Is smugness a bad thing?

I drive a solar powered vehicle. I can't believe all of you neanderthals use any gasoline at all. Don't you care about the environment? I guess I can thank you wonderful drivers for all of our global warming.

 

http://www.southparkzone.com/episodes/1002/Smug-Alert!.html

 

I drive a Supercharged 4.6L Saleen S281 making 450 horsepower to the weels. I care about the enviornment and all, but honestly, you smug Prius owners are pathetic.

Heres a video of a real car, enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_tNb87GtNY

 

Now if you were actually benefiting the environment then I could sit back and commend you on your purchase but in reality you are merely falling for a marketing ploy, much like the owners of iPods who think they are buying a superior product.. What you are forgetting is your vehicles use several KG's of Lithium Ion cells which are very very costly to the environment to manufacturer and dispose of, this wouldn't be so much of an issue if they had a long life span, but they do not! They last a mere 10 years if you are lucky.. Lets not forget this Li-ON is also transported to Japan in heavy oil powered cargo ships..

If you look at the dust to dust reports the Hummer H1 is actually more environmentally sustainable than a Prius.

I drive a 4x4 vehicle as where I live I actually require one in some situations how ever I have noticed that drivers of Prius' don't like me to let them out of junctions, they would rather wait for a 'less evil car'.. Even though my 'agricultural styled' car uses only slightly more than them but at the same time contains less harmful chemicals, I have no A/C, my interior is very basic so less plastic is used and I don't have an array of Li-ON batteries underneath my seats.

Personally I cycle for any short distances I have to make, but do I feel smug? of course not, its just a choice I make, more for fitness than the environment, the fact that i'm producing less CO2 is just a extra benefit.

If you truly thing driving a Prius makes you a better person then you seriously need to re-assess your life. I'm sure you would laugh at the people who think having the latest iPod makes them cool?

 

I really wish the trolls would do some research before posting here. These lame rebuttals are played to the extreme. CNW Marketing Inc?

 

Maybe because they contain alot of truth.

 

Wrong....

Here is a list of aruments against the crap CNW spewed.

When did we start getting Li-Ion batteries anyway?

 

All I'm trying to get accross is its not all about fuel economy, you'ed be doing more for the environment by running an older car that is only slightly less "economical" because a) you are extending its life and b) you are not supporting the un-sustainable manufacture of new vehicles.. Due to lucrative western economys and low credit costs millions of people who previously couldnt have been able to afford new cars now can which means there are more cars than ever being disposed of, most are perfectly good cars too! We live in a throw away world and its far more important to fix that problem than save 5c on gas/petrol per mile.

 

If all of these cars being thrown away were in clean running order that may ring of truth but most are not and pollute more than the production of a new vehicle. I'm very aware of affluenza and the "throw away society" mentality. I study it at school. It's not always so black and white. No matter how you cut it, a Prius is still better for the environment (this inclused people) than an inefficient huge SUV. Yes the Prius is still bad in the grabd scheme but I'm cannot commute to work and school on a horse nowadays.

 

Very different story in the UK I'm afraid..

 

Explain

 

In the UK there are serious issues with the disposal of old cars, the government has introduced new regulations to help kerb this but people have taken to dumping vehicles to save on the costs of disposal that were introduced to put people off merely scrapping perfectly serviceable cars.. The second hand car market is a dead fish at the moment due to the number of people buying new cars (thanks to the healthy economy and cheap credit) which makes second hand cars next to worthless some people find it easier to dispose of a perfectly good car than the cost/effort involved in selling it..

Its a sad state of affairs.

My real concern is that people actually agree with the original poster? Its a very naive mind set to be in IMHO!

 

Makes sense. Though I don't see how the market can be so bad that people would actually dispose of a car unless it is a complete pile. Cars are different than cloths or baby toys which should be serviced or handed down. Here in the U.S. fuel efficient cars are in high demand despite age of the vehicle. In fact, many people at my school drool over my Prius and instead of telling them to go buy one I advise they look up an older Civic or CRX (for economic reasons). For me the Prius is MUCH better than what I was commuting in......

14mpg

 

Nice bit of warm air getting sucked into those turbos there, surely cold air would be much better

Problem is "Global warming" is the new religion, people feel good when they go out and buy their brand new 'green' car.. not only because its a new car but because they are being 'fashionably green', that's all that most care about, its something they can brag about at dinner parties they don't really understand the bigger picture. For example there is a big 4x4 hate campaign in this country but at the same time there are more saloon cars that are doing more damage to the environment but 4x4/SUV's are an easy target.. Personally I own a 4x4 but I actually do have a requirement for it at times.. I also own a performance car but that is my toy for weekends, I don't sit in traffic jams with it because it would be pointless

In this day and age people want to be seen to be making a different even if in reality they are doing nothing or at time actually making things worse! This isn't helped by the fact big business know people want to appear to be 'green' and they will cash in on this. There are loads of designer 'green' products but surely that is self defeating? caring for your environment should not be something that is used as a bragging right?
In the center of London there is a congestion charge which means you have to pay £8 a day to use the central roads, but if you have a electric car you can drive for free, this almost suggests that electric cars are non polluting, but we all know that's far from the truth! Coal is farm more inefficient than petroleum and what do people think generates the electricity used by these cars, it merely MOVES the pollution NOT REMOVE it.

