Survey: Do You Care about Cars?

I care about cars and car technology. However, Green Car Journal clearly proves that their viewpoint is skewed too far to the status quo, as dictated by the Big Auto PR machine, rendering it rather pointless.

There are cars out there, being created by other than the big automakers, that are making much larger strides towards a Green car, and these are being ignored in favor of hybrid SUVs that still do not get the mileage of a 1980s hatchback. And diesels are more black than green. Choices like this are a sick joke played upon their readers, and they should be as ashamed in themselves as I am disgusted in them for doing so.

I would prefer to have cars out of the picture, but it isn't likely. The best transation we could have is to have plug-in electric cars only on the roads.

Cars are cool, imho, but they need to be used less and viewed more as a leisure form of transport rather than something completely necessary. I would use my car to go out on the weekends, but take the bus, subway, or bicycle to work ever morning and back home in the evening. If most Americans started doing this (unlike they are doing now), we would save billions of barrels a year!

Cars have to be important. Not everyone lives in a city and can use bikes or public transit to get around. Cars are still a huge part daily life for a lot of Americans, not to mention commerce. Any improvement in the area of cars is still an improvement.

However, I don't necessarily agree with the Green Car Journal. A hybrid SUV who's gas mileage doesn't even compare to my Honda (non-hybrid) isn't my idea of green innovation. But it is important to recognize steps in this area. So I guess a hybrid SUV is better than a regular SUV, right? Just not quite the car of the year.

Give the award to a vehicle that maintains the status quo with respect to our energy dependence on foreign countries that hate us, contributes to global warming and makes us vulnerable to energy cost spikes which devastate our economy.

The word "green" means what ever anyone chooses it to mean. People serious about protecting the environment talk about sustainability and define the word as done by "The Natural Step". The editors of The Green Car Journal are clueless.

Setting aside any judgement about green car journal, what about the Jetta TDI -- the subject of the story and survey?

Every step -- whether you see it as a small incremental change to save energy or a transformational one, is important and should be cheered. The Jetta TDi is an affordable car that gets great fuel economy (44 mpg in an independent test), has a $1300 tax credit and will be delivering that higher fuel economy well beyond the life cycle of many lithium batteries. Add that it can use renewable diesel fuel and biodiesel. and it looks even better.

Another diesel car -- the BMW 335D was also in the running. That these two new generation diesels were even in the running affirms that the new generation of diesel cars is a competitive fuel saving technology alongside hybrids and other technologies.

This may be a tad far out - what was the key transportation before the car for thousands of years?
The Horse...no need to pave roads or pump oil, totally local.

I'll tell you the same thing I tell the dealerships when they call me or send me stuff in the mail (having previously been a customer "Come ooonnnnn your car is like 2 years old time to get a new one!"), it will be a big deal when I can get my hands on an electic. Until then the dealerships won't see a cent from me and all the "green car of the year" lists can ** **** ***.

I have been searching for a good car with good mpg. I was planning to get one next year and hopefully if i still have a job, that might be a possibility. My son has a 1995 Honda with over 150 thousand miles and i want to give him my Honda Civic 04. I want to get a hybrid. I would love to get an electric car but i can not count on my town and their electric problems.

Why not give the kudos to vehicles that push the envelope? Electric cars like Aptera, Tesla, Triac, Loremo or even Plug-in aftermarket Priuses are far more relevant to the direction this country need to go.

I don't get it. How exactly would it be good for the environment if every car got 50mpg? It might be marginally better inasmuch that it *might* reduce the amount of pollution going into the air[1], but they would still be adding pollution to the air by the megatonne.

A car that doesn't pollute would be green. Anything less isn't green at all. But then we'd have to look at the amount of pollution going into building and maintaining roads...

[1] It's worth noting that people would just drive more to make up the difference.