Toyota Yaris Wins Environmental Transport Association's Green Car of the year Award
by Andrew Posner, Providence, Rhode Island on 06.13.08
The Toyota Yaris is one of the most efficient, inexpensive vehicles on the road, getting 34 mpg in the city and 40 mpg on the highway, and it achieves this without a hybrid drivetrain. The Yaris has, understandably, become a popular compact car, not only thanks to its efficiency, but especially given it's affordability. Now, the Environmental Transport Association (ETA), which is currently running the 2008 Green Transport Week in the UK, has named the Yaris the 2008 Green Car of the Year. In order to name the winner, the ETA looked at the "power, emissions, fuel efficiency and even the amount of noise" from over 1,300 vehicles. The Yaris came out on top, and the Dodge SRT-10 sports car came in dead last.
What makes the Yaris really stand out is its cost. While the Prius is quieter, more efficient and cleaner burning, it sells for around $10,000 more than the Yaris. However, let's not forget that global sales of the Prius recently topped 1 million, so it isn't like the cost of the Prius has been too much of a problem, especially with $4/gallon gas. The ETA also picked winners in several categories, such as Small Family and Sports car. See who won those after the fold.
Category Winners
Supermini: Toyota Yaris
Small Family: Honda Civic Hybrid
Small MPV: Renault Modus
City: Citroen C1
Large Family: BMW 3 Series 320d Saloon
Sports: Vauxhall Tigra, MY2008 2-door Convertible
MPV: Peugeot 207 SW Outdoor
Executive: BMW 5 Series 520d Saloon
Off road: Toyota RAV4
Luxury: JAGUAR XJ 2.7L Diesel Saloon
See a full list of the best and worst cars here
Via: ::AutoBlogGreen
More on Toyota Yaris
::Toyota Yaris Review & Influence of Automotive Writers
::2007 Toyota Yaris Photos from LA Auto Show
More on Toyota Prius
::Toyota Prius vs Jeep Patriot Comparison is Deeply Flawed
::Prius Most Popular Car in Silicon Valley
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The Toyota Yaris is one of the most efficient, inexpensive ...
NEW
... vehicles on the road. Which is like tiny cancer instead of big cancer.
Why are people whining about new cars? Every modern fuel-efficient vehicle that hits the road will, one way or another, take an older, dirty, less efficient vehicle off the road and send it to the recycling yard.
I doubt we're going to be able to make major changes in public transportation and urban infrastructure within the next ten years, whereas in that same period we WILL replace a good portion of the US automobile fleet with more efficient vehicles.
Light trucks and SUVs make up about 40% of the vehicles on the road, but since their mileage sucks they burn about 50-55% of the fuel.
Replace half of them with Yaris's and Prius's and Civics, and we stand to immediately save 120 million gallons each and every day, reduce imports by 30%, and IMMEDIATELY cut our particular need for Middle Eastern oil.
Do it NOW and not ten years from now, and that's over 400 BILLION gallons of fuel NOT burnt and sent into the atmosphere.
Why again can't we get the Yaris in the US?
"Every modern fuel-efficient vehicle that hits the road will, one way or another, take an older, dirty, less efficient vehicle off the road and send it to the recycling yard."
Only partly true at best.
Most old cars are sold to somebody of less means, even if it's in anther country. Many cars are sent to Mexico and Central America.
If it runs, it has value to somebody.
Many cars permanently taken off the road are taken out by accidents, so can be new, old and dirty, or somewhere in between.
I drive a Yaris and am still getting used to it. The gas mileage is better than my previous Nissan truck (it had over 240,000 miles and I would still driving if it wasn't wrecked when I hit a bull in the road). The larger side profile makes it jump around in the road when the wind is blowing moderately hard. The only reasons I bought it was because it was cheap and had high fuel mileage, which is coming in handy since gas is close to $4 a gallon in Texas where I live. Making my 105 mile daily commute to work is bit easier on the wallet.
It would be nice not having to read/hear the constant barrage of holy than thou greenies' rabid desire to remove people's means of independent travel. No, public transportation will not work for everyone. I live 20 miles away from the nearest mid size town, no bus or rail line is ever going to work for me. The hoax of anthrogenic global warming is being used and revered as though it is a carte blance approval to push counter productive initiatives on everybody.
If the greenies want to direct their energy to a large congolmorate of power that has stalled in deploying and yet received massive subsidies, look at the telecom cartel. If the network infrastructure was in place, how many people could either work from home part time or full time? Also the reduction in need the to travel for business meetings and such. That alone would do more to reduce our need on foriegn oil than anything else, in both total pay off and in a short timeframe.
34 - 40 is not really that great. You can pickup a used Mini Cooper and get that. A new Car coming from Toyota of the sub-compact size should be getting 45 - 55 mpg to make it a worthy New car purchase.
"Why again can't we get the Yaris in the US?"
The Yaris has been available in the US for two years.
The Toyota Yaris TR 1.4 D-4D 5dr has a quoted fuel consumption (Automatic) of 62.8 mpg (combined cycle)
But cycling is by far a better option !
;)
Downside to this is that you have to have MEANS to be green especially when dealing with Toyota. You may spend less on gas, spend less for the car itself (in the US, don't get me started on the price discrepencies between CAN and US), but that savings is sucked up back by Toyota by their REQUIRED annual 'maintenance' checks, expensive oil changes and so on. If you miss one of those uber expensive maintenance appointments your car is no longer in warranty (what limited warranty there is) and you are on the hook yourself for anything else.
Can you afford to be green with this gas saving car?
Also look at the Dodge feather Duster early on in the late 70's. 35 MPG for a sports car! I don't get why its such a big deal now, other than the fact the government made it a requirement.