http://www.care2.com/greenliving/how-to-buy-a-greener-car.html
How to Buy a Greener Car
Adapted from ACEEE's Green Book, by John DeCicco, Jim Kliesch, and Martin Thomas. (note: The 2002 edition is now available and can be viewed at GreenerCars.com)
Many considerations go into buying a new car or light truck. You’ll consider price, styling, comfort, performance, safety, reliability, and of course, how well the vehicle will serve your needs. The decision comes down to cost versus value: how much you are willing to pay for the features you want to get. But the costs of car use go beyond what’s on the sticker and what you’ll spend on fuel and repairs.
There are hidden but very real environmental costs, due to adverse health impacts of air pollution, oil spills and fouling of water supplies, damage to habitats, and the growing risks of climate disruption. If you care about the future of our environment, then what you value goes beyond performance or styling and the options packages featured in the showroom.
- GreenerCars.com will help you select a vehicle that does the least harm to the planet while meeting your transportation needs. Based on official emissions and fuel-economy test results and other specifications reported by auto manufacturers, we calculate a Green Score for each car, van, pickup, and sport utility currently on the market. The Green Score falls on a scale of zero to 100. A higher score implies a greener car, meaning a vehicle having lower environmental impact.
Green Scores and Class Rankings
- In our tables, vehicles are grouped together by class (that is, the type or body style, such as midsize car, minivan, standard pickup, and so on). To summarize our ratings and make it easy to find the top-rated vehicles in each class, we use a five-tier ranking — Inferior, Below Average, Average, Above Average, and Superior — depending on where a model falls within its class.
- No vehicle gets a Superior rating if its Green Score is worse than the overall average of all vehicles offered this model year, even if it ranks among the best in its class. Look for models that are ranked Superior or Above Average to easily find those that have the greenest scores.
- To make it easy to find the most planet friendly new cars and trucks available this year, our Highlights of the Model Year provides a free preview of ACEEE’s Green Book Online, The Best of 2000. It lists the vehicles having the highest Green Scores in each class. The easiest way to buy green is to select a vehicle from the “Best of 2000″ list.
- Our online database lists each vehicle’s emission standard, fuel economy, fuel costs, health effects, CO2 emissions, and overall environmental impact, along with its Green Score and Class Ranking. If you have identified a set of models to consider, you can look them up in ACEEE’s Green Book Online to comparison shop with the environment in mind.
- Editor’s Note: The “Best of 2000″ list, which we link to above, was prepared in February 2000, and does not include the Toyota Prius. In July 2000, ACEEE updated its findings and sent out a press release stating that the
“Toyota Prius Now Ranks as Greenest Gasoline Car According to ACEEE’s Green Book.”
Go to the Source
ACEEE's Green Book
Make a difference -- for your health and the health of the planet -- by using GreenerCars.com to comparison shop with the environment in mind. Our low-cost subscriptions will let you look up Green Scores for every car, van, pickup, and SUV on the market. Order the complete ACEEE's Green Book Online print edition, or buy instant online access to the full ACEEE's Green BookTM database. Online subscription options are either a 30-day "car shoppers special" or a full annual subscription. The annual subscription includes regular updates and ratings for new model releases throughout the year.buy nowrelated stories
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I recently traded in my gas guzzler for a smaller fuel efficient car which now gets 30 mpg city. I am very happy with it!
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OK, I know I ought to do something about my car. I do try and use it less than I did anyway and I love walking. I will get another car that is more eco-friendly.
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Very well said Miss Phillips, I do so agree. And since it seems so many believe in alternative fuel, why isn't there a big push to get the alternatives going beyond a few hybrids? A good way to get the point across to the "placent ones" would be that thing they watch all their spare time, tele-vision. What they see they will remember, like a subliminal message, might be a good idea. But, it seems tv is more into not showing it like it really is. Besides, there must be someone and more likely many, that don't want to see efficient anything. Takes too much money out of their pocket. Can't be rich like that! If they don't change, what will they need all the money for?
