation to the next and to downsize the engine (and increase the mpg) each time.

The apathy on the part of manufacturers to produce fuel efficient autos is astounding. Until something with decent mileage comes out, I am staying on the sidelines in terms of purchasing a new car. I just purchased an old carburated 1985 Honda CRX HF that was EPA rated at 51mpg on the highway for $1300. Even if I realistically only get about 40mpg, that is still as good as the Yaris and good enough for a single person commuter car. We were producing autos in the 80's and 90's with 50mpg technology (Civic VX, CRX HF). The reality is there has been little improvement since the late 80's and early 90's. Granted the Yaris weighs more, can seat 5 and has much more safety equipment...but seriously...this is as far as we've come in 21 years?

Don't forget Geo Metros, the 91-94 XFi models were rated 51-56 mpg, and only cost $9000 new.

I bought a 94 a couple of months ago and get 51 mpg very consistently (I've got up to 63 mpg, coast-gliding in it).

People get squeamish about the size of metros but they are no smaller than Cooper Mini's and get way better mileage, and from looking at the safety figures, they are actually fairly safe, although the car itself might not survive a wreck, you (the driver)should survive according to figures; at least as well as a honda civic of the same era.

One must also question why do cars have to be heavier to be safer these days? I think it is because the people who drive SUV's make the road so dangerous, because of their size and weight. It's also one of the factors of why insurance rates go up and up, some of those vehicles that you might collide with on any day of the week cost the price of other people's homes.

Any if you can find a Geo Xfi, buy it, it's the poor man's hybrid (even though it's not hybrid) and get it properly repaired.

It's sad how "fat" our cars have become. Back in the late '80s / early '90s you could get some nice light 4cyl coupes that got in the 40Mpg range and handled well due to their light weight. Since then cars have gained hundreds of pounds. Some of this weight has gone to safety, some for features. To off set the weight they up the HP and down goes the MPG. Safety isn't a bad thing but it seems that the govt. keeps lumping more and more reqirements for automakers to meet. In the end it may cost more lives due to the excess fuel burnt vs. lives saved in auto accidents.

Owning a street scooter had really changed my life for the better. I can still get 52mpg (after I had retrofit it with after market power packet: top speed of 60mph) on my Yamaha Zuma, I can go between stuck traffic and got plenty of fresh air going to and from work. Since there is limited space in my scooter, I am now only able to pick up groceries for my family and not bring "extra work" home. Forget the SUV, I am going Euro-style on my scooter.

no one likes a saturn 37mpg automatic 40 manual 2000 models for around $5000

I sold my 98 Mercedes-Benz ML320 SUVand baught a 2007 Toyota Yaris hatchback with automatic transmission. It is wonderful to know you're doing a good deed for the environment. I will NEVER buy a gas guzzler like Mercedes or any other brand for any amount of luxuries. Think for what you really NEED a car for before you buy your next one... I get 32 MPG city and 42-50 highway MPG in the Yaris

415 miles on 10 gallons of gas in my 97 saturn, and still counting. About 200 of that is freeway, the rest around town. You CAN change your driving habits. I Turn the car off and use some kinettic energy to coast to the stop light. Always amuses me when some guy in a giant red or white pickup passes me, so he can get to that red light FIRST. Usually by the time I get close light turns green, slide her into the apropriate gear and OFF I GO! If it is Red I wait and re-start the car.

I was getting 35mpg, now I am above 40.