 

Have you driven the roads in California? There are a great many Tahoes and Expeditions used for commuting. I have a large clientele base composed of large trucks and SUVs that these people commute in. I think the SUV hate is well deserved.

Greenwashing is bad to be sure but it is less evil than the MTV Cribs mentality don't you agree?

You are preaching to the choir when it comes to environmental degradation caused by consumption. I'm all for public transit yet the infrastructure is poor in most areas of this country and often times we are too pig-headed to look at the great examples presented in othr countries like China, Japan, Brasil, Australia, etc. The really sad part is that I doubt much forward progress will be made until after we suffer a huge environmental setback. Human society is not blessed with forward thinking skills, we are a reactionary race.

 

I think you missunderstand, I'm not for public transport because its a rip-off; costs £30+ to commute into london at peak times, cost me no where near that to take the car even if I include insurance, maintainence, tax etc.. And if I car share then the cost halfs again. And why pay £30 to take a bus then get on a crowded train with rude people, carrying germs and bumping into me? When I can drive my car, to where I want, when I want, listen to music and be mostly stress free. If trains were comfortable, on time and I didnt get wet waiting for the bus I'd do it

There needs to be more education about resources not just scare mongering, global warming isnt even a proven theory but excessive consumption is easy to explain.. Problem is big business runs the world..

Yes its a shame that it is fashionable to drive a HUGE SUV, we have the same problem here people have huge top of the range Range Rovers, Jeeps etc. that they will never ever ever use of road because they would scratch the chrome side steps or the paint.. But thats more of a problem with society than 'the car'.. You can never replace the car or atleast personal transport.

Its not just cars, people have to have the latest DVD player, the latest TV, the latest Phone and all the old ones go in the bin.. Its the same with cars most people who buy Hybrids are doing it to have "The latest fad".. Which saddens me.. The original poster proves this point because he is looking down on people but if he really wanted to make a difference he'd cycle.

 

You actually should support public transit in large cities. It is MUCH more friendly and faster. I suggest reading "State of the World 2007" ~ Our Urban Future for more detailed info.

I cannot argue with the last part other than buying a Prius is much better than a Land Rover, Jeep or Tahoe. Rampant consumerism is bad no matter what the economists will say. The economy MUST be balanced against the environment. A strong economy that exploits people and ecosystems is of no use to life.

 

Totally agree! Public transport within London is amazing but the problem is out side of london and other major cities its a joke and there are lots of city dwellers who could labled 'Mocha drinking part-time Hippies" who push public transport down the throats of the rest of the country when they dont understand how difficult it is to use public transport out side of the big cities. And again this is also a side effect of modern society and urban sprawl because most people live miles from their jobs.

Obviously if you are comparing buying a brand new V8 Range Rover to a Prius then yes the Prius all the way, but if you are comparing buying a Brand new prius to a 5 Year old Turbo Diesel Land Rover then no the Prius is far worse.

So in conclusion my argument is building loads of new Hybrid cars is not the answer the to the problem because you have the environmental cost of building the new cars as well as disposing of the old ones; clearly if many people by new cars there is not sufficient second hand market to sustain the older ones even if they are in perfect working order.

 

I think you are assuming that the 5yr old Range Rover is going to be disposed of. That is not the case. The Range Rover would be sold to someone else and used by them until the time it's life has run it's course then it should be recycled. People are going to buy new cars and there should be better "eco" alternatives for them. Rather than railing against hybrids I htink it better to focus on the waste produced by personal cars in general (for those living in dense urban communities), this would include the waste generated by traffic accidents. Keep in mind that nearly ever study but the CNW marketing one shows that a car produces more environmental degradation during the miles driven than it does during it's production and dismanteling. If a truck gets 14mpg and drives 20k miles/yr then he used up 1428ga of fuel. Now extrapolate that over the lifetime of that truck (150,000 miles) and you get 10,714ga of fuel. Compare to a Prius at 50mpg + 20k miles/yr = 400ga. Over the lifetime of the car (150,000) abd you get 3000ga of fuel. That is a big difference in fuel alone, not to mention emissions. I consider this a phase out. Phase out the bulky inefficient vehicles and make way for the lighter (I didn't say smaller) more efficient ones.

 

I'm working on the basis that there is more to it than Economy.. The TDi Land Rover will return reasonable fuel economy, it also doesn't have a rack of batteries that at some point will need replacing, its a very basic car using basic materials. Yes I know this car wouldn't be scraped but somewhere down the line a car will be disposed of

Also with recent diesel technology advancements there are diesel cars with better economy than hybrids and a much better life span.. And diesel has a lot more to offer now we are starting to move into variable compression engines and we have computers and solenoids that can control the fuel oil far more accurately and at much higher rates than ever before.

Look at some of the recent turbo diesel offerings from Mercedes, V.A.G etc. they are amazing.. The engines will last a long time to!

I suppose diesel is not a big thing in the states though?