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Vital info-but what happened to those patents for stem run cars and the furthur developement of the hydrogen and solar powered vehicles and the vehicles running on electricity, to say nothing of cars running or capable of entirely running on ethane and methane and even coconut oil. Tooling up costs money I know and has always slowed down the car industry. It will cost them a damn site more if they collapse due to global warming and its effects on he global economy
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Yuppla!
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So. it's DANGEROUS and no one should get them because they just might run over feet while driving dowing the street? Ahhhh I see all the feets in the streets. I could care LESS about a silent car mike and a Silent car would be even better because I'd be able to hear my music much better=) Watch out for all the feet on the street people!
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HOWDY YALL !!!!! IWAS AT PAUL MCCARTNEY SHOW AT TAMPA ICE PALACE HE HAD A NEW ELECTRIC HYBRID IN FRONT WITH A GUY THERE SHOWING IT !!!!! FIRST I THOUGHT WOW I WAITED FOREVER FOR THIS CAUSE I HATE L.A. CAR SMOG YKNOW !!!!!!!!!! THE ONLY THING SUPER SUPER DANGEROUS WE GOTTA CONSIDER IS THAT THIS HYBRID MAKES NO NOISE NO CAR SOUND CAUSE ITS ELECTRIC !!!!!!!!! SEE THIS IS VERY SUPER DANGEROUS CAUSE WHEN WE WAS TALKING A BUNCH THE GUY GOT IN THE CAR TO TAKE OFF AND I WAS TALKING TO HIM AT THE CAR WINDOW AND THEN THE CAR STARTED MOVING I DIDNT REALIZE IT WAS DRIVING AND MY FOOT WAS A INCH AWAY FROM THE TIRE WHEN HE DRIVED TURNING A LITTLE AND THE BLOKE ALLMOST RAN OVER ME FOOT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS CAUSE REGULAR WE ARE ALERTED BY REGULAR COMBUSTION CAR SOUND AND WE GET OUTTA THE WAY AND MOST IMORTANT MORE THAN THE BLOODY STUPID HUMANS IS THAT WE GOTTA THINK ABOUT ALL CATKIND AND DOGKIND AND EVEN LITTLE KIDS DONT GET RUN OVER BY SILENT ELEGTRIC CARS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 THE SOLUTION IS WE GOTTA MAKE PETITIONS ON THIS FANTASTIC BIGCAT PETITION PAGE TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND ALL CAR COMPANIES AND YOUR CONGRESSMAN THAT WE GOTTA MAKE ALL THE SILENT ELECTRIC CARS HAVE A BUNCH OF SPEAKERS MAKING FAKE CAR SOUNDS LIKE YOUR COMPUTER HERE YKNOW LIKE ON YOUR COMPUTER YOU CAN MAKE SOUNDS WHEN YOU NAVIGATE LOG ON AND STUFF SO WE GOTTA MAKE ELECTRIC CARS WITH SOME FAKE CAR SOUNDS REAL GOOD SO NO CATS GET RUN OVER AND EVEN SO PRES BUSH&PAUL IS SAFE!!!!
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We will be buying a new vehicle soon .It will be good on gas and good for the environment
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kind,
aircar is of the most green? though hardly any publicity is given it. i seen it a few times at a county fairgrounds on west coast & read its now happening in europe. it runs on compressed air. the web site shows the design of the engine & it meets todays standards of how far will it go & fast enough. takes a few minutes to fill the tank, or one can fill it at home that takes longer. like a tire filled with air, is how it operates. the european car is a mixture of if i recall correctly, an electric car & compressed air, so when the air runs out, one can utilize the electric function to operate. other type of hybirds i guess could happen. yet we read no news of it in the u.s.a.!
people complain that it will take petroleum to run the air compressor, as to putting it down as no good, i think they complain for they invested in hydrogen fuel cells ect..., & its bothersome for a easiar operatable vehicle to come forth, after they put so much time in trying to come up with a non-petroleum run vehicle. well if it bothers you that bad that its blocked from being in the u.s.a., how about run the air compressor on hydrogen fuel cells. plus its not more expensive then todays cars, in fact it seemed to cost less, if i remember what i read over years correctly concerning it. i found it on internet under: aircar.com. people complained of explosions from accidents, well how about gasoline tank collisions. isn't it just as safe? that's adressed also in article on its web site. kind
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